New report: obesity cost USA 300 billion a year.

[step_back]

Maybe these ideas are good.

However I've heard a case made against differentiating between health status in insurance. Say somebody is taking up a dangerous sport/activity, OR eating fat and is definitely going to catch a cardio disease or whatever. Why should regular folks pay for that slob's habits?

The slope is that it eventually might turn out that only rich can actually do things they choose, because if you put price on everything there is, to have an affordable insurance would take living the simpliest life possible. So, not many liberties around. See where it's going?

To some degree people all ready are, at least in the U.K we are. My tax money is going to help support the NHS which is currently feeling the burden of Obesity and Alcohol related problems we have in our society. As it stands it's on the increase.

I get what your saying about certain past times becoming only affordable for the rich and in all honesty I don't really know how you would combat that problem. But something needs to give people the incentive to work out and stay healthy because the risks and diseases certainly aren't enough to prevent it. People know obesity is directly linked to heart failure and diabetes and it still does nothing to change their habits. I'd much rather be paying in tax money to get these people a subsidized gym membership that helps prevent the cause than pay money to prescribe medication to help with curing them.

[kNIOKAS]

To some degree people all ready are, at least in the U.K we are. My tax money is going to help support the NHS which is currently feeling the burden of Obesity and Alcohol related problems we have in our society. As it stands it's on the increase.

I get what your saying about certain past times becoming only affordable for the rich and in all honesty I don't really know how you would combat that problem. But something needs to give people the incentive to work out and stay healthy because the risks and diseases certainly aren't enough to prevent it. People know obesity is directly linked to heart failure and diabetes and it still does nothing to change their habits. I'd much rather be paying in tax money to get these people a subsidized gym membership that helps prevent the cause than pay money to prescribe medication to help with curing them.

Yeah that's true. There's even more complexity to it.

You could do whatever, but as long every time you take a drive or turn on the tv there are signs and adds telling you to fast food it won't change much, not when all you have to do is pull off the road for 5-10 minutes and you'll have your meal.
They tried not letting stores sell the insanely big cups of soda in New York, people where outraged lol.

That seemed like a knee-jerk reaction along the lines "ban guns", didn't it. Also, very intrusive.

It is a good question should government limit the portions and everything. It changes with status of the addictive substance, but still. Also there is this old paradoxical thing where you both illness and prevention for it is best to keep economy going, and if we got rid of ilness there would be no jobs for doctors, and prevention programs also employ people, etc.

Seems that we can keep going on on breadth for some time more.

[ZenMaster]

Yeah that's true. There's even more complexity to it.

That seemed like a knee-jerk reaction along the lines "ban guns", didn't it. Also, very intrusive.

It is a good question should government limit the portions and everything. It changes with status of the addictive substance, but still. Also there is this old paradoxical thing where you both illness and prevention for it is best to keep economy going, and if we got rid of ilness there would be no jobs for doctors, and prevention programs also employ people, etc.

Seems that we can keep going on on breadth for some time more.

Depends on how you look at it, I wouldn't call it knee jerk since people have been getting fatter for years.

And "very intrusive".. I don't know, we're talking about a cup of soda.

You can't get rid of illness so there will always be something for doctors to do, but a complete nation doesn't have to be fat on average.

But again, it won't matter what you do when you have so many fast food restaurants with so much marketing. Not when the prices are so affordable.

A few weeks ago in the episode of mad men they where giving their pitch to "burger chef", the main point to the burger chef executives when it comes to marketing is that the dinner table is their battlefield and that it's the entire family you need to get.
Next day you'll be wathcing NBA and one of those KFC commercials comes on with the mom apparently supposedly filming herself and they make one liners about how it brings the family together, makes the kid shut up for a while(longer than ever they say), the kicker is that there is enough for everybody in this very large and cheap bowl of chicken.
In general you're also seeing the message of commercials are becomming very direct and filled with one liners about what you should do. For example that commercial on the vitamin water or whatever, every line is said with an incredibly annoying voice you wont forget and every line ends with "try it".

And as you say there is a lot of money in the rehabilitation, people who will help you eat right, gym chains opening up all over and yet most people are still obese.
You can't beat marketing, cheap prices and food that's easy to attain. It's proven over many years now.

[kNIOKAS]

Depends on how you look at it, I wouldn't call it knee jerk since people have been getting fatter for years.

And "very intrusive".. I don't know, we're talking about a cup of soda.

Fine, I was referring to the notion of banning in comparison to understanding first and then fixing. Also, yes sounds silly if that's what's intrusive, but I thought the reaction was as it defintely was - one can't get a big size cup, while the big bottles are available on stores, so policy is not definite, just to make the consumer bit uncomfortable.

Next day you'll be wathcing NBA and one of those KFC commercials comes on with the mom apparently supposedly filming herself and they make one liners about how it brings the family together, makes the kid shut up for a while(longer than ever they say), the kicker is that there is enough for everybody in this very large and cheap bowl of chicken.

just so bloody wrong Parenting.

In general you're also seeing the message of commercials are becomming very direct and filled with one liners about what you should do. For example that commercial on the vitamin water or whatever, every line is said with an incredibly annoying voice you wont forget and every line ends with "try it".

I agree, and that is along my general issue with marketing - essentially a waste of resources, also since it's boiled down to science of altering the perception - interferes with the political system so much. People do not vote for the most competent politician, but vote for the most perceived competent politician, or for one who has better PR department. Similarly, in general, it's not about a thing being good, but perceived as good. This marketing in consciousness I think is a detrimental thing for humanity.

To speak in general, free market cannot tell what do really people or humanity needs, because half of population in 2100 would be hooked on tubes and virtual reality machines, getting happyness hormones pumped to their brain, like in Matrix.

Yet I think we should be wary of government regulations, because in a way it even dimishes the self-regulation skills of people, right.

Don't have an answer, obviously...

[Andrei89]

`Murica!!!

[ZenMaster]

Fine, I was referring to the notion of banning in comparison to understanding first and then fixing. Also, yes sounds silly if that's what's intrusive, but I thought the reaction was as it defintely was - one can't get a big size cup, while the big bottles are available on stores, so policy is not definite, just to make the consumer bit uncomfortable.

just so bloody wrong Parenting.

I agree, and that is along my general issue with marketing - essentially a waste of resources, also since it's boiled down to science of altering the perception - interferes with the political system so much. People do not vote for the most competent politician, but vote for the most perceived competent politician, or for one who has better PR department. Similarly, in general, it's not about a thing being good, but perceived as good. This marketing in consciousness I think is a detrimental thing for humanity.

To speak in general, free market cannot tell what do really people or humanity needs, because half of population in 2100 would be hooked on tubes and virtual reality machines, getting happyness hormones pumped to their brain, like in Matrix.

Yet I think we should be wary of government regulations, because in a way it even dimishes the self-regulation skills of people, right.

Don't have an answer, obviously...

I think you're right that marketing and screens everywhere are going to have massive effects on humanity going forward. I don't have an answer either and it gets me in a bad mood thinking about it because I can't see the world being an overall better place in 10-200 years from now. The rich will get richer and the number of poor people relative to the average will increase until there's a major event.
Think about how much richer a very small percentage have gotten in just the last 10 years, what elements in society is going to change that in any relevant future?

[Dresta]

Sorry, but if you're fat, then you're not really poor are you (unless you got fat prior to becoming poor)? Being poor is struggling to put food on the table, not having enough surplus cash to sit around stuffing your face on junk food. It's all about priorities, and if you can afford to prioritise over-eating then your being poor is not really the problem. 'Fat food' is not cheaper, that is a myth: it is just easier and more convenient, and thus lazy people are more likely to consume it, less likely to move, and more likely to be fat. Actual poor people (distinguished from those fitted under the ludicrous measure of 'relative' poverty) as found in downtown LA or Miami at night look pretty malnourished to me, and look like people who could actually use some help, and not these pseudo self-created Western problems that can be attributed fundamentally to self-indulgence.

kNIOKAS and his ilk think they are special and that a 'regular person' (whatever this means) doesn't have the mental cognition to determine that junk food is unhealthy and makes you fat. I'm perfectly happy for people to eat whatever they want, but don't expect me to feel sorry for them for making bad choices, nor to think them mental invalids who need to be looked after, told what to do, and treated like children. Treat people like children and they will act like children and never learn how to be personally responsible, and what good is a nation of children who can't look after themselves?

All this 'food is addictive' nonsense is besides the point anyway: EVERY single thing that gives pleasure carries the potential for addiction. Sugar in itself is really addictive. You think rich people food isn't addictive? If i had the money i might actually get fat on that shit, because that stuff is no less addictive and it tastes a whole lot better. The biggest problem really isn't even the food: it's the cars, the drive-thru's, the ability to live in America and literally never get off your arse.

Lol, wtf does me preventing others from drinking have to do with anything?

Stay on topic, why are you so fckin fat? Using food to comfort your depression is an excuse to you? Maybe you wouldn't be depressed if you could see your own p*nis. Wait nvm, that would be depressing as well, you're in a no-win situation.

It shows that you're a puritanical asshole who belongs in the Victorian era, and that your opinion on matters such as this are utterly invalid and worthless. You're an irresponsible criminal and yet you think you have the right to tell people how to live and what to do; that's truly pathetic.

[ZenMaster]

You are free to put all the blame on the individual, but getting a large number of people to buy a product is science between marketing, price and convenience of attaining the product.

I agree that it's self-indulgence and self-made problems in the western world, but that's what happens major corporations who are only out to make money set the order by controlling the politicians. It also doesn't change that the problems do infact exists.

'Fat food' is not cheaper, that is a myth: it is just easier and more convenient

Again, in the western world time literally is money. People mostly get paid by the hour.

kNIOKAS and his ilk think they are special and that a 'regular person' (whatever this means) doesn't have the mental cognition to determine that junk food is unhealthy and makes you fat. I'm perfectly happy for people to eat whatever they want, but don't expect me to feel sorry for them for making bad choices, nor to think them mental invalids who need to be looked after, told what to do, and treated like children. Treat people like children and they will act like children and never learn how to be personally responsible, and what good is a nation of children who can't look after themselves?

I agree that in a perfect world people would be making better choices for themelves but fact is they are not and have not been doing so for a long time.

People know that junk food is unhealthy, but it being delicious has been printed into the brains of people from whenever they could pick up the messages in commercials while watching TV, and that's even before they start in school. The young kids will ask for their parents to take them to whatever junk food restaurant they've seen in the commercials, have a positive experience there and the positive connections for said junk food restaurant will remain somewhere in your brain for most of your life.

All this 'food is addictive' nonsense is besides the point anyway: EVERY single thing that gives pleasure carries the potential for addiction.

No it's not because every single thing that gives pleasure you don't have to do in order to stay alive.

[MavsSuperFan]

Louisiana #1


Really though this is a bit misleading as Colorado (our thinnest state) is still obese. You can say "state-X is fatter than state-Y" but the reality of it is that the US as a whole is "fat".

america is so fat

[ZenMaster]

http://www.collective-evolution.com/...h-fries-again/

Very relevant video for this discussion.

[ILLsmak]

Very few people are healthy looking.

Fat people, skinny people... in America, probably less than 5% of them (a vast overestimation) seem as though their body is where it should be.

Blame America for its people being fat. Giving them larger portions of worse food. The cheapest food is also the most fattening. That's why poor people are fat. It costs big bucks to eat healthy now.

It's sad. And I'm talking about 'adults' here. Not people who are 17 or 18 because a lot of them fall off a cliff in terms of health. Talking like... 25+. How many do you think are neither overweight nor malnourished (or both, I guess)?

Everyone who eats healthy and exercises should be thankful that they have the money to eat health and the energy to exercise. Plenty of people put in such hours at work or have such a stressful life that they just come home and go to bed, maybe grab a burger on the way home for their moment of enjoyment.

It's a v fukt system.

-Smak

[BasedTom]

Very few people are healthy looking.

Fat people, skinny people... in America, probably less than 5% of them (a vast overestimation) seem as though their body is where it should be.

Where the hell do you live where this is the case? 5%? Jesus Christ. I'd normally refuse to believe it, but who knows, maybe you could provide evidence or personal insight.