To counter the insane, very unhealthy "obese is okay" body positivity movement?
America has a serious obesity problem costing us* and health care system billions.
* by costing I also mean the emotional devestation, physical pains, suffering, need for drugs like blood pressure stuff, plus more personal medical expenses to stay alive
Only if your slogan is: "I don't hate fat, but you could lose some of that".
sharePersonally I think much more time at schools should be given over to physical fitness and life skills as opposed to a lot of "academic" learning.
A college professor once told me, "Don't let academics get in the way of your education."
I later realized he was paraphrasing Mark Twain, but I've always liked the sentiment.
But finding the right balance seems tricky. In early grades we should understand the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle so we can enrich our minds as we mature. And not enough parents are teaching their children these fundamentals, so schools end up having to retroactively try to teach children things they should already know. And many will resist it.
Meanwhile, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo and the rest want to promote their profits. It's a really big mess.
Sure, start a health positivity movement!
Just as long as you include the fact that undernutrition is just as bad for a person as overnutrition!
by over nutrition, do you mean the amount of bad things consumed causing the obesity issue?
likewise eating less GOOD food while trying to lose weight, as the undernutrition? elaborate please
By undernutrition, I mean living on coffee, cigarettes, cocaine, and adderall instead of food, the way most fashionably thin people you see in the media do. Seriously, this is how models, young actors, and social media "influencers" stay thin enough to look slim on camera, even "fitness models" and bodybuilders do it - they starve and dehydrate themselves to make their muscle definition pop. Trying to starve your body into the media's idea of a "healthy" figure is unhealthy for people who aren't naturally lean, same as overreating and being sedentary is unhealthy.
The fact is, if every human being on Earth ate a reasonable amount of good nutritious food and exercised regularly, they wouldn't all look like the "healthy" people presented by the media - some would be fashionably lean, others would be stocky or muscular, others would be plump or curvy, human body types vary and so do metabolisms. Any genuine "Health Positivity" movement that genuinely valued HEALTH would have to start by forgetting the idea that being fasionably slim is the same thing as being healthy, and tell people that their natural body type is great the way it is - that good health is more important than looking fashionable.
Yeah I didn't mention being too thin or comparing with fake models, just reducing the obvious obesity issue. I agree thin models are unhealthy, but America has become super over weight - so much so, that people want to normalize it as ok. It is not ok. It is very very unhealthy to be the version of body positive they are enabling. It's insane
shareScratch a person who talks about "health" in terms of the body positivity movement, and you'll usually find a person who just despises fat people, and who doesn't care about thin people harming their health. If you want to talk about "health", don't be that asshole, be very careful not to go there.
Look, I know the "Body Positivity" movement has its problems, but IMHO it does more good than harm overall. Because before a person can make a big change in their life, one that requires sacrifices, they have to believe they're worth the trouble - value themselves rather than hating themselves. And since fat-bashers are everywhere and they tell fat people that they should hate and despise themselves for failing to be fashionably thin, most fat people have terrible self-image and poor self-esteem... and if the body positivity movement helps them to feel better about themselves, then yes, it's doing some good. Maybe it'll help some people become healthier and/or lose weight, and if it doesn't help everyone, well, some people were never going to become healthier and/or lose weight. If that's the case, why not at least allow them a little happiness and self-respect, instead of constantly bashing them for being what they are.
seriously, I feel at the root of all this, is the industrial society making such garbage foods cheapest, and readily available. 150 years ago, pretty sure people only had natural things to eat, no twinkies or hohos etc... sure they made cake or cookies, but that took lots of time to do, probably didn't happen as often as stopping for gas and just plunking down money for wrapped diabetes garbage. Now, processed is everywhere. I went grocery shopping and notice, not just that 75% of EVERYTHING in the isles was more bad for you than good, but realized those are ON the shelves because they sell the most, and are emptied every week or two for new stock, by people eating it. Healthy sections are on the rise, but they are still cost prohibitive to most.
granted, I don't know how much real info was tracked in the early years for this pic, but this doesn't look good.
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Images/Health-Information/Weight-Management/Graph-8-revised.jpg
i dont hate fat people, not even remotely. I love nearly everyone, and seriously feel sorry for overweight people - victim of society overall eating options - and wish they were healthier. I people spouting "body positive, I am what I am" and their size tells me they will soon have blood pressure issues, heart problems, muscle issues, and then there is wear and tear on the bone structure. I wish I could help, but I'll never reverse the billions poured into making mcdonalds fries additive, or the billions into ad campaignes to get these places more profits.
I've put on a slightest pot belly recently, after being fairly healthy, I notice I am slower, tireder, blodd pressure up, exercise is down.... I can not possible imagine what its like when I see someone who litteraly has like another whole human size strapped to their front. shame or depression or not, that is NOT medically helpful and very danergous.
while I'm babbling about this.... related to THIN people.... in my reality, where I live, I think I see one almost too thin person like 1 in a 1000. MOST people I see out and about are a little heavy to crazy over weight. RARELY do I notice an average, normal healthy size anymore.
I think that is why I brought this up. That and some famous person that gained a ton of weight and is now a spokes person for body positive. not good.
The bottom line is that you aren't going to be able to make other people thinner. The corollary is that you especially can't make people thinner by insulting them or treating them as inferior, that just pisses them off.
And yes, I agree about the unhealthy effects of processed foods, I'm old and FYI people have always been sedentary and enjoyed foods that are bad for them, but the "obesity epidemic" didn't hit until processed foods full of high fructose corn syrup and worse took over the nations's food supply. However, many of the people who buy these things can't afford anything better and don't have the time or money to home-cook fresh vegetables, because they're working 2-3 jobs to to have enough money to sleep indoors and barely have time to eat and sleep. There's an association between poverty and obesity these days, which both leads to prejudices associated with social class distinctions, and shows how difficult change is going to be. For people to get healthier, they're going to need better wages and less stress, some people literally can't afford to get healthier!
Where do you live? I live in a California college town, lots of slim people and "middle-aged spread" around here, but hardly anyone seriously obese.
I'd like to keep correcting your terminology here: this is not based around insulting, calling inferior or hating, it is ONLY (repeating it yet again) about "HEALTH", and health only. Thus the name "HEALTH positive". If someone chooses to feel insulted by saying over weight is not HEALTHY for you, that is blind avoidance of long time true facts:
causes of death (mortality)
High blood pressure (Hypertension)
High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (Dyslipidemia)
Type 2 diabetes
Coronary heart disease
Stroke
Gallbladder disease
Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint)
Sleep apnea and breathing problems
Many types of cancerexternal icon
Low quality of life
Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders4,5
Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning
Are you suggesting that supporting health positive is equally supporting fat shaming, or mockery? If so, every single person using a gym to work out should be arrested. Or something.
I'm trying to point out we are enabling a mental condition of insanity: overweight is GOOD. It's not.
That's like saying a human guy who tells us he believes he is really a rock, doesn't have mental issues that need dealt with.
I'm in the center 1/3 of the united states... low pressure to look hot like on the coasts to compete. And it shows around her.
I'm literally not knocking overweight people, just saying being not healthy, is not healthy for them. or me, or everyone. its a fact. I really feel sorry for them, and enabling a "body positive" overweight is A OK, is bad for them.
PS I am overweight myself, yet trimmer than many, but I notice the health issues, as does my doctor.
Another friend of mine, who is a family doctor, is about 10% UNDER the standard weight for size and height, and I know of no one healthier. He works out, lots of outdoor activities and is older than me and could jog up many stairs. His life is about making others healthier, and he practices it himself. and says under the standard is much better for your body.
Either you haven't been able to understand my basic point or you don't want to. So let me phrase it as simply as possible for you, in case you just don't understand me and the point is this: You can't tell how healthy or unhealthy a person is by looking at them.
Yes, there is a correlation between fatness and certain conditions, but any given overweight person you look at may have perfectly normal blood sugar, arteries and blood pressure, while a thin person may be illl.
So it seems you're just another fat-hater after all, and you have my sincerest invitation to fuck off and die.
very mature. if you cant comprehend basic discussions, have to resort to twisting meanings incorrectly, and insults, you are not equipped for adult discussions.
have a nice day sir, madam, maam, person, he she it them they leftist rightist whatever.
If you want to help people get healthier, campaign for Living Wage laws! Living wages will reduce the life-shortening stress levels that so many people are troubled by, and allow them to quit the 2nd or 3rd job. Which would give them a little time and energy they might use to exercise, see a doctor, or cook food from scratch.
And if you don't see the sense in that, there is absolutely no point in talking to you. My spare time is limited, and I'm not going to waste it on fools.
yeah, lets divert to a million other things, THAT's always effective.
"hey buses pollute too much...." "Yeah, because people buying fruit live in town. LEVEL ALL TOWNS!"
one fire at a time, m'kay?
living wage.... maybe if people prioritized living over cell phone plans, it would be easier on them. pfffff
Oh fuck off, you pea-brained idiot. You don't even know what good health IS, you aren't qualified to discuss the subject.
sharehmmmmmmm okay then. you win. :)
maybe come back when you are capable of sustaining an adult conversation. :)
And you come back, when you realize that good health through the lifespan doesn't mean having the body of a 20-year-old Insta-ho!
Like I said, you don't even understand what good health IS.
not once have I laid down any expert advice on the exactness of what makes everything healthy.
I'm asking about starting an idea to improve health, in the opposite way the body positive protest is working to destroying it.
not once did I say, "Hey! Everyone should be STICK THIN, and that is healthy."
Put weird words in my mouth as much as you want, everyone else can see around it. :)
AGAIN, "body positivity" isn't making people fat, it's just making people less miserable about being fat.
Once again, you have the wrong end of the stick, and have proved there's no point in talking to you. Just fuck off.
You know what I'm just going to agree with this guy....He's right.
shareI think things need to be done covertly. All these health related programs fail because no one likes being preached to. Personally I think fast food delivery vehicles should never actually stop at the person's door. They should just honk the horn then the customer comes out and the delivery guy pulls away a little, customer chases the car, each time the customer gets close, the delivery guy pulls away again.
Make 'em chase that pizza.
When eating in the customer should have to do 20 star jumps or something before being allowed to place an order. You need to dangle a carrot or a donut.
But you know what I mean.
there is potential in the next few decades for some of this to START turning around. I have millenial friends VERY conscious of the foods they consume, and ALWAYS avoid the crap. They've seen the damage, done their research, and practice corrections to our crappy diets.
I've seen soda pop in all convience stores pushed to the side for much healthier drinks like juices, sparking waters, and direct health drinks, and rows of candy reduced. even the crappy bagged sandwiches I love are vanishing for things that LOOK freshly plastic wrapped WRAPS and salads.... SALADS!! At a gas station. the kids stopped buying the crap, so they must cater to what the crowd wants to keep profits rolling in.
it will be slow but there is hope.
Good luck with that.
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