Posted on 08/30/2007 4:38:04 PM PDT by blam
Well not just free food perhaps but if you are poor, then you tend to eat things like Ramen Noodles, fatty hamburger, hot dogs etc.
Look, I didn’t mean to imply that some behaviors are benign or harmless. They are all bad, but some are more curable than others (over-eating vs. drug use).
Thanks ~ altho some may argue how easily ‘curable’ obesity is!
Food can be a mighty powerful drug. Hard to separate ‘hunger’ from ‘appetite’.
I respectfully submit that even WHEN it is affected by genetics, it remains a behavioral issue.
I am an alcoholic of the same Dr. Jeckyl - Mr. Hyde type as my grandfather. I am convinced that genetics play an enormous role in alcoholism, and that alcoholism is more like an allergy than a disease. Yet it remains a behavioral issue. Certain behaviors result in symptoms (starting fights and being arrested, in my case!), and a change in those behaviors results in total elimination of the "symptoms."
If alcoholism is a disease, it is entirely self-inflicted and self-cured, regardless of genetics. That's the hard, cold, ruthless reality. Accepting it is simple and true.
A mammal cannot manufacture fat out of zero input. Perhaps some bodies manufacture certains kinds of food much differently than other bodies, hence tending more toward obesity in one than in another. But I would bet you all the tea in China that if I was able to get one fat person, regardless of genetics, to duplicate my exercise and eating on a daily basis for one year, they would lose fat. It's a mathematical certainty.
It's all behavioral. It's just that individuals each have to tune their behavioral meters to widely varying norms. It's not fair, but nobody said life was fair.
What sounds better to me is a kind of "Salvation Army" rooted in nutrion rather than drug abuse! ;^)
Wow! What a great point!
Ah ... er ... I'd like to make a point. Environmental and species regulations along American coastlines -- regulations sadly supported by many short-sighted but earnest conservatives -- make it very close to impossible for our food stores to offer much domestic harvest. Think of that the next time you don't sit down to a nice big platter of abalone steaks. Or the next time the only fish you can find (let alone afford) is from Indonesia instead of the nearest coast.
You hit the nail right square on the head! Bravo!
Good insight. That really highlights the oddity -- we live in a country where malnutrition is a malady of the young, affluent and otherwise healthy, and the main nutritional problem of the poor is obesity.
Not another. A different. What I'm talking about is a fundamental rethinking of the government's approach to poverty -- initiatives that come from the ground up, rather than from social engineers in DC down. Something like, wait, I can't put my finger on it ...
What sounds better to me is a kind of "Salvation Army" rooted in nutrion rather than drug abuse! ;^)
Yeah, actually, very much like that. If communities can make it work without any government funds, so much the better; but I wouldn't have any objection to shifting government funds from programs that don't work to programs that do.
Churches, and synagogues are closer to the problem -- they're in and of the community, The creative and innovative solutions seem to come from there. For example, St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta has a great outreach program for the homeless - they don't have room to hose a shelter, but they offer storage lockers so folks can go to a shelter without worrying about being robbed. They have showers and laundry machines and donated presentable clothes.
And -- this is the part that I thought this part was especially clever, and obvious once I heard it, but I hadn't thought of it before: mailboxes. A tiny simple thing, but think about it -- how can you apply for aid, or a job, if you don't have an address where you can receive a reply?
It would have taken a government agency ten years and millions of dollars to come up with that. The church came up with it by being in the community (St. Luke's is downtown, in a neighborhood with one of the larger homeless populations) and, I'm guessing, from sitting down and talking to people.
The office of faith-based initiatives was kind of a nifty idea, but it seems to have been more of a political gesture than anything meaningful Change the name to the office of community-based initiatives, and bring in non-sectarian groups the Scouts, 4-H, Boys' and Girls' Clubs, and the YMCA (which despite the word "Christian" in its name, is pretty much non-sectarian in its present-day direction and role in the community)
Address today's problems, not the problems of 40 years ago. Shift resources from the programs that don't work to the programs that so -- for starters. If, by some miracle, the problems actually start to get solved, then you drop the funding altogether. I'm all or smaller government, but first Im for more effective and efficient government. When it can do more with less, it'll be easier to shrink it.
The government's approach to the "War on Poverty" is like using maps of Germany to plan the war in Iraq.
Those who move less are inclined to be fat.
There is a strong correlation between moving less and working less.
Most certainly.
It takes grit and maturity to overcome depression, fear and bad habits.
The more instant foods people use, the heavier they will be.
People need to take the time to cook using raw foods.
Cook in large quantities on the weekends and freeze in individual containers for lunches.
Money will be saved, raw foods are healthier and the body won’t be storing as much fat because no supplements can have the same affect as raw sources.
They are out there. The one’s who are really struggling are the working poor. They make too much money to qualify for help.
Proper money management and consistent, careful investment will lift anyone out of the hole. Sure it may take a bit longer but it works everytime.
Often times yes but then a lot of the people I’ve encountered had an unexpected medical issue or other legitimate reason for their circumstances. I work with Second Harvest through my church and see these people regularly.
Other studies have suggested that being overweight will cause you to earn less.
Such is the problem with correlation / causation.
This is all about DISCIPLINE and the lack of it.
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