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

by Molly Williams

20 December 2000 16:31 UTC

Well, tully (and David Mac), you will really like this! This message was
forwarded to me by a neighbour who is generally frugal and quite
progressive politically; I believe it is a forward making the e-mail
rounds (didn't originate with her), but the fact that she was
comfortable passing it along says she finds nothing offensive or
excessive about the message.

~ Molly


-----FORWARDED MESSAGE-----

I hate this time of year. Not for its crass commercialism and forced 
frivolity, but because it's the season when the food police come out
with their wagging fingers and annual tips on how to get through the
holidays without gaining 10 pounds.            
You can't pick up a magazine without finding a  list of holiday eating
do's and don'ts. Eliminate second helpings, high-calorie sauces and
cookies made with butter, they say. Fill up on vegetable sticks, they
say. Good grief. Is your favorite childhood memory of Christmas a carrot
stick? I didn't think so. Isn't mine, either. A carrot was something you
left for Rudolph.

I have my own list of tips for holiday eating.  I assure you, if you 
follow them, you'll be fat and happy. So what if  you don't make it to
New Year's? Your pants won't fit anymore, anyway.

1. About those carrot sticks. Avoid them. Anyone who puts carrots on a
holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if 
you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving
rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt
scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt   scotch.
You can't find it any other time of  year but now. So drink up! Who
cares that it has 10,000 calories in every  sip?  It's not as if you're
going to turn into an eggnogaholic or something. It's a
treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you  think.
It's Christmas!

3 . If something comes with gravy, use it.
That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on.
Make a volcano out of  your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat 
the
volcano. Repeat. 

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're  made with skim milk or
whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports
car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party  in an effort to control
your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people's food for free. Lots of it.  Hello? Remember college?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of  food and that vat of
eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a  buffet table, like
frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position
yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of
shoes. You can't leave them behind. You're not going to see them again. 

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat.
Have a slice of each.  Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples
and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more
than
one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake?
Granted, it's  loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid
it at all
cost. I mean, have some standards, mate. 

10. And one final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the
party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention.
Reread tips. Start over. But hurry! Cookieless January is just around
the corner!

----END FORWARDED MESSAGE-----

tully wrote:
> 
> 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...
>