+1

I heard an obese woman once who said that she was discriminated against, and it was no different than an old person or a person of color being discriminated against.

I called bullsh!t, of course.

If you take a black man, an old man, and an obese man out to a dersert island with nothing but water and bread, and you pick them up a couple months later, you'll be picking up a skinny black man, a skinny old man, and a skinny man that used to be obese.

Obesity, in almost all cases, is simply due to a poor diet and lack of exercise. The fact that we're going to just sit here and allow it to cripple the country with escalating health care costs is a disgrace.

Damn Dan, how do you really feel/

I read recently that obesity will soon more than double our health care costs which are already thru the roof. I really have no idea how you can get folks to eat less. All the fast food resturants now post the calories of the various "foods", but I dont think most peole care. Hell, you can get a cup of coffe now that thas has more than 500 calories.

I totally agree Dan. I've always been curious about the stories of the 800 lb people that had to be placed on a sheet of plywood and carried by firemen out through a hole torn in their house wall because they were so fat. Somebody had to dump Twinkies and Ding Dongs in their face to eat. Tax those food providing idiots too.

Dave..........500 calories in a cup of coffee? Must be a morning fishing on the Harrison.

Yep, I double checked to be sure. One of their"coffees" is more than 600 calories.

Remember those HUGE pancakes at the resturant near the Harrison. I think that place burned down.

F'em. . ..they won't be able to outrun the zombies when the apacolypse comes .. . . .they will finally be usefull . . . .. bait ! !

+10000 Exactly spot on!


Fishy

I'm not buying the fact that it's fat people causing a huge rise in health care costs. Certianly they may have an impact but many probably die off before being too much of a burden.

Nope-I think they are just one BIG red herring or HUGE mis-direct!

I think the ballooning health care cost is 99% due to our borders being wide open to anybody that needs health care!

Well, you're simply wrong.

Heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, and many other afflictions are directly related to obesity and all place a huge burden on health care costs.

You can choose not to buy it if you want...........just like you can choose not to buy that the sun rises in the east.

Aunty is pretty much right. Increased early mortality for obese people decreases their actual health care costs over time. The difference is only something like a 4% increase in health care costs. The cost in time and productivity lost to the companies or public sector jobs that the un-healthy people hold is not quantified.

My fat-tax idea was tongue in cheek, obviously. Although sin taxes are real, gluttony might be taking it too far. What I found anectdotally was that un-healthy people tended to spend more sick leave on actually being sick, rather than screwing off and having fun which is what I prefer my staff to do with their leave.

Another way the gov't could reduce obesity and save money would be to cut corn and soybean subsidies (will never happen). Try living a week by not eating something made with subsidized corn or soybeans, and you will find you are eating much healthier (feed lot beef counts).

So when fat people reach their last days, they don't rack up the same kind of costs others do when THEY reach the end of their lives? Why would that be?

I'd like to read that recent study and check out the methodology used to draw their conclusions. Any link?

Fat people are allowed to be fat...there's no doubt about that, and no way in the world to tell them that they can't be...just like smokers can smoke, drinkers can drink, and if pot is legalized, potheads can legally get as stoned as they want...

But...just like smokers pay more for health insurance, so should those who maintain a lifestyle that will make them a bigger burden on the health care system...and anyone who thinks obesity (not necessarily just being overweight) is not a huge drain on our health care system, and destined to be a larger and larger drain as time goes by, is in total denial.

Diabetes, heart conditions...huge dollars. Even the orthopedic costs are considerably higher for obese people...knees, ankles, feet, hips.

The obesity epidemic will not only be the biggest cost for health care, it will only get worse as we continue as a nation to get fatter and fatter...

Fish on...

Todd

"Obesity outranks both smoking and drinking in its deleterious effects on health and health costs."

http://www.glahder.dk/engelsk/3xB2009/JunkFood/obesity%20Roland%20Sturm.pdf

"Recent headlines tell the story of a growing epidemic in America. In August, it was reported that people who are 80 or more pounds overweight live three to 12 fewer years than people who are normal weight, defined as between 18.5 and 25 on the body mass index scale. According to an article published in Health Affairs, one third of the rise in health care costs since 1987 is due to the rise in obesity. It is clear that obesity is taking its toll on our nation's physical and financial well-being, and unless we act, our national waistline and debt will expand exponentially.

In Texas, the economic impact of chronic diseases, including obesity, is staggering. A 2007 Milken Institute study indicates that the cost of treatment was $17.2 billion in 2003 alone — and this skyrockets to $92.5 billion when you account for lost workplace productivity. This growing problem is a sad reminder that when you get right down to it, we don't really have a health care system in America. Instead, we have a “sick care” system of uneven quality that uses most of its resources on treating people after they're already sick."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6679585.html


All kinds of statistics and information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States

Those are just the top three in a Google search...there are literally thousands of documents out there saying the same thing as these three.

Fish on...

Todd

The second article down (written in 1999) shows on the left sidebar the gist of the study.

Obesity Scholarly Articles

The article is "Direct Health Care", and IMO the intrinsic costs are so much different than "Direct Health Care", that ultimately there is much more cost associated with being obese than not. Maybe the study was sponsored by Frito Lay or something. There are thin people who smoke or have diabetes, but they comprise much smaller portion of America.

Point taken.

However, getting cancer and having your joints give out due to old age are things you really can't do anything about. You CAN do something about obesity, though. That's something that's in your control, so racking up the health care costs of being an adult-onset diabetic or replacing joints due to punishment and not age is a little different.

At least that's the way I see it. I'm an insulin-dependant diabetic, as you know. And I do mt best to make sure I'm not a burden on the health care system by keeping my blood glucose in tight control. But mostly I do it because I don't want to die.

I don't dislike obese people..........I just wonder why they aren't more motivated to live.

Are you saying obese people have a higher quality of life than those who aren't obese?

I'm not sure I follow.

Hmmm, most of the obese people I know or have know admit to needing to lose "10 or 20" pounds, instead of 100. I think denial is a big part, no pun intended.

My mom's diabetic, but she can barely maintain her weight, and she eats me under the table at dinner. But she's got numerous health problems, so I have no idea what's at the root of her diabetes, other than a lifetime (86) of poor eating habits and 46 years of smoking.

Sg

Are you kidding?

Haven't you heard the rumor about fat chicks in the sack?

It was the '60's baby.....

Wrong. You have a habit Hank of making assumptions. There's this thing called verification; you should try it. Mom began smoking at age 21, quit at age 67. While the lung effects are largely healed, she has a host of health problems.

Sg