Re: [pf] Obesity Epidemic Threatens Health In Exercise-Deprived Societies

by tully

20 December 2000 01:04 UTC

At 12:14 PM 12/19/00 -0800, David MacClement wrote:
>· Here's one for tully.

You knew I couldn't resist this one didn't you?  You can be wicked 
sometimes, David...  ;)

>· I'm eating only 2 slices of bread (with cabbage, etc.) per meal now,

And you are living healthfully on pennies a day!  That is so great David.

>I gave blood yesterday (a 3.5 hour fast walk,
>there and back), and my haem count (blood-iron) is almost at maximum, so I
>must be doing some things right.

Yep.  And we women need even less protein and calories than you men for the 
same energy output.  Such a superb design God came up with that second time 
'round...  ;}

>"Obesity should no longer be regarded simply as a cosmetic
>problem affecting certain individuals, but as an epidemic that threatens
>global well being."

Yes!  I find it hard to swallow (so to speak) that people can't afford 
organic food.  If they bought the same dollar value of meat, for example, 
they would simply have a little less poundage of the organic food than of 
the glow in the dark stuff from the supermarket.  To bring two grocery bags 
full of junk home or one bag of decent food, seems to be the choice.  We 
need to consume less anyway...

>Our health depends on creating neighborhoods that are
>conducive to walking, jogging, and bicycling.

I still can't understand the incessant excercising that is being done, 
wasting all those precious calories for what?  I've been wondering how long 
I would have to pedal a stationary bicycle rigged to a dynamo arrangement 
to charge batteries to run a laptop, a transitor shortwave radio (with FM, 
which sounds surprisingly good, though not stereo) rigged to the laptop, 
external surround sound from creative labs off the laptop, a few lights, 
and a small fridge, and a water pump to a gravity fed tank water 
supply.  Could solar panels handle it most days and the dynamo in case of 
shortages?  Can you imagine if one's power needs could be totally handled 
by what you could manage to pedal on a bicycle per day?  Can I indeed get 
my power requirements down to that level now that I'm telecommuting?  It 
intrigues me, especially since I think its likely to be entirely possible.

>If recent
>trends continue, it is only a matter of time before deaths from
>obesity-related illnesses overtake those related to smoking.

Yet obesity is yet to be recognized for what it is.  Addiction just as bad 
as my smoking and maybe worse.  Seems I'd have little trouble making the 
argument that the overconsumption of food is more ecologically damaging 
than the overconsumption of tobacco...

>     Gaining weight is a result of consuming more calories than are burned.

So simple.  Yet never looked at simply.  Instead of eating less, we are 
always told to exercise more.  Why?  So we can fill our homes with more 
consumer goods like nordic-tracs and stair-steppers (the latter really gall 
me).  Or is it so we will continue to consume Madison Ave's coolest soda 
pop, their "freshest" fast food burger, their garbage  of the hour...  I 
refuse to exercise or expend any more energy than is necessary and I'm 
still healthy as a horse, even after 30 years of a 2 pack a day averaqe 
smoking habit.  I haven't caught any flus this year nor was I hit with 
anything worth mentioning the last two years (no sick days).  No 
allergies... But everyone around me is sick right now...  and so many 
suffer allergies... And people fret about me, saying I'm too 
thin...  sheesh...

>Ninety-five percent
>of Americans who attempt to achieve a healthy body weight by dieting alone
>fail.

That's quite a number...  Perhaps if more saw it as a revolutionary even 
subversive thing to do, the success rates would be higher.  But no, Madison 
Ave. say's that indulgence is admirable, that we're "worth it," that 
anything short of "having it all" and "only the best" is deprivation.  Is 
that true?  Or is it brainwashing?  I think some major attitude shifts are 
necessary.

>Metabolically, we are hunter-gatherers. Given our heritage,
>exercise may be a genetic imperative.

I doubt that exercise past normal everyday functioning is a genetic 
imperative.  Hunting and gathering are not the most strenuous activities 
anyway.  Agriculture demands far more hard work.  The muscles adapt to a 
leisurely life, if one does not become fat.  If we move around at all 
comfortably, we are probably fine, as long as we don't consume more than we 
expend.  I'm a good example.  I sit crosslegged on a four inch thick 
cushion on the floor to type on a laptop that is on a coffee table.  I'm 
here for hours a day now, since I started telecommuting, though plenty of 
hours are spent that way normally as I do not use sofas and chairs.  I 
suspect there are plenty of isometrics involved that keep floor sitters in 
good shape naturally.  Hunter/gatherers lounged around on the ground around 
the fires...  Sofas and chairs may be the real problem...