Who feeds morbidly obese people?

Factual Questions
61

[QUOTE=ralph124c]
Is morbid obesity a new phenomena? I can’t imagine ANYONE reaching such a weight in the 19th century-food was much more expensive then, and no hospitals exited which would treat these people. I’d be willing to bet that morbid obesity is a 20th-century phenomenon-having to do with cheap, high-caloric food, and the welfare system. How elese couth these people survive? Do 19th century authors ever talk about MO? :confused:
[/QUOTE]

Well, William Howard Taft was so obese he got stuck in the White House bathtub. So, I suspect it did happen. Rarely, for the reasons that you suggest, but it did happen.

62

[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory]
Starve them? Absolutely not. Feed them what ever they want? Hell no.
[/QUOTE]

This comes closest to the reason behind my original post. Is there some law that says you have to feed someone who is bedridden, on demand, even if it kills them? In the story that prompted this post, I read about several family members mentioning the fact that the woman died before she could get gastric bypass surgery. My thought to that was, how was she feeding herself? Her family was very worried about her, so they couldn’t be doing it, right? She obviously couldn’t really get the food herself, and if she was forced to do that, she’d have to lose weight to move. It’s practical question.

63

[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
Well, William Howard Taft was so obese he got stuck in the White House bathtub. So, I suspect it did happen. Rarely, for the reasons that you suggest, but it did happen.
[/QUOTE]

I thought that was an urban legend.

64

Oh, and I forgot to say, if a caregiver is bringing them food, how does the dynamic work so that they get unhealthy food or too much of it instead of lots of salads? I just can’t picture this. Most of the time, the people in question don’t appear to be super rich, so if their caregiver refuses, they can’t buy someone else’s cooperation.

65

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
I thought that was an urban legend.
[/QUOTE]

Well, at any rate he was pretty tubby and it was the subject of a whole lot of jokes. He loved golf because it was a game he could play in his shape, and Teddy Roosevelt felt it an inappropriate game and wrote a letter so mean about it that Taft was said to cry.

66

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Well, at any rate he was pretty tubby and it was the subject of a whole lot of jokes. He loved golf because it was a game he could play in his shape, and Teddy Roosevelt felt it an inappropriate game and wrote a letter so mean about it that Taft was said to cry.
[/QUOTE]

Since Taft became President, it is obvious that he had a very successful career even if he did have a weight problem.

It is ludicrous to compare him with some 800 pound guy who can’t get out of bed, shits himself, and eats 5 large pizzas for dinner..

67

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Well, at any rate he was pretty tubby and it was the subject of a whole lot of jokes. He loved golf because it was a game he could play in his shape, and Teddy Roosevelt felt it an inappropriate game and wrote a letter so mean about it that Taft was said to cry.
[/QUOTE]

Dude! What an ass–if it was true.

I always liked Taft–he just seemed so teddy bear-ish. (Unlike TR over here, Mr. Sensitive.) I don’t know how I feel about him as a lover per se (or anything about his presidential policies) but he seemed a right sweetheart.

68

Uh, I think TR was the more ‘teddy-bearish’ one of the two.

69

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Uh, I think TR was the more ‘teddy-bearish’ one of the two.
[/QUOTE]

He may have helped coin the term, but in the spirit and true essence of the term, I think it’s clear who the real teddy bear is here.

70

I thought that the term had been coined by the press, not TR, himself. And the story isn’t nearly as cutesy as it seems first brush.

AIUI, TR was hunting, and shot a bear sow. The cubs, however were too cute for him to put down. But I don’t recall whether he did anything to get them cared for in zoos, even the zoos of the day. If that’s the case, I suspect that the reality of what he did was condemn a bear cub to death by starvation, or predation. (Which often aren’t too far distant.)

As for the story about Taft and bathtub, if that’s an urban legend, I apologize for going with half-remembered trivia. While the man wasn’t SMO, it’s pretty clear based on contemporary reports he was MO. While this thread is making a useful distinction between the two conditions, I do think it’s fair to say that there are certain overlaps in behavior between the two.

71

[QUOTE=ralph124c]
Is morbid obesity a new phenomena? I can’t imagine ANYONE reaching such a weight in the 19th century-food was much more expensive then, and no hospitals exited which would treat these people. I’d be willing to bet that morbid obesity is a 20th-century phenomenon-having to do with cheap, high-caloric food, and the welfare system. How elese couth these people survive? Do 19th century authors ever talk about MO? :confused:
[/QUOTE]

I can only speak to my experience growing up in the 80s.

There was one fat girl in our school. Looking back from today’s standards, she wasn’t that fat…a bit on the chubby side.

There was no internet, no video games, we didn’t have cable. We had PE every day in middle school and recess in elementary school.

I don’t know if it has to do with welfare or cheap food. I think it has more to do with our sedentary lifestyle and higher taxes. My mother didn’t have to work, my father supported us, so she stayed home and kept house, meaning we had homecooked meals most nights and McDonald’s was a very rare treat.

Nowadays, with video games, the internet, and the majority of both parents working, eating healthy has gone by the wayside. I also think there’s a lack of discipline…I’ve seen afternoon talk shows where mothers bewail the fact “Johnny refuses to eat anything but fried chicken and M&Ms!” I had some friends over once, one of the little girls turned up her nose at what I had cooked, and her mom asked if she could make her a PB&J sandwich instead. I shrugged and said sure, but when I was growing up, if you didn’t eat what was in front of you, you went hungry.

I think another Doper also mentioned the fact that wherever her kids went to organized sports, whether it was a Little League softball game or soccer, parents had to bring snacks. Think about it…kids aren’t expected to go more than two or three hours without having something to eat, generally sugary fruit drinks or high fat/salt chips.

I’m glad to see there’s a shift now toward getting kids moving again, but schools can only do part of it…the parents have to get involved too.

72

[QUOTE=jtgain]
Since Taft became President, it is obvious that he had a very successful career even if he did have a weight problem.
[/QUOTE]

From what I’ve read, Taft himself considered his presidency a waste. He was much prouder of his later service as Chief Justice, maybe because he could really pig out and the robe covered all.

And since the robe was black, you couldn’t even see the barbecue sauce stains.

73

I saw some of the show the other day-I remember the woman who had two sons-one was 300 lbs, the other was pushing 390 lb. The heavier one related how he wasn’t feeling too well-he was having chest pains-but didn’t seem to connect this with his takeout pizza, chinese food, KFC, etc. It seems to me that obesity runs in families-at least in this one. Somebody at 300 lb. is already morbidly obese-I can’t imagine ignoring your weight, if your mother is in the hospital for the same condition.

74

What scares me are the obese toddlers featured on trashy talk shows-maybe the shows are stupid, but these kids are real. And some of them are four and still in diapers.

Scares the shit out of me to think of these kids’ futures.

75

[QUOTE=jtgain]
Since Taft became President, it is obvious that he had a very successful career even if he did have a weight problem.

It is ludicrous to compare him with some 800 pound guy who can’t get out of bed, shits himself, and eats 5 large pizzas for dinner..
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think anyone was necessarily comparing him to the 800 pounders, but the question was:

And while Taft was not stuck in bed due to his size, he certainly would have been classified as Morbidly Obese. A 6’ male who is 300lbs is, technically, Morbidly Obese. Now, Super Morbidly Obese is the next level up, and while I don’t know the stats on Taft, he probably didn’t reach it. But the point is that while Morbid Obesity was rare, it was not an unknown phenomenon.

76

I think it is necessary for super morbidly obese people to have a pretty well-established support system in place. Often they have a decent-sized family and/or close friends and seem to take advantage of close bonds between other people.

It is interesting that the obesity doesn’t affect their marraigability, but I had heard a statistic somewhere that said that obese men were more likely to get married than men of average weight; YMMV. Dunno if that holds true for women, though I highly doubt it. People marry people of size for various reasons, and probably the most popular fault they carry (especially in these super-obese people’s spouses) is that they have their own faults and flaws, and figure if they can get past their spouse’s size, their spouse isn’t going to be on them for their own problems.

So yes the spouses are enablers, but I really think its a two-way street in which many of the spouses go along with it because they’d rather have a bedridden spouse they have to feed than a mobile one casting judgement on typical spousal issues (money, fidelity, etc)

77

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
From what I’ve read, Taft himself considered his presidency a waste. He was much prouder of his later service as Chief Justice, maybe because he could really pig out and the robe covered all.

And since the robe was black, you couldn’t even see the barbecue sauce stains.
[/QUOTE]

There’s a lot about Taft in The Greatest Game Ever Played, which is about the 1913 US Open and is an incredible book even if you don’t know anything about golf. The whole thing just makes you want to give Taft a great big hug, the sweetie. Evidently he was quite open about how much he didn’t particularly like being President and didn’t feel he was really any good at it. I believe I’ve read his wife expected him to do it. What he really loved was the judiciary, and when he was on the court he actually lost quite a bit of weight - surely because he was so much happier.

78

[QUOTE=ralph124c]
Is morbid obesity a new phenomena? I can’t imagine ANYONE reaching such a weight in the 19th century-food was much more expensive then, and no hospitals exited which would treat these people. I’d be willing to bet that morbid obesity is a 20th-century phenomenon-having to do with cheap, high-caloric food, and the welfare system. How elese couth these people survive? Do 19th century authors ever talk about MO? :confused:
[/QUOTE]
There have been wealthy people with servants for millennia; logically, they could simply order their servants to feed them as much as they liked, and afford the food. So I expect there have been some for a very long time. Simply not very many who could afford it.

Food is cheaper these days; it’s an issue a fair number of people seem to care about, and unlike a rich guy, some house bound SMO poor person isn’t going to be written off as an eccentric, nor will his fat be regarded as a status symbol. So it’s probably more common now, and get noticed and disapproved of more as well.