• bloc said on Aug 27, 2007....

  it is a problem in that it makes people less healthy and increases healthcare costs, amongst other things.

• LadyGamer said on Aug 27, 2007....

  I think it is ironic that the "fatter" the country gets, the more the media pushes the scrawny image as the body beautiful. Um... That's totally opposing!

• SeanRenaud said on Aug 27, 2007....

  Just because we are lazy doesn't mean we don't know what we should strive for (though the media often pushes overly skinny ladies)

• silverwhisper said on Aug 27, 2007....

  and this just in: water still wet.
  
  ed

• mirrorimage said on Aug 27, 2007....

  I think schools (in my area at least) are taking this issue too far though.... my seven year old will occasionally refuse to eat because he thinks it will make him fat....how healthy is that?? Want to spread the message about healthy eating? Fine... but use a little caution when forcing it down the throats of vulnerable children.

• LadyGamer said on Aug 27, 2007....

  I agree. Thre of my children are rail thin. That fourth, my secondborn, is constantly worrying that she is fat.
  She is NOT fat. She's got a different build from them and there really is no "spare" meat on her bones at all. But she's convinced she's fat because her sisters don't look like she does.
  Drives me crazy.

• SeanRenaud said on Aug 27, 2007....

  The schools are having a very difficult time with this whole situation.  I can't speak on your child or your situation specifically but occasionally refusing to eat is probably healthier than it's more common counterpart of clean your plate or you can't leave.
   
  Besides its not like the current gen of children by the large are healthy weights so even if you can point to child after child that takes the situation too far they aren't the norm.  I mean I could easily point out Arn Anderson, Queen Latifah, Monique, Rosie O'Donnel, Rossane, Rodney Dangerfield, Biggie Smalls and say Hollywood doesn't push the "perfect" body image look at these folks!  But that's silly.
   

• thenack said on Aug 28, 2007....

   

  Hello

  Schools and especially parents should teach kids what are healthy, not how to lose 40 pounds in just 50nano seconds a day with a money back guarantee.

  Many European nations are obsessed with eating but don't get obese. The problem is not being fat, its being obese.

  Like many good things in life, being healthy, has been changed to being "hot". Eating has been changed to "stuffing yourself with factory prepared organic matter with cheese on"

  Food and health was two great things provided by God for our enjoyment. But humans follow the god of money and lust. If you don't have God in your solution, your solution will cause another problem.

   

• curmudgeon said on Aug 28, 2007....

  Actually not true - Europeans are getting fatter as well, especially in France. Obesity is becoming a problem in some Asian countries as well.
   
  Our approach to long-term issues like this simply doesn't help: Our leaders, opinion and otherwise, call this a "crisis" or "epidemic" just to get attention from the marketplace. The marketplace responds with all kinds of quick fixes and consumers lap up both.
   
  One place in the world I noticed where average folks looked more like our star athletes was in West Africa. Very few "fat" people, and none like the obese folks I see on the subway every day. Most of the adult males were in fantastic shape, and the women could carry incredibly heavy loads on their heads - with babies slung to their backs.
   
  Of course, part of that is simply Darwinian - these are the folks that survived early childhood.
   
  But I think our lifestyle has a heck of a lot to do with it. We're a sedentary culture in which most of us would rather watch professionals play sports rather than do them ourselves. We'll do this while eating the fattiest foods available. We'd rather hire cheap immigrant labor to manicure our yards rather than spend weekends tending them. We drive every damn place, and if we don't drive, we take mass transit rather than walk. Our jobs no longer require us to break a sweat.
   
  Institutions can only do so much in fostering a healthy population. We are the ones who must break a sweat daily, and we are the ones who must make healthier choices at mealtime.

• thenack said on Aug 28, 2007....

  Curmudgeon, interesting. (thanks for spoiling my french maid fantasy (-; )

  The thing with africa is, people don't eat nearly as much in many of those countries. the average lifestyle is one of physical work.

   

  In south Africa we have lots of very fat rural people. this is genetic as well as cultural. They eat mostly maize products and meat.

   

  West affricans eat a variety of seed-like protein sources (peanuts lentils etc. lots of "free range chicken" and a small amount of meat. They also load up on fruit. What they don't eat is sugar.

   

  Personally I think sugar and deep frying stuff is the biggest problem.

• thenack said on Aug 28, 2007....

  Another strange factor in South Africa is that rural type people believe that a thin body may be a sighn of AIDS. Many young girls that want to "westernise" have trouble dealing with this type of thinking.

• cutebig said on Dec 27, 2007....

  The way we judge people these days is stupid. Seriously, people should be considered beautiful by their personalities. Believe that big and curvy is beautiful. Follow yourself. Don't mind what type you are. Just be yourself, like those women at largeplace.com

• SeanRenaud said on Dec 27, 2007....

  You're and idiot.  And your wrong.  The way we judge people is far too forgiving and being overweight is a mark of your dicipline just like clean clothes are.  So it speaks of your personality.

• mandikern said on Apr 22, 2008....

  haha i wrote something just like this!    

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