BarnOwl wrote:James Caruthers wrote:
That conversation is already happening and those in the fat activists are working tirelessly as part of their SJW activism to push obesity many 'feet' over in the direction of "completely acceptable at all times, and something we should totes take your tax money for."
But you're certainly entitled to not care about the conversation or not share my opinion on it. I have to disagree also about obesity not becoming cool. It'll never be cool in maybe the way you mean, but it's certainly becoming more acceptable and increasing a number of related costs.
I think it's fair to take the prevalence of morbid obesity as a total package. It's not any one thing, but everything together that creates so much obesity and then attempts to rationalize it. There's a processed food industry with power and influence in US politics and public policy that you non-Americans can't even begin to imagine. Advertisers are allowed to direct-market to children as much as they wish. Food manufacturers are permitted to lie on their packaging as long as they don't lie in specific areas (IE the nutritional information itself.) Companies are allowed to sell many unhealthy products as if they were healthy. Fast food and restaurants are not required to list either the calorie information or the nutritional information (ingredients list) of their products, although many choose to do so on their websites.
Then there are issues of personal responsibility, which is where I think HAES and the related messaging ties in with SJWism. Seems like many people today are unwilling to ever admit that their poor results are the result of poor choices they made. In the search for an invisible oppressor, I've seen obese fat activists blame a vast conspiracy of doctors, diet industry, fat-shaming Hollywood and the US government itself. :D
If you want to read something horrifying, take some time to look up nurses who receive permanent crippling injuries from having to move 500-pound patients, who are much more common than they were 50 years ago.
Anyway, I'll leave off now, but to me, this issue of fat activism and HAES is every bit as much junk science propaganda as people preaching Creationism or claiming that all men are potential rapists.
So much this. Here's an article on injuries in nursing staff, many of which are at least indirectly related to the increasing weight of patients:
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/04/382639199 ... g-patients
Some SJWs would undoubtedly claim that using hoists etc. to move morbidly obese patients is fat-shaming them, and therefore the nurses should just suck it up and risk injury. I know that was the mentality when I worked as a nurse aide years ago. Can't let the patient know that you're aware that they're obese. Can't shame them by bringing in a reinforced bed ... let them break the one that's in the room, just with sheer weight.
An anesthesiologist friend says that intubation equipment (for example) has had to be specially designed to accommodate morbidly obese patients. An increasing number of doctors, nurses, medical students, etc. themselves are morbidly obese ... it's difficult to maneuver around some of the obese students in the crowded anatomy labs, and I can only imagine what it's like when they're on clinical rotations in surgery or small patient room settings.
Not to mention that extra-large patients require special facilities. 500-pound patients need wheelchairs and MRI machines that can handle their immense bulk, and these have to be built especially to cater to those individuals. This cost must be passed along somehow.
I do not envy nurses after hearing some of the tales I've heard about moving these patients. Apparently some facilities are hiring on extra help just to move the super-obese.
IIRC the current biggest killers in the western world are all obesity-related diseases completely preventable with proper diet and exercise. Furthermore, the US is exporting these diseases to other countries. Where the western diet goes, diabetes and heart disease follow (along with increasing corpulence.)
In addition to rising obesity in adults, there's the matter of increasing childhood obesity. There are two factors which influence this as I understand the issue:
-The mother's diet while the child is in the womb and breastfeeding
-The child's environment after it is born
It might not be a bad idea to approach junk food (if westerners can even identify what "junk food" is at this point) the way we currently do alcohol. Many households will eat from fast food or takeout at least several times a week, and many kids living in poor neighborhoods have a steady diet of soft drinks, chips and candy. Of course, predatory practices by convenience stores, junk food manufacturers and the government's school lunch program shouldn't be ignored. One would think the school lunch should provide healthy fare, but it does not. The school lunch system functions as a dumping ground for cheap frozen junk food that the processed food makers would otherwise probably throw out.
As obesity increases, many people turn to bariatric surgeries and other weight-loss surgeries. Although it takes longer, proper nutrition is cheaper and less invasive. I refuse to believe that every person who applies for this type of weight loss surgery is an impossible case who could not get the weight off naturally. In point of fact, many of these surgeries fail because the patients continue to overeat in the extreme. The surgery is invasive and has many health risks, too.
http://www.modbee.com/incoming/article3117430.html
I don't know who covers the costs in the US, but in a country like Britain, the taxpayers pay for these surgeries IIRC.
Additionally, when you become too obese to work, many countries will put you on the dole.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/28/briti ... ney-video/
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/fat-wor ... story.html
If you look into the causes of the spiraling costs of healthcare, what you will find is that obesity is responsible for much of the cost increase. As I said, I don't consider this solely a matter of "let's point and laugh at fat people" but to deny that some poor decision-making is involved in the rise of western obesity seems as silly as denying the Earth's age.
I hope the west can find a way to reign this problem in, or a lot of innocent people, including children who don't know any better and nurses just trying to help people, are going to be permanently crippled.