We obviously have different perceptions of this matter.

I believe passionately that the obesity crisis is having a catastrophic effect on health and the prospect of increasing Alzheimer's and Diabetes is simply unaffordable for any nation.

We have to take this matter extremely seriously and those people who have totally failed, over several years, to achieve their goals are in absolutely no position to try to shout down or talk over those who have successfully dealt with the problem of being overweight and who are now managing to maintain an ideal weight without difficulty.

Arguing for the sake of it is not helping anyone, it is simply fiddling while Rome burns.

It really is no good relying on health professionals and their degree status when it's clear their recommendations have got us into the current crisis situation.

If you don't like my manner then the site offers Buddy / Ignore Lists and you are welcome to put me and my posts on ignore.

If more and more people put you on ignore, how would what you say reach them ? And believe me, I know that its good stuff.

Which is why the tone bugs me all the more, because it deters people from the content.

I sure hope none of our significantly contributing members get bullied out of posting for failing to conform to 'tone' expectations.
The tone so far is really pretty mild compared to some other people I do have on ignore and who contribute far less.

I spent my whole working life trying my utmost to educate those with learning difficulties.

I see no reason to have to treat adults posting online with the same patience and understanding required for slow learners.

We are dealing with an extremely serious issue.

Perhaps there are more tactful delicate and roundabout ways of pointing out the fact that the USA is a
A Big, Fat, Stupid Nation but I think shock tactics are entirely justified and if being totally honest and blunt to the point of being downright rude is required then I won't shirk from doing just that.

The truth of the matter is that no amount of reasoned argument is going to change the fact that anyone who is totally accepting of current medical consensus opinion regarding weight loss is going to be a total failure.

You may be happy to associate with losers, but I think you can do better.

At some point we have to recognise that current medical consensus opinion is failing to remedy the current obesity situation.

We should not be being kind to people who still think that giving statins to women who have no history of heart disease is helping them in any way.
There is no evidence to support the practice and pandering to their stupidity is doing them no favours whatsoever.

I see no reason why I should moderate my "tone."

If you don't like the heat stay out of the kitchen.

I believe in evidence based medicine and that means looking carefully at the facts and ignoring the spin put on it by those with a vested interest in promoting the use of drug medications.

I really don't think I should lose sleep worrying about the outcome of those who are too stupid to understand the serious issues underlying this argument.

The danger is inflammation.

Those who knowingly are choosing to doing absolutely nothing effective to deal with their high inflammatory status deserve everything coming to them.

Wow, I feel like Hutch's account has been hacked and someone else is posting. It's just that I never read comments from you this militant before.

By the way, this article you linked to is not very insightful IMHO. I strongly believe that the obesity epidemic can't simply be explained with carbs and/or inflammation.

Patrick

What would add to carbs and inflammation as a cause of obesity?

Abundance of food low in nutrition and very high in energy density, no matter what the macro composition is. So you get energy but stay hungry for lack of needed micro-nutrients.

Psychological motivation, eating stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain, more so in the obese people.

Stuff like that.

Also, what confounds lots of studies is the fact that to have always been thin and staying thin after having been obese are two very different states.

Patrick

I think its the whole culture of the West (which is rapidly spreading to the East).
Consumerism. Abundance and variety.
Chomsky put it very well saying that if his granddaughter has some free time she goes to the mall, which he finds sick. Kind of true.
Shopping , eating etc have become hobbies now.

Capitalism is partly to blame.
Oops, better run while the **** hits the fan.

I've never seen the appeal of shopping. It bores me.

Eating, though. Don't you think that's always been a strong part of the culture? People get together around food - holidays, picnics, lunch with coworkers - for social reasons. The goal is to visit with others, but the venue is often food-related.

Thanks. The low-carbing isn't getting me any more weight loss, so I'm trying to attack other areas. Working on inflammation now, but I'm always up for learning other possible avenues of attack.



So true. It's a frustrating and complex condition.

I don't think so. I would say that it's a matter of education and parenting.

Shopping and food are the basis of a lot of malls, which often mint money.

Forget the previous generation, even when I was a child, food was not so abundantly available everywhere. Restaurants were few, there were no malls. Eating out was a rare occasion. Going out to friend's places for a meal or sleepover was once in a month or so. And even when that happened, it was all home cooked food.

Noone went to the mall "for fun" - there were no malls.
Now we do it. There are some malls here. And when I visit the West, I see it happen on a much larger scale. So much food, processed food and shopping available everywhere ... it makes a lot of difference.

I don't know. I never go to malls.



I agree processed food is a problem. I'm just not convinced that eating is any more of a "hobby" than it ever was.

I do think people are eating more - and more often. Or more accurately they're snacking more. And snacking on highly processed foods. That's the thing that strikes me as being different from when I was young. We didn't eat all day long. We didn't need a snack in school to tide us over between breakfast and lunch.

To me though that's not a "hobby" so much as a biological reaction to eating a highly-processed, sugary breakfast that's going to fail you around 10:30 leaving you reaching for a hair of the dog. It's just people being "hungry" and in need of "food"®.

One of my coworkers is fanatical about eating low-fat. She's told me several times that she has to have a snack mid-morning because she eats breakfast so early - 6 am. Finally I told her that I eat breakfast at 6 am as well, but I'm never hungry until 1 - if then. She retorted, "Well, I wouldn't need a snack either if I had bacon and eggs for breakfast." To which I had no reply.

My point is, if you eat a diet that keeps you on the blood glucose roller coaster, you're going to be eating more often. So I guess I wouldn't consider "eating as hobby" a separate cause of obesity but more of a symptom of the whole low-fat directive and consumption of processed "food"® thing.

High five sister. I agree. Shopping is something to get out of the way as quickly as possible so you can get on to the things that really matter. In fact I do most shopping online these days except for grocery shopping.

Yeah, I do agree with that. It's hard to think of any social activity that doesn't involve eating. Before my son and DiL moved to Florida I used to visit with them once or twice a week, and it was almost always along the lines of "want to go out for a bite?"

I'm the same way, I hate shopping. It's funny, I remember in my 20's I couldn't get enough of it. Now I hate it.