WASHINGTON (AP) - Obesity's not just dangerous, it's expensive. New research shows medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than for someone who's normal weight. Overall obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion, double what it was nearly a decade ago, says the study published Monday by the journal Health Affairs.
Read more: Netscape News.
I'm going to go with the sins of the forefathers passed on to the 3rd or 4th generation.
Like learning bad eating habits? Yes, those are extremely hard to break. I once had the experience of eating at a buffet restaurant with 5 of my new sisters-in-law. I was aghast. Four of them ate like fat people. Bad choices and huge quantities. My wife did somewhat better, and had lost 100 pounds just before I met her. So you can rise above bad/learned habits.
I would feel like a sinner if I were any fatter. But would mainly feel unhealthy and unfit. I weigh 168 and am losing a pound a week on the Snickers diet.
Cal, from West Michigan
All generalizations are false, including this one..
>>Four of them ate like fat people.<<As opposed to what, the way the bald people eat?
Can you provide us with some examples of what you consider a bad choice when it comes to what a person should eat?
You gave some good examples. A baked potato is healthful. When you add cream, it becomes less healthful. Peanut butter is my favorite topping. It is unsaturated fat and healthful.
The phrase "misplaced burden of guilt" caught my eye. It seems there are for than a few in this forum who associate sin with guilt. I know that's not the topic a hand, but it does lead up to my question.
I grew up in a Christian environment and heard time after time that we are all guilty of sin and only Jesus can deliver us from it. Thus sin and guilt always seemed to go hand in hand. Pehaps this is a possible explanation of why the two are often linked together.
Do you believe it is morally wrong for a person to become overweight and, by doing so, add to the cost of taxes paid by his/her fellow Americans to pay of his/her additional Medicaid and Medicare expenses?
I really don't consider it my business what another individual does on their own by personal choice unless these choices impact others. So, if one chooses to have an unhealthy diet and not exercise it is not my concern. If their actions do, however, cause public spending on health to be unproportionally large, then it does become a valid issue of debate. In this particular situation it seems that additional taxes to compensate for the higher expenses should either be levied on the overweight, or on products that contribute to their weight.
On a sad side note, the overweight oftern get the short end of the stick when it comes to social security. They pay into it all their lives and then die early getting fewer distributions back after retirement than others. So, perhaps it all evens out in the end.
>>>A baked potato is healthful.<<<Just to add an opinion not already in evidence: Not according to the cardiologist that introduced the South Beach Diet.
My wife lost 100 pounds on the South Beach Diet about 5 years ago. I have read the book and consider it marginally fraudulent. Baked potato is the very best food for controlling hunger. The SBD recommends avoiding high glycemic index foods, like potatoes. That is unnecessary. It recommends high fat foots, which are satisfying, but dangerous because it is too easy to get excess calories. It also recommends high protein consumption, which might be satisfying, but the average American already gets twice as much protein as he/she needs. And our proteins foods usually also contain saturated fat.
I can eat small amounts of candy and reduced fat ice cream because I also include glucose tolerance factor in my diet. GTF is found in cheese, whole wheat, black pepper, and liver.
Last night my wife shared her Dairy Queen Heath Bar Flurry with me. I would never buy that much ice milk for myself! The sugar load in it apparently sent my blood sugar up because it made me feel nervous and edgy. I successfully countered the feeling by eating a small amount of cheese and a reduced fat wholewheat Triscuit.
Peanut butter is my favorite topping for baked potatoes, bread, crackers, and (vege) hot dogs. RealAge, this week, recommended PB for heart health because of the nature of its fats and its other valuable nutrients.
I think most of the diet gurus will agree that processed food is probably the main culprit in obesity. Especially in either sweet or salty forms.Just about anything made from scratch is better for you than what you buy from a manufacturer.
Yes, that is because refined foods are calorie dense and nutrient poor. Removing nutrients make them keep longer on the store shelves. What is left in just makes you more hungry, so you buy more.
