Monday, February 4, 2008

Health experts offer advice to curb obesity

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This article shows just how far we have to go before so-called "health experts" get it.
*Did you know that we don't know what food is "healthy" or "unhealthy"?
*We don't need food-vending machines in offices and other buildings?
*We pay too much attention to food advertising?
*There are too many places to get food?
*There are way too many fast food places?
*We're not smart enough to go out to eat and be able to figure out if our choices are healthy?
*We need to be reminded not to over-eat and not to eat unhealthfully?
*Transfats are bad for you?
Talk about perpetuating the stereotype that fat people are stupid and the gubmint has to take care of us for own good. The advice that they give so we aren't triggered into pigging out and getting fat(ter)? Yeah, right, I need that like I need another hole in my head. Fuckwads.
Environment is a powerful influence to eat, but y'all, we can fight it just by following the suggestions they give:
*Keep a food diary so you know how much you're eating and when (like we don't have a clue, we're mindless eating machines).
*Use portion-control dishware (sounds like a diet to me).
*Make small changes, one at a time. Drop potato chips for air-popped popcorn, for example (but what if I don't like air-popped popcorn, or any kind of popcorn?).
*Avoid places where you are likely to overeat (shit, that could be almost anywhere, how do I avoid my home?), or the people you overeat with (Ok, now I have to avoid friends too?).
*Use life transitions (such as moving, starting a new job, having a baby) to establish healthier habits that aren't influenced by the old environmental triggers(sure, because I'm not strong enough to do it if I don't get away from triggers. What about all the fat-phobia, that's a trigger. How do I get away from that?).
*Change your routes so you don't walk by vending machines, or drive by fast food places (because we're just so weak that if we see it, we're gonna have to have it).
*Restrict calories during your diet, and rely on exercise to maintain afterward (oh yeah, this just works so well, doesn't it).
*Think of prevention. Keep soda and most snack foods out of the house, limit portions, and don't make your kids finish everything on their plates (and this has been proved to work how?).
Everything they suggest in this article, if followed religously (and you know that's what they want us to do), is damned near guaranteed to make people obsessed with food. It's not going to do anything for health (although I don't have a problem with nutrition information being posted in all restaurants, I just don't see that it's feasible, since it's damned difficult to figure it out at home when I'm cooking from scratch). And why does anyone think they have to dictate how healthy I should be? Every time you turn around, they've changed what's good for you, what's bad for you, how much of what you should eat (food pyramid, anyone?), and the definitions for certain diseases keep getting lowered all the time (blood pressure, blood sugar, to name 2). I'm not even going to get into BMI, we all know what bullshit that is (weight is so not a predictor of health).
I'm an adult, dammit, and I've been making these decisions all my life, and I haven't died of TEH FATZ yet, even though I've been the walking dead obese for over half of it. So guess what, all y'all supposed "health experts", you don't know jack shit about what constitutes health for the majority of people because every one of us is an individual and we all have different ways of being healthy, or not, and it's none of your damned business.

15 comments:

  1. We don't need food-vending machines in offices and other buildings?

    You know what? YES WE DO. If my blood sugar crashes in mid afternoon, I am not going to get any work done until I EAT something. And I don't need my work productivity to suffer so that some dieter doesn't have to face the temptation of looking at *gasps* a chocolate bar or bag of chips.

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  2. Interesting that they tell us to avoid people we "overeat" with... because curbing obesity is so much more important than maintaining friendships.

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  3. DH has a job where he can't leave if his blood sugar goes low on him, so he carries glucose tablets in his pocket, just in case. But no vending machines? That's just stupid.

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  4. Maintaining friendships? I thought fat people weren't supposed to have friends? We're so disgusting and all, ya know? Geez louise, this whole thing is just so.....pathetic. Keep pushing advice that doesn't work now, hasn't worked in the past, and won't work in the future, because if you just keep trying hard enough, eventually it will work? I don't think so.

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  5. How the hell could anyone avoid driving by restaurants unless they're a complete recluse or never venture anywhere near an actual town!? I drive by about 20 on my way to and from work for cripes sake, and a route that avoids them doesn't exist.

    Definitely an example of someone writing in a complete vaccuum with no context or actual knowledge of the subject.

    My favorite is when people tell me all I have to do to get magically thin is to cut out soda. They hand this down with all the ceremony of an ancient Yogi unlocking the secrets of the universe. The problem is that I don't drink soda, or juice drinks, or really any beverage with calories on a regular basis. I like water and plain ice tea, always have. Even as a kid I'd go for a glass of water before anything else. But of course when I say so, I'm a baby-donut eating liar :-)

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  6. At the risk of being too snarky, what color is the sky on their planet?

    We have to live in this society, and if becoming anti-social recluses is not the way to be healthy. All it would do is get us out of their sight, which is maybe what they really want. Tough.

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  7. That's right, tropical - we should hide ourselves away like good little boys and girls so the pretty people don't have to see us.

    "Drop potato chips for air-popped popcorn, for example (but what if I don't like air-popped popcorn, or any kind of popcorn?)."

    This one always annoys me. First of all, I don't really eat chips. (But I guess it's to be assumed that if you're fat, you're gorging yourself on chips all the time.) Second, who the hell likes airpopped popcorn with no butter? I can think of few things that choke me worse than dry popcorn that the salt won't even stick to. On the rare occasions I eat popcorn, I put butter on it.

    The other suggestions are just flat-out nuts. Eliminate vending machines? Wth? Portion control plates and cups? LOL. Don't forget to add the "Diet Fork" too! [url]http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2007/08/24/the_diet_fork.php[/url]

    Or the anti-eating face mask? [url]http://www.google.com/patents?id=PuIwAAAAEBAJ&dq=4344424[/url]

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  8. Anti-eating mask, eh? Saw the Google Patents page with the patent data...interesting...

    But how did they get that patent? I see "prior art" here (which should have disqualified them from getting the patent). Any dog owner will be familiar with that item of "prior art", whether they use one or not: It's called a "muzzle".


    So, now the diet industry has stooped to equating obese people with vicious dogs? Lovely (NOT!). :angry:

    It's a "how to lose weight idea" which proves that intelligence is a precious commodity...and that money-grubbing creator of the device, IMHO, hasn't any.

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  9. A lot of this advice is just plain eating disordered thinking. Sad.

    --worthyourweight

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  10. What about that Light Movie Theater Butter Popcorn by Orville Redenbacher? Just saying, that stuff is goooooodddd.

    Also, it didn't occur to you that having friends, is a privelage only afforded to thin people?*snort* Yeah, right.

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  11. It's definitely a matter of taste, and I also think it's what you were raised with - we didn't have microwave popcorn when I was a kid - we had house-popped with real butter. The bags generally taste fake to me (not that that's necessarily a bad thing) but where they really lose me is texture - oh so dry! There's just nothing like real butter, texture-wise. But then I eat popcorn rarely anyway :)

    Sure, fat people get friends, violet - thin people keep fat people around to make themselves look better. Didn't you get the memo from the Huffington Post woman? :P

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  12. jogeek - yeah, it doesn't matter where you go, you can't avoid places that sell food, whether it's a gas station, Mickey D's, Applebee's, etc. I usually drink diet soda, just because the regular is too sweet for me, and I love iced tea, no sugar/no sweetener. But yeah, we lie about things like that alla time.

    tropicalchrome - of course all they want to do is get us out of their sight. Sorry, it ain't happening.

    annie - I like popcorn, but I know there are people who don't (and they might not eat chips either). That was a shitty example they gave. I mean, really, if you want to perpetuate the stereotype of a fattie eating lousy food, they should have said replace baby-flavored donuts with apples or celery. They desperately need to get educated on what fat people really eat.

    observer - of course they're going to equate us with ugly dogs (fat bitches that most of us are, to them anyway). So yeah, a muzzle makes perfect sense to them. Not only can we not eat, we can't talk back either.

    worthyourweight - disordered for sure, and that's what I thought when I first read it.

    violet-yoshi - yeah, thin people are the only ones who get to have friends, the rest of us are just used by the thin ones to make them look good (or so the fatophobes would have us believe).

    annie - I remember popping corn in the skillet on the stove and then putting real butter on it. YUM!!
    DH does the microwave extra-butter popcorn and then adds more butter to it. He says it never has enough butter to really taste it.
    LOL @ the friends bit :)

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  13. Avoid your friends because teh fatz is contagious.

    It all sounds like a perfect setup for disordered eating and fixating on avoiding food every waking second is not healthy.

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  14. sass - yeah, but that's what fatties are supposed to do, fixate, obsess, and avoid food. Ah well, we can't all be perfect.

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  15. I have to walk by a vending machine in order to get to my classroom.

    Gee, so maybe I should just drop out, so I can stay away from the darn thing?

    There are several fast food restaurants near my school too.

    I'll start wearing a blindfold on my drive! Yeah, that will go over REALLY well with the other drivers when I run my car into them.

    GENIUS!

    Seriously, this list will ONLY result in obsessive behavior over food! I am SO sick of this crap.

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