Thursday, September 23, 2010

75% of Americans will be FAT!!??

Here's a disturbing link if ever there was one (especially the photo of the walking diesel tank in the red shorts and black top... that just captures the issues soooo succinctly).

"We thought the world end by Fire.  It turns out to be Ice." - The Mad Scientist (said to me as the credit crisis in late 2008/early 2009 dropped Oil (and every other commodity) on its head.

I think that line works for our purposes here as well.  Peak Oil, deficits, imbalances, currency risks, feminism.... all pale in comparison to a world filled with people so fat they are painful to behold.

Well not me. Nor my kids if I can help it (my wife is far too disciplined for me to be concerned about her in this regard.  The Japanese have a saying - "hal lay hatche bu mei" that they live by... which literally means "eat only till 80% full").

The un-intended consequences of "going soft": Bi-polar disorder, depression, borderline personal disorder, obesity, drug and alcohol addiction... well, as it turns out the "cure" has turned out worse than whatever disease we were trying to cure.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your blog and agree with many things here, but eating until full does not cause obesity in any animal. Eating the wrong food for one species however does that. Think only the economists got it terribly wrong? Nutritionists (and MDs) who tout the "healthy low fat low cholosterol way of eating(TM)" have done this to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

I have no idea what makes other people fat... I have a handle on what keeps me in shape. I gonna keep on doing that, whatever "that" is.

Listen, I don't know your age, experience, gender.... I can say that in my experience "girl watching" is no longer an option in much of the U.S. THis was not the case in 1980.

And I miss it.

Dextred1 said...

I have not done it in a while, but for periods of time I will fast on Sundays at all. I started doing it for religious reasons and really enjoyed controlling myself. The stats say that someone who eats 15% (100/7=14.3% of intake) less than they require has a corresponding 10% longer lifespan. I just like to do it all in one day and boy that next meal tastes so good. Mens health talks a lot about this kind of thing. The one problem is that I just can’t lift that day because I am usually fairly tired and weak by nighttime, overall strength has not went down though.

By the way my wife had our son on Thursday :)

PioneerPreppy said...

AMEN!!!

The most painful part of going to work isn't the physical labor it's the forced view these days.

PioneerPreppy said...

Gratz Dex!!!

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Congrats Dex! Mazul Tov!! Nothin like having a new baby in the house.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Anon @ 2:25:

I must say that I reject the "Devil made me do it" defense.

This is a personal choice. You don't have to be obese.

I take my kids swimming every afternoon. Hardly ever miss. The sheer SIZE of the mommies at the pool is alarming, and the size of may of their children is appalling.

I often wonder... "what the heck is it like behind those eyeballs? Do they see themselves as they are? Do they realize all of the beautiful things in life they are missing?"

A run on the beach... The passion of a lover... Surfing.... the cost of that extra 50 or 100 lbs is extreme...

Dan said...

It’s not how many calories you consume, but how many you consume relative to the amount of exercise you get. One of the things that just blew me way after I got married, and started footing the missis food bill, was the enormous amount of food she ate. She was teaching aerobics 30+ hours week, and prior to my WTF moment while balancing the checkbook, it hadn’t occurred to me that the massive energy expenditure had to be balanced as well.

I strongly suspect the quality of what you eat has much to do with it s well. The other day I forgot my lunch and was hungry so I stopped at McNasty’s (McDonald’s) and picked up a “value meal.” I felt lethargic the rest of the day and think I probably would have had more energy had I done without.


Congrats Dex.

Anonymous said...

A low fat diet keeps you hungry all the time. The guidance from the medical community and the government is wrong. If you are worried about cholesterol, you need to cut out the animal (saturated) fat in your diet, but need to replace it with other sources (olive oil and other vegetable oils.) A former USDA executive commented that the food guide pyramid encourages the same ratios of nutrients used to fatten cattle. Go figure.

Eating at home and cooking your own meals helps control the quality of what you eat, and costs a whole bunch less.

We all have choices, but it would be better if TPTB pointed us in the right direction.

Regards,

Coal Guy

Donal Lang said...

I agree with you Greg, and I'm fed up with hearing all the excuses of fat people (not 'obese' or 'overweight' or 'big-boned'!).
I note that life expectancy in the USA is falling, and is now below Kenya for some sectors. And I see the same trend in the UK and Europe, especially Germany, and some Italian kids are suddenly huge.

Its simple; if you eat more than you burn, you get fat. So eat less and exercise more.But i think the key is the exercise part of it; society is hooked on the idea of 'easier' and labor-saving. Everyone tries to do less; use the car, shop on the computer. I've even seen people competing for the parking space nearest the entrance to the gym!!!

Some people get fat and have trouble walking so they buy an electric buggy! How crazy is that?

The easy way to keep fit into old age is buy an apartment on the 4th floor with no lift!

K said...

Is "hal lay hatche bu mei" standard Japanese or dialect?

Anonymous said...

Greg @6:22 PM
As long as people avoid eating this:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bsAN-HkN3no/S69e4ZvrqiI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/Etkd2sOB8IE/s1600/Pig%27s+Head.jpg
because they're told it's bad, they have NO choice but being fat.


Paul

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

K:

My wife says it is as common as our most common sayings.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Paul:

Well done. LOL!!