Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingswood
For such people it is as wrong to vilify them as it is to vilify someone on the basis of race or gender: people cannot change the genes they inherit.
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Insurance companies might soon have a
different view. Regardless, I'm fairly certain that most of the
nearly one quarter of Americans who suffer from obesity and the
full 50% of the population who are categorized as overweight didn't get to where they are due to a "genetics issue".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingswood
Other people may be overweight because their lifestyle may make it difficult for them to find the time to be more healthy. They may lack the time to eat healthy food or to take exercise. For such people, society as a whole has failed them.
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I'm not certain that society has failed anyone that consciously chooses to drink
so much soda or
eat every last bite of the huge portions that are offered on most menus. At the least I'd say that people are ill informed about what they eat, but I'd say most of the blame isn't on anyone else other than the person making their diet selections. I weighed 180 at my heaviest, but I've been at 160 for years thanks to the basic understanding that sitting in an office chair for ten hours a day means I probably shouldn't be eating that huge "recommended breakfast" that ends every cereal commercial and it isn't really a good idea to follow my co-workers when they have lunch at Olive Garden twice a week. Anyone that lives a sedentary life thanks to their job should have the brain to know their diet should be low calorie until they can get out and do something.
I do note that the poor are more likely to be overweight/obese and that while most will joke that obesity is a disease of the wealthy it really is the cheap food that contains so many calories and causes so much weight gain. Eating healthy, these days, is actually very costly. I think that the majority of the people can afford it, however.