"As we look to the future and where childhood obesity will be in 20 years... it is every bit as threatening to us as is the terrorist threat we face today. It is the threat from within." - Vice Admiral Richard Carmona U.S. Surgeon General

(From the <a href='http://www.time.com/time/2004/obesity/' target='_blank'>Summit on Obesity</a>)

Sure. When I'm on an airplane, or participating in a very crowded event, I'm as worried about the guy eating the coney dog as I am about explosives detonating somewhere. :roflol:

And lest anyone still thinks Bush is a fiscal conservative...

Quote:In early December, the U.S. Senate passed the proposed Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act (IMPACT Act), which provides $60 million in federal grants to assist communities that plan and implement programs engaging and encouraging citizens to eat healthier and exercise more.

$60 million spent to encourage people not to biggie size their burgers. What part of the Constitution authorized this...?

Just to play devil's advocate...


...is the average American more likely to die of a disease related to obesity, or from a terrorist attack?

Oddball Wrote:Just to play devil's advocate...


...is the average American more likely to die of a disease related to obesity, or from a terrorist attack?

Wow...Thats all I have to say is Wow...I hope you arn't with the devil on this but it wouldn't surprise me.

Actually, it's a good question. I can see where he's coming from, although looking at it from a different angle.

The difference here is that obesity is a self-invited threat (a.k.a. one's own choice), incapable of physically damaging anyone around them.

Except for hereditary cases, obesity is an individual choice that can be partaken or avoided. No one had that choice in OKlahoma City '95.

Interviews with Jose Padilla indicated that terrorists had a shelved in-the-works plan of renting apartments in big city high-rises. One day, simultaneously, explosives would go off. If I lived in one of those buildings, I'd sleep a lot better at night if they'd just eat ice cream and grow big ol' bellies instead.

True, Frotown...however the additives in food these days make obesity more and more difficult to avoid. That concludes my stint as devil's advocate due to the fact that I've got nothing else. :D

Speaking of having nothing...

... UCBearcats1125, since you bring nothing whatsoever to the table, you become just the second person ever to end up on my ignore list. Congrats!

If you look at the general populace these days, we are a bunch of fat bastards. I fight like hell to get my kids to eat veggies. They hate them, but they eat them. Both my kids are, for the most part, eating a healthy, balanced diet. The days of the Cleavers eating dinner at home every night are long gone. My sons play soccer, swim year round, have piano lessons and are in very competitive schools. It is tough to get to the dinner table once or twice a week as a family. That leads to eating on the run. We try to eat Arbys if we get fast food. We try to avoid McDonalds at all cost. It is nothing but garbage. I dont think the majority of people these days make the effort to eat what they should. I see more and more people getting sicker more often. I attribute this to diet. 60% of all Americans are overweight. 60%! That is a horrible number. Down the road we will pay the price, and I see more and more of it every day.

Oddball Wrote:True, Frotown...however the additives in food these days make obesity more and more difficult to avoid. That concludes my stint as devil's advocate due to the fact that I've got nothing else. :D
!

No argument from me.

But, I'd like to add, that many "nutritionists" add to the dilemma by propagating the "avoid ALL FATS" myth. Just recently, I read an article (recently written as well) directed toward parents to give their kids "low fat" snacks, and it identified several. These are the very snacks that are laden with carbs, and the additives of which you wrote, that promote obesity.

Yes, those who have wrested the mantle to protect us and our children are doing as much harm as the money-grubbing corporations that are forcing store shelves to be stocked w/ their poisons.

And lest you think I'm just being sarcastic...I'm not. This is a classic example of making a problem more convoluted and difficult to solve (and ultimately more expensive) as folks on the left and right try to trump each other instead of going back to the beginning and starting w/ some basic, empircally verified, facts.

No doubt, Torch. I got serious about what I eat and what I feed my kids about the time I got serious about lifting weights.I t is amazing the changes your body goes through when you give it the right fuel...and how it changes when you fall off of the wagon. Another thing that is going on that I think will have a negative impact is that, like fat, there are good and bad carbs...and people are not differentiating. Your brain needs carbs to operate correctly, muscles need carbs to replenesh themselves and grow after they've been pushed to their limit. From my experience, if bodybuilders are saying something regarding diets now, doctors will be saying something similar in 5 years.

Oddball Wrote:From my experience, if bodybuilders are saying something regarding diets now, doctors will be saying something similar in 5 years.

You just can't argue w/ the empirical data. But, my impression is that the medical communtiy does this as much as anybody.

I am collaborating w/ a researcher from NIH. We were discussing nutrition, and some research that was being conducted and he said this,"Just about every experiment shows the food pyramid is wrong."

Yet, almost everybody learns this as "truth" in the 4th grade, and they're reluctant to change.

Then public policy follows...

DrTorch Wrote:I am collaborating w/ a researcher from NIH. We were discussing nutrition, and some research that was being conducted and he said this,"Just about every experiment shows the food pyramid is wrong."

Yet, almost everybody learns this as "truth" in the 4th grade, and they're reluctant to change.

Then public policy follows...

Well, that's what happens when special interest groups are allowed to write these type of things. Imagine what would happen if the government were to let Texas oil men write our energy policy? :D

Oddball Wrote:... UCBearcats1125, since you bring nothing whatsoever to the table, you become just the second person ever to end up on my ignore list. Congrats!

Well even though you are can't see this:
#1 I don't care if I am on you ignore list
#2 I bring something to the table, just something you don't like

The reason for spending $60 mil. Insurance companies cant afford to have people kickin over at 50. If you live to 90 they dont have to pay out as much on your life insurance. More special interst running the country.