Posted on 08/28/2006 11:20:06 AM PDT by freepatriot32
Fat is not a feminist issue, as Susie Orbach once claimed. Fat is a class issue. Rich, educated people are not fat; you see almost no children in private schools who are overweight. Fatness and obesity are directly related to lower education and lower incomes. What is sad is that at a time when this country is richer than ever and ought to have better schools than ever, we have far more fat people than ever — a dangerous explosion of flab. Last week the Department of Health issued a report grimly called Forecasting Obesity to 2010 and its findings were grotesque. Within four years, it predicts, a third of all adults — 13m people — will be obese. So will 1m children
Obese means not just podgy, but dangerously, disablingly, distastefully fat, as in American fat.
This is not just shocking; it has also happened shockingly fast. As the report says, a third of all men will be obese by 2010; in 1993 the figure was only — if one can say only of such a large figure — 13%, rising to 24% in 2004.
The same is true of women, although the rate is rising more slowly; 16% were obese in 1993, 24% in 2004, and the trend is expected to rise until 2010. The proportion of boys who were obese stood at 17% in 2003 and is predicted to rise to 19% by 2010, while among girls it is expected to increase more swiftly from 16% to 22%.
This presents an awkward challenge to libertarians. The libertarian assumption is that we should all be free to do what we want, as far as possible, and if some people’s lifestyle choices involve snacking on deep-fried Mars bars and triple-processed cheeseburgers, other people have no business interfering, still less the government.
Besides, there is the embarrassing fact that those who eat and drink junk do so for cheap comfort and because they are either too poor or too ignorant (or both) to prepare healthy food. It doesn’t come well from the consumers of steamed organic asparagus and free-range ducks’ breasts to criticise those who can manage only frozen reconstituted chicken nuggets and sugary baked beans.
However, obesity does not concern only the obese. It concerns all of us. Obese parents produce obese children, and obesity places a crippling burden on the National Health Service, quite apart from the many personal miseries involved. Currently 10% of NHS resources are spent on diabetes (two-thirds of which is the avoidable type 2 associated with obesity) and this could easily double within the next four years to 20%.
This is quite apart from the increased risk among the obese of heart disease and other serious illness. More young people are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, something previously seen only in people over 40. In these circumstances even the most swivel-eyed libertarian would probably agree, for once, that something must be done and even perhaps by the government.
Curiously enough, however, in one of the few areas where our ever-intrusive government might for once justifiably intrude, new Labour does almost nothing. Possibly as a result of the ferocious lobbying of the food industry, ministers restrict themselves to making repetitive noises about healthy living and “small changes” that won’t cost anybody anything.
Tony Blair said last month that if the food industry did not agree to limit junk food advertisements by 2007 he would bring in mandatory rules, but he has said that before and more than once. Besides, why not bring them in straight away? His government has persistently ignored the demands of the Commons health select committee for a traffic light system of food labelling, enabling shoppers to make informed choices.
England’s chief medical officer warned in this year’s annual report that public health budgets were being raided to deal with deficits. That is the reality behind government talk of raising public awareness.
I have never been convinced that government health education has any effect. Despite the “five-a-day” campaign, only a quarter of people in England eat vegetables every day. About half of overweight men are in denial; they don’t see themselves as overweight, according to the report.
There is nothing complicated about being thin. Being fat is usually the result of eating too much junk food and taking too little exercise. Being thin means eating much less food, avoiding junk food altogether and taking exercise every day. It may be that nothing can be done about the plague of obesity; there is a growing epidemic in Europe and worldwide. Perhaps affluence is a disease to which only the fortunate few are immune. But if anything could be done about it, it would have to be radical.
Nobody who craves cheap comfort food will willingly give it up. But if over-processed, over-refined food and junk food were to become expensive while healthy fresh food became cheap — the opposite of the case today — people would be forced to eat well. This could be done through taxes or subsidies. Alternatively, you could ration unhealthy food.
There could be a public campaign against fattening food, just as there was against smoking, aimed at making everyone ashamed of consuming anything naughty but nice. I am just as greedy as anyone else but I have come to think of cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets, white bread and puddings as more or less toxic. Foods like this should have health warnings — “cake can kill”. They are not just unnecessary, empty calories; they interfere with your blood sugar levels, affect your appetite and your mood; they may even induce food addiction. The same applies to alcohol: more than a modest amount makes you fat, interferes with your mood and is often addictive.
Just as there would need to be financial incentives to eat well, there should also be inducements to take exercise. The cost should be subsidised or declarable against tax. Employers should be required to give workers time off to go to the gym or jog. We could imitate the Japanese and have mass group exercises at work every day.
And that is the problem. Obesity, one of the trials of affluence, can be solved only, if at all, by the kind of interventionism that has been discredited by the failure of socialism. Liberty is indivisible; it belongs to the ignorant and the low paid just as much as to anyone else. Perhaps obesity is one of the many prices of liberty. Fat is a freedom issue.
Tomatoes, lettuce, and onions are not cheap in California.
Tacos are one of our more expensive meals. By the time you by taco shells, meat, sauce for the meat, and all the fixings, it adds up quick.
Then if you want to do anything fancy like avocados or olives it really adds up.
I think it would be cheap if you grew the veggies.
That's what I need to do next year is have a garden, then my produce will be much cheaper.
My grandparents had a huge garden, and my granddad hunted. They had fresh produce and venison almost every night for very cheap.
LOL! Yes, with my luck they were American tourists that can't get back home because Air France can't get them in the seats.
Ha! Don't hold your breath. No self-respecting Libertarian, swivel-eyed or otherwise, is going to invite the government to solve this problem.
I'm one of those others, too, that have gotten tired of seeing that. I buy my fair share of the "junk food" but I buy it on sale and not every time I go to the store.
I do agree wit you in regard to food stamps vs commodoties. The WIC program seems to be almost a happy medium between them. WIC approved purchases are very limited.
They forgot to mention "too lazy". Junk food is more convenient.
I agree, too. WIC is actually a benefit to one-income families, but as stated rather limited: cheese, peanut butter, bread and cereal.
Oh, I know, and I do buy the green, also whatever's on special. I guess it was a poor sample. I'm referring to people on a budget I know who bypass produce because it's 'expensive' and get the prefab, devoid of nutrition foods. I've been on a stricter budget for a bit of time now. I'm getting good at scavenging out good stuff. Last week, locally, corn on the cob, green beans, and eggplant. Yummo. Also, the lean pork roasts, prepackaged, low fat. I'm just saying that produce can be more expensive than cheap, fast, prefab food, and some seem to prefer to stock up on prefab deep fried chicken nuggets instead of the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, just $6/5lb bag last week. So yes, it's economics and habits. I just miss red peppers, but they'll go on special, too!
Tomatoes, lettuce, and onions are not cheap in California.
Correlation is not causation and everyone of your comments in regard to smokers and overweight people are based on statistical manipulation, not fact.
I'm not over weight, but I am a smoker..........I have been in the workforce in some way shape or form for more years than I have been a smoker and I've smoked for about 30 years...........regarless of the claim that every ailment of society is due to someone being a smoker or overweight I beg to differ.....appendicitis, pregnancy, and broken bones have nothing to do with my being a smoker and those are the only reasons I have ever missed work...and the second 2 didn't mean anymore than less than 2 days of beig out of circulation.
If you don't want to hire me because I smoke or I'm fat - that's your perogative - just keep the government out of it.
Jolt!
Their tagline used to be: "All the sugar and twice the caffeine."
Did they drop the sugar part?
Exactly. Where I live there is an oil refinery just 60 miles north. But our gas is more expensive than cities much further away in the state. And food costs are the same. Lot's of farms near me and near enough. But produce is so high. I drive 150 miles south to my other sister's and the prices are less. My other sister gets what I consider bargain basement prices, in a major city, the 'market' at work I guess, all that competition. For really good stuff with good selection. It's just a lot more challenging. And I know quite a few people who consider fresh produce canned corn, and lean protein to be sausages (big hunting area).
The stench was sauerkraut! But nothing beats homemade sauekraut - and I hate cabbage. LOL
I've decided to plant some horseradish in the spring. The stuff is really invasive, like mint or bamboo - but I've got an area where I can put it that it won't mess with anything else and will also help keep the weeds down.
"Pot" may be the wrong term (it's a big Pyrex bowl). Whatever.
Penzey's is great!
I like to quickly blanch the cauliflower, then put it in a baking dish with a cheese sauce and bread crumbs.............YUM!
Even living in an apartment people can container grow some basic veggies...tomatoes and peppers are quite easy to grow indoors. As are herbs for seasoning.
The fizzing was notice that the house was about to reek. When we heard that sound - like someone trying to ease open a soda bottle without spilling any foam - we'd beat feet out of range.
I take it horseradish is easy to grow? Can you eat it in its natural state?
A friend of mine has a husband who's pretty inventive in the kitchen, and he made breakfast Sunday morning that was served on some sort of big leaf that he says is from a Cuban plant. It's sorta peppery and sorta has a licorice taste, but not much of one - more pepper. I liked it a lot.
Doesn't like mashed potatoes and gravy? That's downright unAmerican........
I don't blame you for blaming your husband.....
I am very thankful our daughter pretty much eats just about anything..how many 8 year olds do you know that will actually beg for an artichoke or asparagus? I really have to keep her out of the produce section, especially when it's close to pay day and I've got a strict list/budget for what I'm picking up.
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