Tag Archives: obesity

User Queries : The Dreaded “D” Word

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Questions

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I recently got my Diabetes status alert level to “OMGITSNEAR,” which means that I have to both lose weight and be pickier about what I eat. I was wondering if there are any common drinks or foods that I should avoid which might seem healthy at first glance but are not.

For instance, I’ve heard that sports drinks like Gatorade and Cereals like corn flakes should be be on my “do not consume” list because they contain lots of sugar, even though they’re supposed to be alright for consumption for a healthy body. At the same time, it seems that eating chocolate flavored oatmeal with nonfat milk might be bad, but is supposed to be alright. As you can guess, I’m a bit confused.

Any advice for people trying to avoid diabetes while eating right?

– Victor

I can certainly understand the confusion you’re dealing with at the moment.  Diabetes is a scary and intimidating disease and there is a lot of misinformation out there about it.  To many folks a diabetic is someone who isn’t allowed to eat candy bars, but the reality is that not only can a diabetic person eat a candy bar if they want to there are times when a candy bar could be the best thing to keep them from going into a coma!  I could go on at length about Diabetes here (and my original response to you started down that path), but I’ll do my best to stay focused so that Krystalle doesn’t beat me with the editor stick.

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BBC Study Shows American Health Continues To Decline

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Picard FacepalmI recently had the chance to catch Wall-E for the first time with Krystalle thanks to the magic of Netflix-On-Demand through the XBox 360.  It was an absolutely delightful film, but I walked away from it slighly troubled by one aspect of the film – The state of humanity thanks to technology.  I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but let’s just say that the advances in technology as depicted in the movie are not quite so beneficial to the overall health of mankind.  Wall-E was a very clear warning sign about the dangers of living a pleasure-based disposable lifestyle.

Unfortunately it appears in some ways as though the predictions made in the movie have the potential for coming true.

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How Big Is Too Big?

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Question MarkOn Thursday, May 21st, authorities in Baltimore arrested Jerri Althea Gray and took her son, Alexander Deundray Draper, into protective custody. A warrant was issued for Mrs. Grays arrest in South Carloina on Tuesday after she failed to appear at a court ordered hearing. During that hearing the judge ordered that the boy should be taken into state custody due to medical neglect.

Alexander, you see, weighs 555 pounds.

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In Defense Of The Walking Dude

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Randall Flagg from "The Stand"When I started out this project I specifically picked a group of folks who I knew had some very different takes on the whole weight loss and fitness field.  I did this for a variety of reasons, but primarily I did so because I know there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution when it comes to weight loss and fitness and that having multiple perspectives on certain subjects is a great way to help our readership find out what works best for them.

Take, for example, the article that Rafe wrote the other day about doing something other than walking in order to get in your daily exercise.  It’s a fine article, and the exercise he mentions certainly seems challenging, but in reading it I felt the need to write a response and give you all the “other side” of the coin.

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Video Games Don’t Make You Fat. Food Does.

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THIS is why you're fat

America is, undeniably, getting larger around the waist line.  As a matter of fact obesity has become such a problem here that back in July of last year Senators Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, and Jeff Bingaman introduced the Federal Obesity Prevention Act of 2008.  This bill was in response to what Dodd called “a medical emergency of hurricane-like proportions” in our country, and would have established a government strategy for preventing and reducing obesity.  This strategy would have included short- and long-term goals for childhood and adult obesity rates.

Which, in Orwellian terms, meant that the United States Government may have taken a direct interest in America’s waist line if this Bill had passed (it was referred to committee back in September of 2008 and has not been brought back up in the current session).

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Experts Argue For National Sugary Drink Tax

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Image by whalesalad

I wrote here a few months ago about how Governor David Patterson of New York was pushing for a 15% obesity tax on sugary drinks (and about how I personally thought that was a pretty lame idea).  In a follow-up to that proposal Kelly Brown of Yale University and New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden have made the case for a national sales tax on sugared drinks in an article written for the New England Journal of Medicine.

If implemented as proposed in their article, the tax would increase the cost of sugared drinks by 1 cent per fluid ounce, which doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that a standard can of soda is 12 fluid ounces.  12 cents per can turns into an additional $1.44 in taxes on a 12 pack of soda!

According to the article, adolescents consume 10 to 15 percent of their calories in the beverages they drink.  The authors, in proposing the national tax, believe that the higher costs of sugary drinks due to the tax will not only cut down on those numbers but will also raise additional money that can be used to battle the costs of healthcare attributed to our expanding national waist line.

I can’t really argue with the logic here.  I personally can attest that cutting sugared soda out of my life was probably one of the largest contributors to my weight loss, and we wouldn’t be writing for this site if it weren’t for the fact that there’s a large number of people out there who want to lose weight.  I also recognize, from first hand experience, that higher taxes can be a deterrent to unhealthy activities.  Krystalle and I recently quit smoking as a result of the federal sales tax increases that pushed the cost of cigarettes here in Florida over $5 per pack.

I get the motivation behind it.  I really do.

However…

I really do have a problem with the mentality that in order for people to make healthy choices about their lives we need to tax the hell out of anything that is bad for them. Personally?  I’d rather see the Government be proactive in regards to healthy living.  Say, for example, by closing the loopholes that allow broadcasters to get away with putting all the Public Service Announcements they are required to run on the air when nobody is watching.  Or how about tax incentives to companies who manufacture healthy foods that would lower the cost of those foods and make them more accessible to lower income individuals?  Let’s actively educate and make it attractive to people to make better choices in regards to health instead of simply trying to tax them out of it.

Frankly, in the final analysis, if you don’t teach people how to live better they are just going to find ways to work those higher taxes into their budgets and all you’re going to end up doing is adding yet another source of income to the government coffers.

Unfortunately, that might be the point.