Obesity is a painful, emotionally-charged issue. I have never been obese myself (even though I'm a bit chunkier around the waist than I used to be), but I've been around enough overweight people (friends, family, ex-girlfriends, etc.) to be intimately familiar with the pain and suffering that usually goes with being obese.
The issue of obesity and what to do about it was recently explored in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek article by Charles Kenny. Mr. Kenny wrote that America is the world leader when it comes to obesity, but our supremacy in this area is being challenged by other countries. (Can't we be number one in anything?)
I believe that obesity brings with it two issues that need to be addressed separately. In one corner is the health perspective. An overweight individual is more susceptible to a wide range of illnesses than his or her thinner counterparts. In the other corner is the self-esteem perspective. Overweight people are criticized for lacking willpower and not living up to an unattainable standard of beauty. As a result, concern about one's health is often interpreted to mean a rejection of that person's character...and who that person is as a human being. From my perspective, someone's weight tells me next to nothing about that individual.
I'd like to think that when someone meets me for the first time, only a small piece of my personality is unfurled. An interested party would need to devote months, years, if not decades, to discovering even a small percentage of who I am...as with anyone else, many assumptions about me--my interests, my introspection, my opinions, my quiet nature, my awkwardness in certain situations, my relationships at home and at work--have many unique layers, like fingerprints that can only be traced back to me.
Anyway, I digress. Mr. Kenny ended his article by reporting on New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's fight against obesity:
In 2003, near the start of Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign against fat, New York City banned sweet drinks from schools. Perhaps partially as a result, obesity rates in public school kids have fallen by 5 percent in the last four years.
This explains Mayor Bloomberg's recent enthusiasm for wanting to limit the size of a cup of soda that a vendor can sell. What works in school should work with the general public, but an important difference exists. Unlike the school system, the mayor has no control, or should have no control, over the business decisions of non-government controlled entities...even when I disagree with some of the decisions that these businesses make. The mayor's heart is in the right place, but rather than tell me what I should do, why not educate me and let me make that decision for myself?
Because the education budget will never match the advertising budget of these companies. Look at the biggest names in food. Nestle, Kraft, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Coca Cola and I haven't even touched the beers. With the current system of lobbying, no law would ever get through, especially in education. I mean for crying out loud, a pizza is a ****ing vegetable.
America needs to focus on HEALTH, and then the weight/disease management issues will be incidental to that success.
The argument against you making the decision for yourself is that obviously people simply aren't. Most people are unable to resist the allure of cheap, easy and quick food that isn't good for them. Health is not a priority until something actual goes wrong in this country. I agree wholeheartedly with you that nutritional education is sorely lacking in this country but it starts at the top and the habits of the parents which are then passed down to their kids. That is where the responsibility lies, not in the government to arbitrarily say this is what will and will not be allowed. I think it is horrendous that Bloomberg thinks he can legislate away obesity by limiting the size of the drink you can buy. Will it help on the margins? Maybe. It does nothing to get at the root cause of the problem. It is equivalent to slapping a bandage on a laceration that needs stitches or even surgery. Sure, it might stop the bleeding momentarily but it is largely irrelevant in the scheme of things.
If you want obesity to begin to go away you need to motivate people to take an active interest in being physically fit and healthy. It can be for the total wrong (subjectively) reason of looking good or the 'right' reason of being healthy and maybe living longer and avoiding certain ailments. The ways you can do that are many. I think it best to provide them with education and opportunity to choose what they want to eat. I think including nutrition labels on food is a great strep in the right direction. If people choose to guzzle down massive sodas and eat shitty food from McDonalds that's fine. They can live with the consequences of their actions, as should smokers and anyone else who does whatever they want to do. I personally do not feel an ounce of sympathy for those who are largely overweight. I've been there as a kid and have managed to get into great shape through today. In most cases it is a choice, one of either ignorance, laziness or expedience. Pick your poison. For the far fewer cases of people who simply can't do it or have a medical condition that is a different situation. If someone knows differently I'm all ears. I also don't believe that being genetically predisposition-ed to gain weight is an excuse or that you have a slow metabolism.
Maybe this is off topic, at least slightly, but it is something that I have noticed over and over....
If you need to eat on the run (or eat at your desk as you work through lunch) it's hard to eat healthy. Even some of the 'healthy options' that fast food restaurants offer (like salads) are not really all that healthy. I wonder if some kind of business opportunity exists there, especially in densely populated urban environments that have a high demmand for quick meal options.
Since I will not be arriving in the city until August, can any current NYC folks chime in on the availability of more healthy quick food options?
OP you have fat ppl fetish?
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