A number of bloggers (including BP's very own ThunderDragon) have picked up on the recent report into obesity, which claimed that the nation's ever-increasing waistbands is the fault of society rather than specific individuals.
Obviously, this hasn't gone down too well:
The only person to blame for obesity is the tub of lard themselves. They either eat too much, the wrong stuff, or don't exercise enough. No-one force-feeds them fast food. No-one ties them to the couch. The only person who is to blem for their condition is themselves - and to suggest otherwise is utterly wrong.
I agree with ThunderDragon's sentiment. Ultimately, it's down to the individual involved to put in the effort to keep themselves healthy. Even the smallest amount of exertion leaves me a sobbing, pain-ridden wreck of a human being, and the main reason for that is that I'm far too lazy to bother with all that exercise stuff. If I want to change I need to put in the effort.
However, I'm far more sympathetic to the idea that our body shape may have more to do with our genetics than our lifestyle: despite almost no exercise and a weakness for junk food I remain as skinny as a rake - and have been all my life. I can sit around on my arse all day, eat whatever I feel like and yet never manage to climb above 11 stone (which spreads out quite well on my 6ft frame).
So it's quite difficult for me to condemn others outright for their weight.
8 comments:
I agree that it may have partly to do with genetics, but I now believe it also has a lot to do with how much you use your brain. I, myself, have been on what someone else called a "thinking diet," and lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks without even trying. I don't know... it's a thought.
Yes, well I was like you until I was 50. I could eat like a horse and never gain a pound. Oh how that changed and it's been a struggle ever since. Sometimes I'm winning sometimes not.
Don't take that healthy body for granted. One day it might turn on you.
Yea, things are different as age sets in. I've only just hit 30, but I've already had to curb my eating habits and start attending a gym regularly for the first time. That said, these fitness puritans are a bunch of humorless folk. I mean why go to such extents to prolong one's life when one's life is devoid of the finer things? Relax. Have a pint and a meat pie. Sure, it might shave a few runs off the score board, but when the average life expectancy exceeds 65yr, who gives a shit? Hell, I'm going to be hitting the ale, chips, coke and heroine like Keith Richards when I retire. I'd sooner spend what little pension I have getting absolutely wasted off my zimmer frame than squander it on trying to squeeze in another dull few years of daytime telly, gardening and hemorrhoids cream.
I don't think that genetics play no role at all but, when it comes down to it, people make their own choices. They soon realise that they have to eat less or exercise more than others to keep in good shape - but they are still to blame for it. They know their body and make the choice to eat too much or the stuff stuff and not exercise enough for what they eat.
And this is indeed obesity that we are dealing with, not just being "a bit chubby" or even "quite large", but pure and simple clinical obesity. No matter what, that in itself cannot be blamed on genes. Genes undoubtedly contribute, but to get to that level they must have neglected to make any effort to curb it.
Genes increase the likelihood of obesity, they increase the possibility of getting to that stage - but they certainly can't cause it all on their own.
Being "under tall" myself I know that the paunch I carry is down to me. I'm a lazy so and so who eats too much crap (still an easy thing to do as a vegetarian, believe me). There may be an underlying cause in my DNA but as Thunderdragon rightly puts it our genetic make up may make obesity more likely rather than inevitable.
Holy cow-on-a-bap, if it were only so easy! Eat less, exercise more, weigh less. Unfortunately, that is not always the case - genetics do play a role, but then there are also medical conditions which make that maxim moot, not to mention prescription drugs (like prednisone or birth control) that up your weight no matter what you do. Trust me, I work out 3-4 times a weeks, do at least 7 flights of stairs a day, cook my own healthy meals, and still weigh more than the "acceptable range" for my height.
Of course, there's also the simple factor of changing lifestyles: work no longer means tilling fields or spinning linen to the majority of people in the "broadening" Western world, but rather sitting in front of a computer for at least 8 hours a day; kids no longer run outdoors and play for hours a day, but rather sit in front of a TV or computer playing video games or chatting.
Perhaps we should be studying that, instead of using data from a heart study, done on people in the same Pennsylvania town, that doesn't account for genetic links or for friends seeking each other out based on similar past experiences. (Yes, the data are inherently flawed in that study that was reported by the BBC, which was reported by the NY Times a few months prior).
Phew, thanks, I needed that. It's Monday, after all....
What business is it of the State's whether people are fat or not? When I was growing up families and individuals were expected to take responsibility themselves for their lifestyles, without government nannies wagging reproving fingers or snoopers prying into their private affairs. Even during WW2, when the government issued some general advice about healthy living, conserving scarce resources, etc. there was none of this busybody jobsworth stuff. We were fighting for our freedom, and bossy snoopers were anathema to us.
Not any more, alas!
It says something about a society when eating a pie becomes a genuinely subversive act.
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