Obesity, A Southern tradition.

[jinman]

Since our prison systems have been failing miserably in trying to rehabilitate our criminals, I say we should try a different approach. Let's give the inmates all the fried chicken and french fries they want and see if this can get them started on a happier and more honest lifestyle.

Can't do that. Somebody would die from heart disease and they'd declare fried chicken as cruel and unusual punishment. Isn't that what they call lethal "ingestion"?

 

[Redbug]

Most people do not seem to be aware of the issues in their lives. They just seem to float along day to day, (in denial), and focus on the things they like. Unless it's a bonfide medical problem, I'm with Eddie on this one. Most people don't look themselves in the mirror and take control of their lives and vices. I think even people that have depression... know they have it. Doing something about it is the hard part since it involves facing the truth. What's that Jack Nickleson movie..."The truth! You can't handle the truth!"

Of course...Eddie, me, retired police officers, ex military and the like would not make very good jurors nowdays...since we would say to the defendant's attorney, "a person is responsible for their actions and are accountable for what they did".

 

[MossRoad]

Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.... nice knowing you, man. You're dead meat if you repeat that stuff in 30 years when both of your metabolisms change. I can pretty much lose weight on command by just changing my diet and doing a little exercise. My wife, on the other hand, eats well, exercises regularly and still has trouble changing her shape. I feel bad for her because she does all the right things and her body doesn't change.

Granted, there are many overweight people that just plain eat too much and move too little. (I'm one of them). But there are folks that really do try to lose the weight and just cannot and maintain a happy lifestyle.

 

[MossRoad]

After reading the following article I reached a couple of conclusions:

These are the 10 states with the highest levels of adult obesity, according to a 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

1. Mississippi, 32.0 percent
2. Alabama, 30.3
3. Tennessee, 30.1
4. Louisiana, 29.8
5. West Virginia, 29.5
6. Arkansas, 28.7
7. South Carolina, 28.4
8. Georgia, 28.2
9. Oklahoma, 28.1
10. Texas, 28.1

...

Here's the list of states with the lowest household income.

41. South Carolina
42 New Mexico
43. Montana
44. Tennessee
45. Kentucky
46. Louisiana
47. Alabama
48. Oklahoma
49. Arkansas
50. West Virginia
51. Mississippi

(source: click here

 

[polo1665]

While I do agree that we are "what we eat" so to speak. I think the definition of obesity should be clarified so we all are talking about the same thing. According to the CDC, if your Body Mass Index (BMI) is over 30 you are considered obese. Body Mass Index is a computation of your height in relation to your weight. According to this computation, if you are 6' tall and weigh over 220 lbs you are considered obese. This means that you are at a greater risk of certain diseases.

That being said, I do agree that we are solely responsible for our own lot in life (99% of the time anyway). My personal interpretation of obesity would fall well outside the guidelines of the professionals.

Mark

 

[Bird]

the most commone crtitism that people have given me is my lack of empithy towards others

And now we all know why. How'd that old saying go? All generalizations are false, including this one. In many cases, you're right, Eddie, but in many others, you're mistaken. And, like MossRoad, I'm bettin' your opinion will change in the next 20 to 30 years.

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks like I'm getting allot of grief here. LOL

I don't deny that I might and even probably will have weight issues as I get older. Both of my Grandmothers died from being obese and heart failure. My parents both have weight problems. My dad has lost 100 pounds on meds, but now his heart is being affected by the meds and he's gaining weight again. I've lost 80 pounds, but then went back up to 265 two years ago, but now I've lost 40 pounds since then. While not obese, it's something I've dealt with all my life. I was the kid who was teased in grade school for having girl boobs. It wasn't fun, but fortunately I got a growth spurt and the weight went away in high school.

I'm not trying to offend anybody here, and I apologize to those that take it that way. I have my opinion and I'm open to changing it if there is evidence to support something else. It happens all the time. I even like small dozers now!!!

Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

My two cents about Southern fatness is that the South until very recently was still rural and farm based. The diet was based on fatty foods which was ok when you were doing manual labor. But then people moved to the city, the mules got replaced with tractors, John Deere's of course, , but they kept eating the old food. Also we got richer and comodities got cheaper. Having fried chicken was a luxury not an every day meal. Meat in general was expensive and used to flavor not the main course.

Then there is The Great Corn Sweetner Conspiracy!

Which may have some truth. When I was a kid there were very few fat kids in class. Maybe 1-3 in a class of 30+ I see lots of fat kids in school today. At least 1/3 to 1/2 of the class. Besides lack of excercise, corn syrup has replaced cane sugar in most process food. There has been some research that corn syrup turns off the body's ability to know its full. So you keep eating.

I was looking to see how many Soda's in the grocery store use cane sugar vs corn syrup. Only found one maybe two brands. I think Jones use cane sugar. What is real interesting is their product is the same price or less as the sodas using corn syrup. I guess there is more profit in corn syrup.

I had plenty of sodas and junk food in the house growing up but I did not gain weight until I was 25, going to school full time, workng full time and eating what was cheapest.

The other thing about gaining the poundage is that its does not take much overeating to get 10-20 extra pounds a year. A can of soda a day that takes you over the number of calories you consume, gets you 10-20 pounds at the end of the year. Do this for a few years.....

I still need to loose some poundage but I'm not gaining. Years ago I slowly reduced what I ate at work. The desert went first. Then the fries. Then hamburger. Today I get a biscuit with one egg and sausage and a scone. That is all I eat all day. Half of the scone usually gets thrown away at the end of the day. I keep cups of fruit at work. If there are no scones I eat the fruit midday.

We do have fatness epidemic in the western world. We went to Disney World last fall and spring. Our last visit was in 1999.

What really stood out to us was how many people were using strollers to push around kids aged 5-12. As well as the number of people using powered scooters. And how fat the adults and worse, the kids, had become. It was shocking. One day we were riding the bus back to the resort and there was an English family across from us. The son was 12ish and very nice. Mommy this. Mommy that. Very cute. I noticed that his ankles where covered in flesh and I was trying to figure out if the kid was just fat or if he already had Chronic Heart Disease.

We were in line at the resort to get some lunch one day. There was a family of four in front of us. The daughter was 12-14 and was wearing a Griffyndor shirt. The son was 10ish and wearing a Slytherin shirt. For those who know nothing about Harry Potter, Griffyndor's are nice heroic types. Slytherin's are selfesh, spoiled, rude, liars who cannot be trusted. The son, remember he is 10ish, orders a doulbe cheese burger and a double order of fries. The parents try to talk him out of it. He pitches a fit. Sis walks away with the I don't know them look. The parents eventually relented, he wins and gets the food. To say he was fat would be kind. And the brother and sister had picked shirts that matched their personalities.

My last fat WDW story. We went to EPCOT one evening and started to walk around the World Showcase which I think is two miles around. Just before we get to the lake a man who must have weighed 500 pounds rode by on a powered scooters. Lots of these at WDW. About 10 feet behind him, struggling to keep up is his daughter who is 10-12 and has to be at least 150-175. She is red faced, breathing hard, and really hurting. I'm guessing she just walked two miles while he rode his scooter. Fatso was yelling at her to hurry up. I wanted to have a strenuous chat with him but I'm on vacation at the Happiest Place On Earth so we kept walking...

We walk around the World. Stopped in Mexico for dinner since we had already eaten in Japan. s we got close to were we first saw the fat man yelling at his daugher, we see two scooters zipping through the crowd. The first one has a kid 10-12 who is very fat. The scooter following was his mom who was in the 300-400 pound range. She was holding another child maybe 6-8 that was 100+ pounds.

WDW is having to rebuild some of the rides that use boats. Why? People have gotten much larger since the rides where built in 70/71 and HEAVIER. Some of the rides can "bottom" out, pun intended, because people are so much heavier. WDW can't get as many people on the boats because they can't fit as many people on the rides as they used too.

I read a comment on a WDW website a year or so ago, that obesity in children was child abuse. I thought that comment was a bit to harsh. Not anymore.

If we think health care costs alot today wait until these kids get a few years older and they are having strokes, heart attacks, and diabetes.

Later,
Dan

 

[SPYDERLK]

The only excuse for being fat is that you dont want to be, enuf. Regardless of how hard it is to maintain or lose weight, restricted calories will do it even without exercise. With exercise the process is much more healthy. If you are unfortunate enuf to have a body that is an incredibly efficient fat machine it is likely you will need nutritional supplements to replace the ones not supplied in abundance due to the caloric restriction. To say that a condition contributes to obesity is reasonable - to say its causes it is ridiculous. Fat without food would make those who were able to produce it national treasures.
larry

 

[Redbug]

Food for thought...Much of what we consider as southern food is not really Southern American food. It was brought here by the slaves from Africa. Grits, okra, even eating fried chicken. The slaves brought their customs and foods. That is where Southern food came from. It was not considered very good in it's day by the owners. They mostly ate other stuff they considered good. But through the years, it has been integrated into our traditions and lives. The Germans and Poles brought their dishes to their particular area of the country, just as the Mexicans and South Americans did of the American southwest. Chicken and dumplings...yummm!

Dan...Very interesting observations from Disney. I have noticed that, also. It looks like most people are just plain sorry. I cannot fathom what they could be thinking. Our country has become too mechanized and too removed from the basics. Money and wealth buys obesity and sloth? You don't see many fat people on TV from the Middle East, South America or other third world countries. You can't build up calories when you are active and trying to survive. Our country is not as lean and mean like it was 50 years ago. What's the next 50 years going to bring? Is the trough going to dry up?