Obesity now Recognized as a Disease in the US

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

It's hard to be level-headed when this issue is so emotional wrought for me. But I get your point. Yelling at homophobes does nothing to advance tolerance/acceptance of gays. Yelling won't help here either.

One (obesity) is something you can control.

The other (sexual orientation) is something you are born with.

Unless you're going to argue that people choose to be gay. Then I think I will choose to never take you seriously again, which is a shame because your story of overcoming obesity is seriously inspiring.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Azure

I also know how hard it can be to lose weight, but I also know how easy it can be.

Haha, everytime you post about fitness I can't help but imagine you as a late night infomercial guy with the way you sound.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Haha, everytime you post about fitness I can't help but imagine you as a late night infomercial guy with the way you sound.

[pylon]

^^^^

Damn, beat me to the Gazelle gif.

[drPepper1]

Originally Posted by saskflames69

Check out the abs on Posh Spice. Ow ow.

She has no more boobies! why do women take steroids?

One of my high school teachers looked like an over sized timbit and now she's a bodybuilder

[Azure]

Our culture is feeding us the 1L slurpee. Hell, it is feeding us the slurpee to begin with. The burgers have gone from the quarter pounder with cheese to the 2,000 calorie double or tripper whopper.

Sure, you can say that we should all have self control, and we should....but lots of people don't even realize that gouging on all that junk food is a problem until they're 100lbs overweight and don't know what to do about it anymore.

I remember in high school, I went ballistic with food in general. Worked in the school cafeteria at lunch, and I drank like 4L of pepsi per day, ate a crap load of fries, 2-3 burgers everyday, chips, skittles...lots and lots of skittles. While I knew it was a problem, I never realized it until I was 280lbs. Fixing it from that point out has taken almost 8 years.

[TheSutterDynasty]

This is such a difficult issue because of the tremendous amount of factors at play.

How do we prevent an issue that a) has a large genetic component, and b) has an arguably even larger nurture component?

There's a lot of emerging research on the importance of pre-natal (fetal) development in regards to a predisposition to obesity; if your mom eats a salty, sugary, high calorie diet while she's pregnant then she's hard-wiring your developing brain to crave the same. And if you're raised in a household with diets like that, you're eating the same. This entire chain of events would be hard to break.

A lot of the "treatment" per say right now is targeted at individuals who are already obese, which is just as difficult. Along with all the issues that devil's advocate talked about, there's also an immense psychological/behavioral aspect since many obese individuals are hard wired for it.

Calling obesity a disease doesn't immediately help our treatment of it, but it shows we're going in the right direction to be giving it more attention and funding.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Regorium

One (obesity) is something you can control.

The other (sexual orientation) is something you are born with.

Unless you're going to argue that people choose to be gay. Then I think I will choose to never take you seriously again, which is a shame because your story of overcoming obesity is seriously inspiring.

This is one of the issues that this move is trying to shed light on.

Our eating habits and physical activity are things we can control.

We can't control the situation we're born into, our genetics, the way our body/brain has developed its "eating / fat patterns".

Just like quitting smoking, there are many, many people who make the commitment to lose weight. The actual success rate of returning to simply "overweight" (according to BMI, ie 25 - 30) from "obese" (>30) is absolutely abysmal. This is with exercise, a change in eating habits, surgery, medications, everything. If nothing else, it should be called a disease because it's so hard to "cure".

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Regorium

One (obesity) is something you can control.

The other (sexual orientation) is something you are born with.

Unless you're going to argue that people choose to be gay. Then I think I will choose to never take you seriously again, which is a shame because your story of overcoming obesity is seriously inspiring.

You and puckluck both jumped to conclusions on this. Read it again....all he is saying is that emotional reactions to ignorance do not help remove the ignorance. Nowhere did he compare homosexuality to obesity....or any aspect of one to the other.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by drPepper1

She has no more boobies! why do women take steroids?

One of my high school teachers looked like an over sized timbit and now she's a bodybuilder

On the other hand, Scary has never looked better

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Disease? It's something that can be easily prevented, and 'treated' for the great majority of people that are considered overweight. It wasn't tough luck that you got too big. It's hard to fix, but it's not something that you need medication or special treatment to address. You've naturally made yourself overweight. You can naturally remove that weight.

People need to put more blame and pressure on themselves rather than outside influences. Otherwise they won't be able to address their issues.

So if you smoke for 40 years and get cancer, its not a disease because it is something that could have been easily prevented?

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Regorium

One (obesity) is something you can control.

The other (sexual orientation) is something you are born with.

Unless you're going to argue that people choose to be gay. Then I think I will choose to never take you seriously again, which is a shame because your story of overcoming obesity is seriously inspiring.

There is no conclusive scientific evidence of homosexuality being caused by genetics. Some people do become homosexual. The reasons are unclear at present.

[Dion]

edited

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So if you smoke for 40 years and get cancer, its not a disease because it is something that could have been easily prevented?

In my later post I acknowledged that smoking addiction is considered a disease so I guess uncontrollable eating leading to obesity can also be considered a disease. Both psychologically affect you.

[drPepper1]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

On the other hand, Scary has never looked better

Have you seen Sporty Spice lately?

Spoiler!

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Azure

Our culture is feeding us the 1L slurpee. .

1L Slurpee. Pffft. Ain't nothing.

[PIMking]

I went from 210 down to 155 and now I'm 173. The issue I have isn't the number, its the fact that I should be in 32" jeans but the fat has all went to my ass and I have to wear 34's. So I'm in the process to cut out the fats and start jogging to try to lose my Kardashian ass

[Weiser Wonder]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

It's hard to be level-headed when this issue is so emotional wrought for me. But I get your point. Yelling at homophobes does nothing to advance tolerance/acceptance of gays. Yelling won't help here either.

I think it's OK to be angry and upset when people try to tell you what your life is like and make light of your struggles.

The people talking about obesity with no personal experience with weight problems deserve to be yelled at, and you have a right to your emotions.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

I'm reading the comments below the article and I just want to throw my monitor against the wall. The absolute ignorance and arrogance of those that have never had to battle a weight issue just infuriates me to no end.

A good part of any nutritious internet diet is to never, ever read the comments below the article.

[Thor]

It always very sad to read the not so nice things people say when topics like this come up, considering the pain and struggle most obese people have. People often seem to think losing 10-20 pounds is equivalent to those considered obese when your talking about losing 100 to 100's of pounds.

Its not a cut and dry issue, its filled with so many factors and its why its the biggest health epidemic facing modern society, and why so many people are researching this issue trying to find solutions.

No matter your opinion, many of you could stand to use empathy in this issue, considering how emotionally charged it is for overweight people, especially the obese.