There's nothing wrong with being fat - except....

The BBQ Pit
21

I would love to see fast food taxed. Granted, I rarely eat fast food, but I’d love to see taxes on that unhealthy substance just as there’s taxes on booze and tobacco.

And I’m currently changing my diet to low-fat (I just don’t trust the Atkins diet, even if it works really fast in the first year), high-fiber, and I’m going to take martial arts lessons to get into shape. Just my life there, though. :slight_smile:

Perhaps after that I will no longer be so appallingly sickeningly globulously disgusting to look at, putting those poor innocent athletes off their lunch. :smiley:

But the next smoker who tells me that I’m endangering my life by eating a hamburger once in a while will get his nose hairs lit on fire. Just so y’all know.

22

I may be completely wrong here, but aren’t all the big tobacco companies paying money out to the states to (supposedly) go to health care costs? Wasn’t that the driving force behind the original lawsuits? If I’m right, please continue. If not, stop reading this post.

This is going back up the page a bit, but I am very interested in the conection between big tobacco (bt) and fast food/candy companies. No one forces people to smoke, and none forces people to eat unhealthy foods. Could the next couple years see people suing Mars Candy because the Snickers ads say it “really satisfies”, but doesn’t mention that it’s bad for you? BT has had to put warning lables on its products, not advertise on tv (I think that was their choice), and actually spends a good deal of money to “make sure” that kids don’t smoke and also to help people who try to quit. Will we be seeing McD’s gym, Wendy’s bike shop, and Mars fun runs in the future? Will a Big Mac come with a warning label “Do not eat if you are involved in a weight loss program” or “This food item is bad for you?” I think the precedent has been set by our handling of BT as a country, and has helped to reinforce the idea that we are not responsible for our actions.
Will my health friendly ideas listed here be a bad thing? Not at all. I do think, however, that if BT has to use some of the money they get from me to eventually help pay for my cancer, why shouldn’t McD’s help pay for my father’s bypass? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

After reading this over, I realize that I’m coming aff as very pro-BT - I’m not. I guess I’m just trying to play a bit of the Devil’s Advocate, and see the issue from a different angle than I usually do. Thanks

23

Just about any action and anyone may result in burden to society.

Everyone and everything they do is a potential liability if you look at it hard enough.

Nothing should be allowed and everyone should taxed at twice the rate to compensate for their recklessness.

Do nothing, be no-one.

24

If anything, it will stop these ridiculous lawsuits against McDonalds and Nabisco. But it’s really sad that it has come to this. It sounds like a warning that would come with a hairdryer: “Do not use in bathtub”. Because there ARE people just that stupid. Plus, those warnings are to prevent lawsuits. “But no one told me I shouldn’t get my toast out of the toaster with a fork!”
:smack:

25

I try to cook in as often as possible. The only problem is that healthy food costs SO much more than fast food or even the fattening food they carry at the grocery store. If I buy a cart full of produce, it’s generally around $100 (keep in mind I’m usually buying for 2 people for a week and attempting to buy enough produce so we each get in all our fruits & vegetables each day). Anyway, I buy the expensive produce. I also try to stay away from too much meat, so I usually buy fish and whole grains, veggie burgers and tofu and use lots of spices to make them taste good. Buying enough fruits and vegetables for two people for a week is very expensive. Then there’s the fish, which is also not cheap, then the tofu. Whole grains are more expensive that refined grains, and buying the spices to make the healthy foods taste good - well, the prices can sometimes be astronomical if you’re trying to avoid using a lot of salt. All of these are so much more expensive than if I just bought an economy-sized bag of deep-fried chicken wings or a Stouffer’s lasagne.

It’s ridiculous! And the economy-sized stuff is rarely available in a lower-fat version. For example, Stouffers makes a Lean Cuisine Lasagne and a Regular lasagne in lunch-sized portions. Stouffers also makes family-sized economy packages of food, but I have NEVER seen the Lean Cuisine version in an economy-sized package. I guess there’s not much of a market for it, but heck, if it were available, I’d sure as hell buy it. And it’d be nice to have something low fat and lower-calorie to just shove in the oven every once in a while. Instead, I have to buy a ton of veggies, whole wheat pasta and other stuff, which costs me about $20, whereas an economy-sized lasagne would cost me $7.99.

And yes, I know I could buy two lunch-sized portions of the healthier lasagne, but they cost $3.99 each, and I like to buy economy when possible so I have left overs for lunch and don’t have to spend all the extra money buying it at a restaurant.

I guess what I’m bitching about in the end is that people aren’t very educated about nutrition, and even those that are don’t necessarily have the money to pay for good nutrition. It seems that the cost of healthy food is often so prohibitive that it’s much easier to turn to fast food if you’re looking to save money. Also, not everyone knows what an adequate portion looks like, so most people just eat too much. If you’re not going to tax fast food, at least make healthy food more attractive and less expensive.

But I suppose that would cost a ton of money in advertising, and other considerations…

Sigh I hope I get a raise next month.

26

Being fat isn’t always a choice. Thyroid problems, polycystic ovarian syndrome and a whole mess of other things can make you fat against your will.

27

I think we’d all be saner if we took 3 hour naps in the middle of the afternoon like they do in Spain. I mean, getting up at 6:30am, commuting to work, working 9-10 hours, commuting home, then repeating the process 4 more times, only to get a couple days off and have to spend them running errands or fixing crap around the house…no wonder people go nuts.

How about the 4-hour workday for high stress upper income jobs? I mean, if I had a job where I could make $80,000 a year working traditional workdays, why not just hire two people to make $40,000 a year and each can work a half-day? I’d settle for half salary to work half days if I could live comfortably at the half-salary level.

We always have something we’re obligated to do, or someplace we’re obligated to be. I say we change that. We need free time, to just sit and think without any distractions, or to indulge in pure laziness and do nothing at all. We need it every day, and we need lots of it. American culture is way to gogogogogo hussle-hussle hurry-hurry for my taste.

28

:slight_smile: (but you did so, so nicely!!)

In my defense, I’m HORRIBLE at math. I didn’t mean in numbers, I meant in percent of population (per capita, isn’t that the correct statistical term?). As in more people in our society succumb to those evils than do members of most other societies. Sorry this is not something I looked up, just “factoids” I remember from psy classes.

29

I’m in college and, luckily, I have a good choice of veggies and healthy meat in the dining hall during the year.

But when I’m working for the summer, and buying my own food, it’s ridiculous how much it costs. Fruits and veggies, as mentioned above, are the worst. With a min wage job, eating well is a big effort financially.

I don’t know what a solution to this would be, without screwing farmers out of their profits- and farmers don’t make a lot anyway. Perhaps the government should subsidize fruit and veggies more instead of just taxing fast food- you know, more positive reinforcement than negative reinforcement.

30

Bwahahahahaaha!! You’re kidding, right?

31

The problem with taxing fast food as a response to rising costs associated with obesity is that, unlike smoking, the correlation between consumption of the product and the associated health problems isn’t as direct. There are ways to consume fast food, even in large quantities, that don’t lead to obesity. The Atkins diet is a good example – you can eat twenty big Macs a week if you want, as long as you throw away the bun.

Personally, I hate the idea of using public assistance as a means of forcing people who take advantage of it to live a certain lifestyle. I’d rather pay more in taxes and live in a society that strongly values individual freedom than save a few bucks.

32

A man after my own heart!! I’ve LONG thought that Spain had the right idea regarding mid-day siestas. I am a big believer in naps. Even when I was young and highly energetic. I take about 3 or 4 a month probably, (more when I’m changing my weight routine and really hitting it hard).

I think that the “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality is a big factor in many of the social ills, obesity included, that exist in our country.

Instead of taxing fast food, or forcing the franchises to take a “Cape does Not enable user to fly” approach with regards to food warnings, why don’t we start changing our attitudes toward what constitutes “success”?

Is it the big house, the two cars, all the bells and whistles? Do other countries have this kind of “super worker, success = money/things, must be constantly on the go” mentality?

Of those that do, what’s their obesity/drug and alcohol use" profile?

33

I’m big on naps too, I’ll never lose my love of them.

As a libertarian, I’m always in favor of avoiding the regulatory solution in favor of voluntary actions by individuals. So I’m all for taking a new attitude, but there’s really no way to force others to do so. Of course, we can take it easy and lead that life, leading by example and hoping others will follow.

Japan does, from what my high school Japanese teacher told us, and she lived there so I assume she knows what she’s talking about. Of course, rather than go home and deal with the hassles and annoyances presented by family life, they go out to bars with their coworkers until midnight and deal with the office politics that come with schmoozing one’s way up the corporate ladder. Which is worse I leave to personal tastes.

That would be interesting to know. Anyone got statistics on Japan’s substance abuse? I don’t think obesity is a problem for them though, by virtue of their different diet.

I adopt this position about the siestas and changed work attitudes with reservations though. Our go-go attitude has created the high levels of productivity that we enjoy here in the USA, and consequently grown the size of the economy, created jobs, increased tax revenues, and made us generally more wealthy than we might otherwise be, top to bottom. If we lost the extremely competitive workaholic attitude, would we lose the luxuries we enjoy as a society? Who but a workaholic would have the patience and determination to develop new medicines? Who but a workaholic would have the drive to create a business, when doing so means a string of 14-hour days and constant struggling with only a small chance of success? We may be benefitting greatly from the work attitudes of others, while at the same time suffering greatly when we adopt those attitudes for ourselves.

That said though, napping in the afternoon and having a big party in the town square every night still sounds like a great life to me, but I don’t demand that much out of life. Well, usually I don’t. And to heck with medical care, I don’t have health insurance anyways, so it doesn’t mean anything to me.

34

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We know. But when half a population can be defined as “obese”, it’s a safe bet that thyroids aren’t at the heart of the problem.

35

I hope I didn’t sound like a complete bitch in my post, that was not my intention. My most beloved friend in the world is over weight and I know part is from heredity and part from a poor diet. I love her to death and I think I have inspired her to lose some so, one, she can be healthier and two so she will feel better about herself.

Anyhow, they do tax fast food locally with a simple sales tax like they would tax a CD or a tire. I disagree with even that much, right now that’s at 6.1% for city taxes.

About the tobacco settlement…Colorado recently diverted most of the settlement money to go towards programs that have nothing to do with healthcare or tobacco. In addition, since the settlement, tobacco prices have increased dramatically. If the states and the feds want us to take these things seriously, the least they could do is use the flippin money for it’s intended purposes. If they do successfully pass a junk-food tax, at least use it in the appropriate manner, don’t go paving some interstate in ButtFuck, Louisiana. I am completely against taxes or legislation as principle, especially when it comes to situations like this.

Hey, we all have our own degree of responsibility, it’s time we as a nation united as the U.S.A. take back the society to be responsible for what we do, how we act, etc… It’s okay to be fat, just be healthy about it and don’t expect some Nanny Government “protect” you when you realize your health is failing. These things are reversible and do take time. Hell it took me from about 2001 or so to lose 14 pounds. I didn’t push it, I wasn’t looking for an overnight solution, I had to do it in steps.

Again, this doesn’t mean we all need to be a size 4 but it means getting to an appropriate weight for you as prescribed by your doctor.

36

I’m not bothered about most people but I do get fed up when I’m sitting on the bus or train and become a victim of “fat person overspill”. Just because you might be happy to be fat, I’m not happy if you want to take up half of my seat as well as your own - little people have rights too you know so don’t whinge at me if I shift myself closer to the window - it’s only because YOU’RE SITTING ON ME!!!

37

Exactly!!!

There are a lot of thing we ALL pay tax on, but don’t use or need.
I’m in a high tax bracket (in Oz the more you get paid the higher your tax in the dollar is … is that the same everywhere?)

I work bloody hard and about 30% of my pay goes to schools, mental health, public transport, farmers, etc.

Sure severly overweight people need to be concerned, but not because of their supposed drain on the country, but because of the health problems that can arise when carrying too much weight.

I feel bad when I see very overweight people, because I worry for them mentally (self esteem, confidence etc) and physically.

I recently went to a work team building excercise which involved go-kart racing. It was a blast, and everyone had an amazing time… except the overweight person who couldn’t participate. I really felt for them.

Two days ago I was on a plane, and an obese person sat next to me and he apologised because he knew how uncomfortable it was for both of us. The poor bastard had to apologise!!! That sucks.

I feel for obese people who are not happy with their weight rather than get angry at them.

38

Most fast food is taxed here in Pennsylvania because it’s considered “Prepared food.”

Does that count?

39

I was going to point out that people who live in poverty have limited food choices, but overlyverbose already did that for me.

40

I call BULLSHIT! Bullshit bullshit bullshit!

There is a fruit market less than 3 miles from my house. I can buy two weeks worth of well-balanced, nutritious food (to feed myself) there for under $20. My equivalent diet at McD’s, etc would be $8(?) per day, equaling 8x14 = $112 (14 days being the time between each unemployment check.)

$20 - $112 = -$92. That’s $92 that the FAT could spend on healthy affordable fruits and vegetables.

Cite? I HAVE DONE SO.

This was when I was UNEMPLOYED for over ONE YEAR.

For 95%+ of the FAT population of America the problem is Self Control. If you have some sort of thyroid or other medical problem I’m not Pitting you. I’m talking to the FAT-asses that think that typing on the computer will make them thin again. It won’t.

EXERCISING will. EATING LESS will. Get off your double-wide asses and walk around the neighborhood for five hours per day, rather than typing some sort of response to my post. Do this consistently for three months and not only will you feel better about yourselves, you will be far less pissed at me than you are right now.

The FAT among you may Pit me in 90 days. Otherwise your pendulous quaking-fingered ham slammings mean nothing to me.