Tuesday 9 December 2008

Gluttony is ugly

I wouldn't have been interested in obesity had I not ran into a report on CNN-AC 360° tonight announcing that Oprah Winfrey, US talk show host, is obese and that she was embarassed because she weighed 200 pounds. (Whew! That's a lot of weight to carry around for someone who doesn't seem to be tall.)

The commentator followed up the report with a shocking revelation: 7 out of 10 Americans are obese. My goodness me. That's a lot of fat. No wonder, they say Americans are too fat for x-rays!

The CNN report that I heard seems to jibe with what I've just read in a Medical News report:
[...] An estimated two-thirds of the entire U.S. adult population is overweight or obese, and an estimated 23 million children fall into one of the two categories. [...]
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According to a Down to Earth report, "the average [American] child sees more than 10,000 food ads on TV each year, most for high-calorie, high-fat, and high-sugar meals. Not only does the fast food industry spend billions per year on marketing, but they have also infiltrated our schools, signing contracts with them. Our children are bombarded from every angle with these toxic foods making it virtually impossible for them to eat anything else. It is no wonder that we have an increasingly obese population of children (who in time will become an obese population of adults)."

(I don't really know if this McDonald advert is for real but by gum, if it is, McDonald's is virtually committing a crime for inciting children to eat themselves to death!)
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And with a poor national health care system, I wonder how these obese people will cared for when their health degenerates on account of excessive, unecessary, ugly body fat.
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Thus making Americans officially the fattest humans on the planet, writes Healthy 360° .Must say this is the ugliest picture I've ever seen. It seems so gross and just downright vulgar to parade such ugliness that's primaritly been caused by gluttony. Think of how much prettier these fat women could have been had they put in some of the money they spent on food in a fund that would buy food for these starving children in Africa.

But let's face it. The trend towards putting on more weight that one can do without seems to be everywhere, even in France, home to the chic and slim. (Although I must say, I still have to see 7 out of 10 French that's obese.) Fortunately, the government has stepped up its campaign against obesity.

In fact, France is the leader in Europe in the introduction of public health measures aimed at reducing childhood obesity and have banned vending machines in schools since 2005. Read IHT report here.
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A piece of advice to Ms Winfrey and to all those folks in America who say they can't lose weight: The secret to losing weight is to just stop eating or at least eat much, much less. Everytime, you want to eat an extra slice of bread, think of the starving children in Africa.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa! How can you claim to be against French-bashing and dispelling myths about France and then turn around and do the same to Americans? Jane was right about you.

Allow me to inform you that Australia is the fattest nation on earth. Not Americans.

If you are concerned about facts, you're not doing a good job.

Funny how you choose America as your target and forget the ills in 194 other nations.

j said...

France Blog,

I would just like to point out how erroneous this post is. As soon as I read the "7 out of 10 americans are obese" line I knew you were wrong, but to get the exact statistics I went to a sound site http://www.cdc.gov/NCCDPHP/dnpa/obesity/trend/index.htm

If you would look at the chart you would see that only 2.5 to 3 out of 10 Americans are obese, and like virgomonkey said, Australia is the fattest nation on Earth. It's quite funny how no one knows this or even cares. Why is this? Because people like using the "Americans are fat" stereotype ot insult Americans. How can I trust any of the facts or posts on this website if on the first page I encounter such exaggerated and false claims? I look forward to hearing your response.

Unknown said...

Advice to France Blog: Waste of precious rations arguing with those two.

Roy Evan Burstiner said...

I am American and will agree that even though I eat a healthy, most Americans do not eat properly (& yes you can blame it on a lot of the fast food mentality that is common here), but the photos you posted are way too exagerated. But most are between slighty overweight.
But yes...most people do not eat properly & do not exercise enough.

Cambre said...

Yeah, obesity is alarming, though not sure about 7/10 stat. If you would like to share your thoughts on obesity, please check out http://www.obesityday.eu

It is a questionnaire of only 4 questions and a comment box. The hope is to show that there is a need to give more attention to this issue at the policy level in Europe and elsewhere.

Thanks

Unknown said...

My fellow stupid and oblivious Americans,
The next time you are in a public place, look around you. Make some observations and do some simple math. These figures aren't too far off. We see so much obesity that our minds become accustomed and we think nothing of seeing a morbidly obese slob carting him or herself around in an electric wheelchair (which insurance paid for because apparently being a fat asshole is a "medical condition.") It's disgusting! If you cognitively observe you will realize how extreme the rate of obesity actually is. As a person of healthy proportions by global standards, I am shocked and applied that so many Americans have allowed themselves to become so revolting. Eat what you need to sustain yourself in heathy manner. We are granted the luxury of having sustenance readily available, which is a great thing, but FAR too many people in this country abuse it.