AMA declares obesity a disease

[rushmc 18]

Quote

Pink slime is a term that refers to the production process of making lean ground beef, which combines beef trimmings and fat, sends the concoction through a centrifuge, and squirts a puff of ammonia on the food to destroy bacteria. Pink slime, in essences, is a filler or additive in lean ground beef.

The ammonia is used all the time in packing plants to kill bacteria

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[billvon 2,400]

>As a daily diet, yes, it's pretty bad for you. Low quality beef (in the past augmented
>with the pink slime), too much salt, too much sugar, and virtually no fiber, vegetables.

Agreed. Comparing a McDonald's diet plus a healthy lifestyle vs. a more balanced diet plus a healthy lifestyle, the latter situation is going to be much healthier overall.

>Unfortunately, if you look at the grocery store and how much inventory is "good fresh"
>food, you see that it will be difficult for everyone to actually eat well. It's worse in non
>agricultural states.

I don't think it's hard to eat well in most places; you can almost always get the basics (leafy greens, other vegetables, fruits, high fiber foods, fish) although in many places there's a limited selection. I read a recent article on "food deserts" in a foodie magazine where selection was very limited in smaller cities, but there was almost always spinach, carrots, apples, whole wheat flour, squash etc available.

I do think there is some value in having a wider variety of produce available, since people are more likely to find better foods that they actually like.

[kallend 1,623]

I wish the airlines would ban these diseased people from occupying seats near us healthy ones.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 2,400]

>I wish the airlines would ban these diseased people from occupying seats near us healthy ones.

Careful what you wish for. They might just do that - by requiring the airline to put in bigger seats with more legroom to accommodate their "disability."

Perhaps fat parking spots are next! Those tubby guys and gals can't walk as far as you healthy people you know.

[Remster 24]

Quote

Those tubby guys

We prefer big-boned.

Remster

[kelpdiver 2]

billvon

>Unfortunately, if you look at the grocery store and how much inventory is "good fresh"
>food, you see that it will be difficult for everyone to actually eat well. It's worse in non
>agricultural states.

I don't think it's hard to eat well in most places; you can almost always get the basics (leafy greens, other vegetables, fruits, high fiber foods, fish) although in many places there's a limited selection.

What I mean to say is that if everyone in San Diego decided to eat the 5 daily servings recommended, I don't think the supply can meet the need. And this is California - if you went inland it gets worse.

It's talked about in Food, Inc. There isn't enough farm land for sufficient non industrialized (ie, scary) food production for every one. And back on the subject of beef, unless we start eating a lot less, we can't all eat grass fed cattle that are killed in a manner that doesn't require huge amounts of chemical cleaning to stop pathogens.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

In the last few years I let myself pork out too much with a daily fast food diet and far too many sweet or salty snacks. Then last fall I told myself "You need to do something before it is too late and you need to do it the right way".

With the guidance of some experts, since November of 2012 I lost 40 lbs going from 225 down to 185 and my body fat went down from about a 35 to now below 20. I was NOT on a fad diet, but I did lose all that weight simply by:

1) Stopped eating fast food on a daily basis.
2) Stopped eating processed food.
3) Stopped drinking pop and severely controlled how much juice was consumed.
4) Controlling the number of starches I took in on a daily basis.
5) Snacked on fresh fruits and vegetables.
6) Drank tons of water.

40 lbs later my blood pressure is down, I feel fit again, I look better (even though I am one ugly duckling with or without the weight) and while exercise is a heck of a lot easier now, my success losing all that weight wasn't because of exercise. No my success was because I was willing to listen to people who know more about the subject than I did, I followed their advise and I made a lifestyle change. Instead of eating fast food, I now eat plenty of meat, fish and poultry mixed with plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, a set amount of starches and I can still treat myself to a tasty treat just as long as I don't over do it. It wasn't easy, temptations need to be controlled, discipline needed to be kept. But losing weight is something anyone can do if you have a goal and can stay on course.

I was NOT on a fad diet. I was on a common sense diet and it work. Now I never want to go back to being a porker. But now that I have the knowledge knowing what to eat. I like my chances. Piece of cake.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[skydiver604 0]

NorrinRadd wrote:
.

The issue is this is the kind of food people ONLY eat. And they accompany it with very little exercise.
And while in moderation it may not kill you, why not simply avoid it, when the healthy alternatives are just as accessible?

I'd say a lot of it is education. They have this idea that the fast food is cheap and they have to eat it. It's strange, I know. The large problems with obesity tend to be concentrated (from my observations) in lower income areas. You would think that people without much extra money would be on tight food budgets and therefore on lower calorie diets. The opposite seems to be true. I see a lot of that when I work clinics back in the rural areas of East TN and Western VA.





I certainly agree that educating people to make proper food choices is important, we live in an information world with online access to every topic imaginable, it's said information is power, information is not power, action is power, unless people dig deep and act on the information they get from education not much will really change, not only do people need to be educated but they also need to be motivated to make the change.

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

[billvon 2,400]

>What I mean to say is that if everyone in San Diego decided to eat the 5 daily servings
>recommended, I don't think the supply can meet the need. And this is California

I don't get what you mean. If we switched from a meat/dairy/sugar/fat centric diet to a more vegetable centric diet we'd only need half the crop space. Most of our cropland is dedicated to growing corn - not for eating, but for cattle feed and HFCS production. And that's wasteful overall; for every ten calories of feed corn you grow you only get one calorie of meat.

So if you switched to that healthier diet the amount of land you would need would go down, not up.

>There isn't enough farm land for sufficient non industrialized (ie, scary) food production
>for every one.

I'm not talking industrialized vs nonindustrialized here. Industry farms grow lettuce, tomatoes, soy etc. The foods they produce are basically the same. The organic farms impact the environment less but they don't produce food that's significantly better from a dietary point of view.

[livendive 8]

lawrocket

It opens up the door for governmental and insurance funding of obesity treatmentsn from bariatric surgeries to nutritional counseling to....

I wonder if insurance will pay for a personal trainer if I gain 50 pounds?

Of course they'd do this in the interest of reducing overall costs to the system. Hopefully treatment of obesity is cheaper than treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and the various increased cancer risks.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[kelpdiver 2]

rushmc

Also, did you see the big UK study that showed organic foods offered no health benifits?

Didnt get much play around here

oh, Penn and Teller covered it on their Showtime show a few years ago, including the blind taste tests (though I always wonder if they're cheating here - they're entertainers, not scientists).

I think on the organic angle, you need to be pragmatic. It doesn't matter for all items. Things in the ground like strawberries are a bigger concern than things in the tree. But eschewing all pesticides doesn't always serve you best either.

From Prather Ranch near Mount Shasta:
"The Prather Ranch maintains a “certified organic” herd and a “natural” herd. The natural cattle are raised in almost identical conditions as the organic animals, other than we have the option to treat an animal for infection if needed (which is a humane approach), and the cattle from the natural herd may have eaten hay or grain that has been raised using conventional farming practices."

I tend towards the 'natural' approach, but of course we must always be wary of the misuse of these descriptors.

[kelpdiver 2]

billvon

>What I mean to say is that if everyone in San Diego decided to eat the 5 daily servings
>recommended, I don't think the supply can meet the need. And this is California

I don't get what you mean. If we switched from a meat/dairy/sugar/fat centric diet to a more vegetable centric diet we'd only need half the crop space. Most of our cropland is dedicated to growing corn - not for eating, but for cattle feed and HFCS production. And that's wasteful overall; for every ten calories of feed corn you grow you only get one calorie of meat.

So if you switched to that healthier diet the amount of land you would need would go down, not up.

only if we stopped growing the corn anyway. The corn lobby has been very effective, and we're getting closer to 15% ethanol in our gas.

In the long run we could reset our usage, but it would still be problematic in the interim. If people gradually shifted, less trouble, but we've seen that people tend to flock to fad diets all at once.

[billvon 2,400]

>only if we stopped growing the corn anyway.

Right. Less meat eaten = fewer cows needed = less corn needed = less corn grown.

> If people gradually shifted, less trouble, but we've seen that people tend to flock to
>fad diets all at once.

I think perhaps we overestimate the number of people who follow fad diets. Even a big fad gives you single digit followers; Atkins (the biggest one I know of) had less than 10% adoption.

[Skyrad 0]

CanuckInUSA

In the last few years I let myself pork out too much with a daily fast food diet and far too many sweet or salty snacks. Then last fall I told myself "You need to do something before it is too late and you need to do it the right way".

With the guidance of some experts, since November of 2012 I lost 40 lbs going from 225 down to 185 and my body fat went down from about a 35 to now below 20. I was NOT on a fad diet, but I did lose all that weight simply by:

1) Stopped eating fast food on a daily basis.
2) Stopped eating processed food.
3) Stopped drinking pop and severely controlled how much juice was consumed.
4) Controlling the number of starches I took in on a daily basis.
5) Snacked on fresh fruits and vegetables.
6) Drank tons of water.

40 lbs later my blood pressure is down, I feel fit again, I look better (even though I am one ugly duckling with or without the weight) and while exercise is a heck of a lot easier now, my success losing all that weight wasn't because of exercise. No my success was because I was willing to listen to people who know more about the subject than I did, I followed their advise and I made a lifestyle change. Instead of eating fast food, I now eat plenty of meat, fish and poultry mixed with plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, a set amount of starches and I can still treat myself to a tasty treat just as long as I don't over do it. It wasn't easy, temptations need to be controlled, discipline needed to be kept. But losing weight is something anyone can do if you have a goal and can stay on course.

I was NOT on a fad diet. I was on a common sense diet and it work. Now I never want to go back to being a porker. But now that I have the knowledge knowing what to eat. I like my chances. Piece of cake.

Well done Sir.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[ryoder 1,384]

On another forum, I found this lengthy article on obesity written by a female Australian doctor: http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/march/1361848247/karen-hitchcock/fat-city

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[BIGUN 1,053]

skydiver604

True enough, a friend of mine has a 6 yr old daughter who the doctors recently diagnosed as ADHD and of course their solution was to prescribe meds to "calm" her down, I was talking to her about it and being able to use past experience and research as a model suggested change to her daughter's diet, since then they have eliminated the following items from her diet, sugar and sugar substitutes, red dyed products, red meats that are potentially treated with red dyes for esthetic appeal, processed foods, they have increased the amounts of fresh vegetables and white meats, increased daily intake of water. In 2 weeks the change was so noticeable that her daughter's grandparents and teachers have called her at home wanting to know what drugs / meds the child is on to calm her down so much, it also used to be a struggle to get her to bed by 1030 pm, now 830 or 9 o'clock her daughter tired and ready for bed, there has also been no more incidents at school involving discipline or time outs and her school marks has improved.

edited for spelling

Neighbor has a kid that is/was serious ADD. Mom's a teacher and did some homework and did the same diet thing, but added Melatonin in the evenings. Big difference.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[quade 3]

NorrinRadd

Healthy food is tasty. It can be made quickly. It does not have to be expensive. All it takes is a conscious effort.

Unhealthy food is also tasty (intentionally and frequently much more so). It can be bought quickly. It does not have to be expensive. It takes NO conscious effort.

See the problem?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Skyrad 0]

kelpdiver

I think on the organic angle, you need to be pragmatic. It doesn't matter for all items. Things in the ground like strawberries are a bigger concern than things in the tree.

I think you're confusing strawberries with potatoes

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[kallend 1,623]

ryoder

On another forum, I found this lengthy article on obesity written by a female Australian doctor: http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/march/1361848247/karen-hitchcock/fat-city

Excellent read.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Skyrad 0]

My thoughts exactly, very interesting to hear from a Dr on the other side of the world going through the same issues facing the NHS. A few years ago when I was in Ireland I went to a lifestyle diseases conference at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the keynote speaker was Mary Harney who was at the time the Minister of Health and Children, she is a very large lady. Every speaker talked about obesity and although people were polite about it everyone was wondering what she would have to say. In the break before her talk I saw her snaffling two giant cookies with her tea, then she was on... What did she talk about? The dangers of Tobacco! An interesting choice seeing as tobacco consumption has fallen by 7.5% since the ban with over 7500 people in Ireland having successfully quit smoking. After the talk in which she also touched upon the importance of exercise I saw her walk out to her ministerial car get in and be driven two doors down to the government building where she works

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[AggieDave 6]

Are they only using BMI as the indexing factor? My BMI is 39 (which is well within the "obesity" range) but I am far from obese when viewed from the aspect of bodyfat percentage and health.

Then again I like to "pick things up and put them down." (That's 545lbs, I pulled 560lbs after that).

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Kennedy 0]

Good question. I don't know. But I agree BMI by itself if fatally flawed. I heard the guy who won the crossfit games was on the low end if obese by BMi standards. Not so much by anybody with half a brain.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Southern_Man 0]

AggieDave

Are they only using BMI as the indexing factor? My BMI is 39 (which is well within the "obesity" range) but I am far from obese when viewed from the aspect of bodyfat percentage and health.

Then again I like to "pick things up and put them down." (That's 545lbs, I pulled 560lbs after that).

BMI is a great tool to assess populations. it is a lousy tool to assess individuals.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[Skyrad 0]

Which is why BMI and Waist Circumference give a far better assessment. Having said that regardless of if its fat or muscle if you're heavy your joint are going to deteriorate faster. The amount of competitive weight lifters who have shot knees and backs past middle age is pretty scary.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[FastRodriguez 0]

Sure you do buddy.

Give yourself a few years. All those tasty things you mentioned don´t necessarily damage your body by showing fat.
Atherosclerosis is for the most part a silent process. Hypertension is too.
I predict a stroke on your future.

"I don´t stop when I am tired. I stop when I am done"