Obesity a disease?

michellekicks

No.

_Zardoz_

Some very high horses in this thread. Just be careful though if you fall off that high horse you could break your neck.

nikilis

Some very high horses in this thread. Just be careful though if you fall off that high horse you could break your neck.

good to know you have your finger in the pulse and keeping score. also your thinly veiled death threats are intriguing.

shortie_sarah

We live in an era where 1. We don't want to take blame for ANYTHING we do in our lives and 2. We have to have a diagnose for EVERYTHING.

Modern medicine is GREAT for emergencies... after that... I wouldn't encourage anyone to spend the money to see a doctor unless they already have an issue (in which YOU, YOURSELF should be able to know if something is not right with your body, and you should see a doctor then).

^^I agree with this. Especially the first part.

grimendale

Some very high horses in this thread. Just be careful though if you fall off that high horse you could break your neck.

I'm sorry. I can't hear you from up here on my moral high horse.

nope31

astronomicals

I certainly don't see a problem with heavy taxes on certain foods. I feel the same way about booze and cigs. User pays...

spoken like a true orthorexic^^^^

oh, were you gong to eat that? let me "clean " it for you

if u think i should have to pay more for ice cream, because some person is obese, thats just crazy...While were at it, how about we add additional taxes to gasoline since I dont drive and your exhaust is unhealthy. Yeah, pretty senseless isnt it? I loathe self centered individuals.

What a laughable response. You know nothing about me but you're quite happy to make assumptions. Oh that's right...you can hide behind the anonymity of the internet. :laugh:

open your diary and prove me wrong... I'm making logical assumptions... Andd now you think you can control tax money as well? Do you see cigarette taxes going to victims of second hand smoke? No. Stop living in your crazy dream world.

ETA: Now you can make up some excuse to not open your diary since you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Im sure it'll be as asinine as everything else you've said

Charlottesometimes23

I certainly don't see a problem with heavy taxes on certain foods. I feel the same way about booze and cigs. User pays...

spoken like a true orthorexic^^^^

oh, were you gong to eat that? let me "clean " it for you

if u think i should have to pay more for ice cream, because some person is obese, thats just crazy...While were at it, how about we add additional taxes to gasoline since I dont drive and your exhaust is unhealthy. Yeah, pretty senseless isnt it? I loathe self centered individuals.

What a laughable response. You know nothing about me but you're quite happy to make assumptions. Oh that's right...you can hide behind the anonymity of the internet. :laugh:

open your diary and prove me wrong... I'm making logical assumptions... Andd now you think you can control tax money as well? Do you see cigarette taxes going to victims of second hand smoke? No. Stop living in your crazy dream world.

ETA: Now you can make up some excuse to not open your diary since you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Im sure it'll be as asinine as everything else you've said

Who are you? Someone who just learned the meaning of 'orthorexic'? Please, why would I need to prove anything to you? Why would you even waste your time looking up my diary? How strange..........

You may not like or agree with my ideas, but if you read the article I linked, you would see that similar ideas (crazy dreamworld ideas :laugh: ) are being considered by govt public health departments, in Australia for example. They tried something like it Denmark but it wasn't successful.

I'm not sure why it hits such a raw nerve for you to be so aggressive and rude.

NonnyMary

By the dictionary definition it is a disease


dis·ease [dih-zeez] Show IPA noun, verb, dis·eased, dis·eas·ing.
noun
1.
a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.
2.
any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.
3.
any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease.
4.
decomposition of a material under special circumstances: tin disease.

Yes those may technically be definitions of disease, however, when the regular obese person who regularly dines out at fast food places, and who thinks ketchup is a veg, etc, are going to really abuse the definitiion of disease and now have an excuse to overeat .. when their problem is not being able to put the fork down, I've always believed it is a choice. Of course, initially it can be a choice like a bad habit and then your body gets sick and weak and abused so then you develop diseases, like diabetes or high blood pressure from bad food choices. I think this law is a bad idea because it will just give people more excuses to justify thier bad choices/bad behavior and again, victim mentality sets in.

NonnyMary

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/obesity-disease-doctors-group-says-6C10371394

Whew-- thank God-- I was beginning to think it was MY fault. :noway:

Or part of a deeper agenda to declare it a disease, thus beginning to mandate where and what people eat? It's already begun in New York City-- get ready for national bans on soft drinks, et cetera.

Either way-- ridiculous--

There's always a deeper agenda. When obesity becomes a protected class, like sexual preference, you're going to see an explosion of lawsuits from people who either were not hired for a job, passed up on a promotion or terminated; all claiming obesity discrimination. An entire legal industry will spring up around the 'obese' just like the mandatory 'counseling' racket that has sprung up around the DUI industry.

Insurance companies are now going to HAVE to pay for bariatric surgery and other expenses due to obesity, because now it is considered a "disease".. I can imagine that will cause insurance premiums to rise due to them passing on the cost to everyone. Hmmm maybe I can call in to work sick because I was too fat to come to work, too tired, too sick, "Hey boss I am not coming in to work today - I got obesity"...

Also, will insurance companies pay for a Rascal Scooter for all the obese people that cant walk, now they have a reason to get a scooter to ride around Walmart.

NonnyMary

Although I don't agree with the fact that a pure lack of self control is now considered a disease, I do, however, think that it may help to open up the eyes of some people who are blind to the effects that obesity can have on you. If more people realized that it doesn't take hours of exercising and extreme dieting to lose weight, that it really is as simple as eat at a deficit, then perhaps there wouldn't be so many obese people in the world. I know that anytime I went to the doctors, he/she clearly knew I was overweight but did not offer me any advice on what to do about it. He should have told me something then and maybe, just maybe I would have lost weight sooner. Hopefully this will make dr.'s open their mouths more instead of being too concerned with hurting their patient's feelings.

I agree with you and I also want to say "Diets DO work". I hear a lot of people who claim diets dont work. They are wrong in the sense that they start changing their eating, and then start to go back to old habits, and thats when their "diet" does not work. Or maybe they should have picked a better "diet" to follow so that they would not go back to old ways. Just watch, people on a diet, they are fine while following it, but either it is not sustainable or they are trying to deny a certain food, and the body says uh, no. Then because it is too painful not to eat those foods, they begin to re-eat the food that got them there in the first place. So we must find a way to replace our bad habits with good habits and good food choices. And keep on going. And when the cravings come, we then have to find a way to deal with the urge to eat food for anything other than what it was made for - nutrition.

tootoop224

... I certainly don't see a problem with heavy taxes on certain foods. I feel the same way about booze and cigs. User pays...

Be careful what power you give to govenment, remember someone has to choose which "vices" are taxed/regulated/outlawed, and YOUR favorite may be next. For me personal respnsibility is the way to go. As long as you're not hurting anyone else, do whatever you want.

tootoop224

There won't be "national bans" on soft drinks or any other food. You do realize corporations run the world right, and they would hardly allow that.

I've only been on this site for a few weeks but it had looked like it was a haven from the insane hate politics that are everywhere else. Guess I was wrong ::grumble:

It was a haven until "a few weeks" ago. Not sure what happend...

Coquette6

I think it is a disease, albeit (usually) a self-inflicted one. If I break my arm myself (not that I would), it's self-inflicted, but it's still broken. The body is in an abnormal state and isn't functioning properly because of that. I don't think that classifying obesity as a disease gives people an excuse either. Ask anyone with a chronic illness - you still have to manage it. If you're a type 1 diabetic, you have a disease. You don't just get to say, "Oh well, I'm diabetic, too bad"; you inject insulin, you check your blood sugar, you watch what you eat. If you've got strep throat, you rest, get fluids and takes antibiotics. Obesity is no different - you watch what you eat, you exercise, and if you manage it correctly, it goes away. Just my two cents.

JessHealthKick

need more shock education perhaps? I have seen photos of the size of soft drink cups in the US. I honestly, HONESTLY, thought it was a joke.

30oz? http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/product_nutrition.beverages.612.dr-pepper-small.html

and then you joke about the heart attack burger http://www.heartattackgrill.com

This makes me lose all faith in humanity. In the West we are so *ucking lucky to have reasonable wealth and living standards, yet not only is it taken form the poor and given to the rich, but the poor (and rich?) is fed rubbish food which is joked about. I just can't fathom it.

pkw58

i believe over eating or under eating that leads to a an unhealthy weight is a learned condition and unlearning it is a condition that should be treated like a disease if the patient's condition stops them from leading a normal life. The difference between eating disorders and alcohol, drugs or tobacco is that we HAVE to eat to survive. But we have to eat in the right way to keep our bodies in a healthy weight range.

If the treatment is 99% mental health counseling to some one who needs it, then so be it. There is nothing wrong with examing our mental attitudes and behaviours to get healthy. Don't we all do that on this site? Look for ways to self treat ourselves that leads to a healthy body and mental outlook on our fitness?

tootoop224

Obesity is a disease, just as being too skinny is a disease. Why is this? Because the human body is not supposed to be too thin or too big, we all have a healthy weight and to push ourselves above or below it is not healthy.
The big thing about it all, is that it is curable, or in the very least manageable.
Fine people may be sick and it might be genetics, but even then it is possible to make a change, it's all about choices. It's not easy but it's possible. I have an eating disorder but I know that it's in my control to choose recovery or not, if I don't I can't expect to be given pity because now that I have been diagnosed and told there are options to get better it is completly in my own if I do anything about it.

:flowerforyou:

Well said. If everyone had your outlook/approach, these types of designations would have the desired outcome (ie: helping people to overcome their "diseaese"). However, far too often the unintended consequences are, that people don't take your position of personal responsibility to "cure" their "disease", but rather use it as an excuse as to why they can't fix their problems and that someone else should do something for them (ie: ban soft drinks, etc.).

momzeeee

By the dictionary definition it is a disease


dis·ease [dih-zeez] Show IPA noun, verb, dis·eased, dis·eas·ing.
noun
1.
a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.
2.
any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.
3.
any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease.
4.
decomposition of a material under special circumstances: tin disease.

Numbers 1 and 2 sound pretty good.

I don't see a problem with calling obesity a disease and I certainly don't see a problem with heavy taxes on certain foods. I feel the same way about booze and cigs. User pays...

Who gets to define what's a 'bad' food?

JustJennie1

That's is BS.

We live in a society where there is no accountability for your own actions. Now this will mean MORE government control over what you can eat, buy etc. etc. more taxes on certain food items, more hand outs because it's a 'disease' . . . Now there will be no reason for anyone to try and lose weight because the excuse will be "Oh, I have a disease." BULL! Oh, and now insurance premiums will go up even more to pay for all these people's quadruple bypass surgeries because they have a "disease". Don't forget all the disability claims that are going to be cropping up because of this "disease".

Ridiculous.

momzeeee

I don't see a problem with calling obesity a disease and I certainly don't see a problem with heavy taxes on certain foods. I feel the same way about booze and cigs. User pays...

So I have to pay more because someone can't control themselves?

People get fat off of 'health' foods as well.

The thing is, some people live off mainly fast food because it's cheap and easy.

What I believe is that fast food should be taxed, so that it's not the 'cheaper alternative' and the revenue could go towards making fresh food cheaper/more accessible. I believe that it's a serious public health issue and something needs to be done. We have around 40% obesity and it's rising.

Here's an article describing an Australian study into it (the taxing fast food concept).

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/federal-government-backed-study-into-fat-tax-on-fast-foods/story-fneuz8wn-1226646283704

Fast food is taxed, depending on where you live.. In MI we pay a 6% tax on fast food and also any food at the grocery store that's prepared (the hot case in the deli department etc). Or are you suggesting a second tax being added?