Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 00:09:35 +0000 From: diego Subject: Strength_List: Obesity rebuttal I disagree wholeheartedly with the notion of laziness, slothfulness, gluttony, etc as the main reason for obesity. Since i am to lazy, and slothful at the moment to go into a deep discussion (i just ate a wendy's) let me just throw out some ideas. 1. It is just as hard for the skinny to put on weight as for the fat to lose it. You don't hear, you lazy, slothful, anorexic pig why dont you eat more protein and work out with more weights more often now do you? You do hear you lazy, slothful, gluttonous pig why dont you eat less and do more aerobics. How much muscle can the real skinny gain a month 1-2 pounds with immense work and effort. Sounds like those trying to lose weight. 2. There is a lot more going on than meets the eye. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to live a healthy life in modern, big city America if one has what our ancestors would of considered a supreme advantage, a very efficient metabolism. That is one needs less food or burns less calories to survive. The supremely efficient human being in 1999 urban america becomes obese. The whole system makes it so and no gym can change an entire system. For example: a) marketing, food is changed by making it better tasting. How do you make it better fat and sugar and salt. Everything has been tampered with in the U.S.. I just returned from south america, we ate breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner. All sit down meals, full courses of an hour or more served by a butler. We had a choffeur and maids. In 6 weeks i lost 10 pounds. Most people are lean in latin america. b) energy expenditure- air conditioning, heating, automobiles, plumbing, electricity, running water in the house, food in refrigerator, elevators, escalators, flat sidewalks, flat streets, etc, etc, etc.. I even saw a study once that compared the energy expenditure of a secretary using a manual type writer and an electric. The difference was 6 pounds a year!!!!!!!!!!!!We have a miraculous body that can calibrate itself to a degree and precision that no machine can duplicate, inspite of our modern lifestyle which should put all of us probably 100's of pounds overweight instead, only some of us are mostly 20-50 pounds overweight. (The others burn off through digestion 10% more as was shown in the famous prison study which showed some eating up to twice as much and not gaining weight. Activity was easily maintained constant as they were in prison!!!). We can easily see how modern conveniences could add up to 500 calories that we have to consciously burn in a day. That is 5 miles of running daily just to not gain fat!!!!!!! The man in a more agricultural society can go home and relax, the urban guy to the treadmill. c) knowledge- i disagree completely that it has to do with knowledge, more like respecting nature's wisdom. This exact moment, i can take you to places where no one is educated, where no one has even heard about a calorie, a fat gram, or an exercise routine, etc and yet they are all lean and fit and healthy until they die at an advanced age. At the same time, take the top 1,000 Ph.d's in the United States in biology, chemistry, sportscience, and medical doctors and you will see very unfit , unhealthy individuals for the most part. Your degree doesn't change the whole system. To make a specific and almost funny point, you may know everything about nutrition from a chemical point of view but if you dont know how to cook well, or if your grandma is living 400 miles away in the country and your wife is a CEO who cooks less than you, you are going to end up fast fooding it. 3. Over work not laziness- I know people who work 70 hour week days and they are becoming obese. Inactive maybe but definitely not lazy. The U.S. worker works more hours than the European, almost 10 hours a week more. This to me shows the lack of concern of US business for the health of the worker. I figure if you cant get stuff done in regular work hours then you are incompetent or you need to hire more people instead of squeezing it out of a few. 4. Power and freedom. Most of us cant tolerate opinions that limit our power and rightfully so. One can't live in an unhealthy system if one is efficient metabolically and think some gym time will take care of it. I have personally decided to totally change my lifestyle and seek a more primitive simpler life cause the supreme effort that it takes to stay lean in the US is not worth it too me. I would rather live in a place that the system is healthy and be healthy without conscious thought. The trade off as i see it in my life is material wealth for personal, community and social richness. Hope this can get the discussion going , diego Hoarding phenomena- i forgot who spoke of their grandparents passing through the depression, but i thought you might like to know that a study of dieting showed food obsession and food hoarding behavior as results of low cal diets. It is the way the body and mind fights to get enough food. It us usually why diets fail.