obesity article offers photo of "fat" calves

It's great that after reading the blog about headless fatties, I will never again read an article about obesity without taking note of the photo credit, thinking of how cool it is to get paid to take pics of unsuspecting fatties. (sarcastic!) I have had to go through the whole mood-killing process of photographing ID as proof of age and getting someone to fill out a modeling release so I can take pics that might or might not have any return on investment at all! The guy who is sneaking up on fatties is getting paid by a major news outlet! I must always link "upskirting" to headless fat pictures, but I guess I'm the only one. The headless fatty thing is totally alright though because obviously, nobody cares about the political correctness or the personal privacy of a fat m.f. right? (again, sarcastic:)

The article that I saw was about some research about a real "duh" issue. When I first read the article I took note of some pretty strong language that caused me to imagine the probability of eventually creating an environment so hostile towards obesity that it would attempt to virtually criminalize the condition or the behavior associated with being afflicted with the condition.

There are already numerous occasions where obese people are being financially penalized because of their size, as well as the recent uproar over obese air travel. Combine with that the way that at least one speech about the obesity initiative brings up intolerance and bullying to provide "incentive" and "motivation" rather than address how wrong it is to discriminate against someone because of size. I find it particularly disturbing to see how someone who has had to overcome some type of discrimination themselves can't recognize how dangerous it is to ratchet up anti-obesity rhetoric.

Ok, the actual article that I saw and just had to post about talked about a trend towards "constant eating" in today's youth. I read through this article and thought about how obesity man would be bellowing out a typically evil laugh as wrings his hands together and wound up the most evil grin that a man, or a "super-villain" could possibly muster up. On a more serious note, I saw more strong language coming from the nanny state that hint at a need to "take action" and in my opinion, "make them pay".

I must confess that I can't argue that constant snacking can lead to higher calorie intake, but when I was younger I grew out of that as a phase. I lost weight because I started working and I didn't have time to sit around and eat out of boredom. What I get uncomfortable about is in the way that the language is really "in your face" in the statement from the director of the CDC. Here is a quote from the article:

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote a commentary calling for taxes on sugary drinks and junk food, zoning restrictions on fast-food outlets around schools and bans on advertising unhealthy food to children.

"Government at national, state, and local levels, spearheaded by public health agencies, must take action," he wrote.

When someone talks about new taxes, especially on anything that could be called "food", I immediately realize that the first people who suffer are the poor, of which I am one. Rarely thought of and never mentioned, this pesky group of "throwaway people" are still very important to our society. Without them, people would actually have to make their own food or wash their own luxury car. In the future I will address how the obese who are not willing to change will probably also be categorized in this same way, even by those who are still obese but participating in extreme measures to change this about themselves.

When someone talks about tax on food, I grow concerned about what exactly would be considered "junk food". It has been my opinion that a vast majority of processed foods fall into this category, so good luck with the massive snack food lobby on that one! While the food lobby may come across as heavy handed or concerned about profit over health, they also represent the only powerful force that can fight the nanny state and prevent big brother from telling you what you should or shouldn't eat, and penalize you for going against their good advice.

I have been watching and waiting for them to find a way to even further stick it to our bigger brothers and sisters, and since it would not be very ethical to tax a group for "not eating right", they work hard trying to find a way to put a new tax on something that obese people happen to do. They keep forgetting that the obese are very often poor people who don't have access to or simply can't afford "the right foods".

I had a bit of concern over the comment "bans on advertising unhealthy food to children" because I see that there is no fear of first amendment challenges, and again, there is that pesky food lobby. The food lobby will probably be made to look like the bad guys here and there, but Doritos are expensive enough, man!!!

I just wish that every time some smart-ass makes a rude comment to an obese individual about all these additional health costs, the obese individual could pull out this article that appeared in the Public Library of Science. This article points out the simple math that an obese individual may cost more to treat some conditions during their lifetime, but they are less costly overall (because of the assumption of "death fat"), because without the added lifespan, they never develop conditions that are not related to obesity, but will occur naturally due to old age! So... Blame fat people for health costs that they will never incur simply because they do not live long enough! Also blame fat people while never acknowleging that most of them have tried every snake oil being sold to change their weight, but our primitive medical technology simply can't offer a single efficient safe solution other than "eat less and do more".

Every time I hear talk about obesity causing a spike in health care costs "for everyone", I have to wonder what happened to all the talk about how much the illegal immigrants were costing that same health care system. I still wonder what they suggest to handle all the baby boomers that are going to get old enough to require some kind of assisted living. Are those costs going to raise talk about "taking action" when too many people get old?

Everything just seems backwards. I guess the suits are so scared to talk about the immigration issue that the alleged healthcare costs of obesity will take center stage. It took years of neglect to get so many castaways to begin with, so go figure they are just going to eat those costs while creating anti-obesity sentiment as a distraction! I start to think "oh, obesity is what they think they can do something about" (obesity man giggles with delight). When I think of it more carefully though, the poor, illegals, the obese, are all lumped together in the obvious lack of consideration or compassion by those who are in power and therefore completely out of touch with real people. When I say "backwards", I have to point out the way in which we are attempting to create a financial villain out of the morbid specter of obesity, when research shows the opposite to in fact be the truth. What I found really ironic is how smokers had the lowest cost, probably because when someone gets hit with smoking consequences, there are pretty good odds that they will not linger on like an older person who was always "in perfect health".

The human body is a machine. This machine will break. We are mortal. Nobody I know of lives forever. The better we treat our body, obviously, the longer it will work better. It will break down eventually though. When all of this talk about the health issues of obesity is raised, I think there is talk about how all cases of diabetes or high blood pressure are being figured in as "costs of obesity" even though there are skinny people will diabetes and high blood pressure too. There are also obese people, contrary to popular belief, who will not contract any of these diseases. I see all the obesity rhetoric and I realize that it is simply a distraction, a con, and this raises real concern about what could really be going on. Meet the old boss, same as the old boss.

I just think that we are in a wacky alternate reality when I see the powers that be scramble for a quick fix to a problem that undoubtedly has no solution, at least in this reality. Suddenly, because other forces are going to come together to overwhelm and crush the current medical system (aging baby boomers, illegal immigrants), there is a desperate and pathetic attempt to "cure obesity" all the sudden because it's going to cost so much, and God knows we can't do nuthin' about all this other stuff! The only problem with this plan? There is no cure! Wake up!

I ramble on and on about obesity because the more I see it in the news, the more I realize that important, economy busting and public health issues are being ignored. Every doctor doing another obesity study is another doctor not working on the cure for HIV, the cure for all cancers, stem cell advances, or the answer to world hunger. Why are we missing out on all of this important, potentially life saving research? Because we (claim that we) just can't stand being around fat people!

I could be a real smart-ass myself and exclaim, "Hey, I guess you got that hunger thing taken care of so let's get on that obesity thing". I mean, how can anyone in a position of power with an opportunity to bring real positive change address the fat before addressing the hungry? I, personally, would rather be fat as all outdoors than being unemployed, savings running out, can't pay rent, and, by the way, hungry. When they start chasing the ghost of the obesity cure, I'm guessing they can feel better about not doing much in the way of ending poverty and hunger.