Right…so back to the actual topic, seeing as most 650-pound people generally don’t go around bullying people. 
Yes but they probably would if they could get out of bed so it’s always best to keep that beer bottle handy if you ask me. Maybe I got “issues”…
Ok here is one for you…
Awhile ago I saw a news report about this lady who was so fat she couldn’t get up to use the bathroom so basically she would just ploop right there like. Somebody came to feed her everday and rather a lot apparently but just let the poop sit there. Eventually what happened was that it formed a sort of glue that grafted her skin to the material on her bed clothes and several operations were required to remove it. That could happen of course only after they had smashed a big hole in one of the walls of the house to get her out. They had to use a backhoe or something eventually she was so huge.
They guy who fed her was brought up on charges of some sort.
Bob, I really don’t understand the point of your post.
Just that it sucks being so fat you can’t get to the toilet I suppose. By the way did they ever figure out what was eating Gilbert Grape I wonder?
I like Persephone’s suggestion that the “fat tax” should be on the food rather than individuals. She makes an excellent point about the cost of healthy food. In the inner city/ghetto there are not lot’s of Walmarts and Publix type groceries, but rather you’re corner liquor store or 7-11 - not exactly great places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables - and when they do have them the prices are exorbitant in comparison to the suburbs. Poor people don’t have the same kind of access to nutritious food that middle class and the wealthy have.
While there are no doubt many, myself included, who have overeaten their way to fatness, there are those with genetic predispositions to obesity like the Pima Indians (it is hypothesized that they have a fat gene). Folks who immigrate from the 3rd world to a 1st world country like the U.S. don’t have a problem with obesity because the first generation usually continues to eat what they did in their home country. But once you get to the 2nd or 3rd generation, the immigrant family has adopted much of the dominant culture’s practices including eating habits - then you see the same problems with obesity.
Do we really need MORE gov’t intervention? People don’t seem to be taking responsibility for their bad food choices - and it HAS affected health care. Diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease are all related to obesity or exacerbated by it. Why should those who choose to live healthily pay for the bad choices others have made? I don’t think they should. I agree with Persephone that the way this can be addressed without being inhumane is to tax the hell out of stuff that’s bad for you, come up with ways to make healthful food more abundant for more people.
Regarding ImaniOU’s comment about hospitals changing their equipment. I am an eye witness. We have a lot more “big boy beds.” These are beds with hydraulics for the morbidly obese patient. We need more Hoyer lifts, another tool to pick folks up rather than break our backs trying to lift, and turn obese folks.
Guess I haven’t said anything new. Great post Persephone 
:bravo: .
Bodo
stateside, high fructose corn syrup is in most everything these days. it came out in the mid 80’s, roughly correspondng to the ignition of america’s obesity epidemic.
they put it in bread as a preservative and in most everything else as a sweetner. remember when cranberry juice used to be a bit difficult to enjoy? not anymore, it is almost as sweet as grape juice.
recent research shows that HFCS, besides making everything yummier also retards your body’s ability to know when you have had enough to eat. that is a prettypowerful combo: the food is good and you still aren’t full.
it is in coke, salad dressing, catsup, jelly, syrup, etc. most anyone who cuts such from their diet drops weight away with ease, once they get past the craving stage.
food over here is calorie rich. the same calorie rich food is DESIGNED to fool our bodies into thinking it isn’t full yet. receipe for disaster indeed.
in taiwan the kids would call me fat, then i would come home to visit and everyone would compliment me on how fit i was. funny thing is, both groups were right: in taiwan i was about 20 pounds overweight- in taiwan such equals heavy, whereas stateside i was on the slim side of the spectrum.
I’m not sure if this makes any sense but the sad state mentioned here must have a cause? It can’t only be food prices and availability that causes the problem. In fact I’d be more inclined to think that if there is more fast-food available, it’s just the result of an increasing demand for it. Why? People do not eat more junk food because there is more of it available. There is more of it available because people eat it more.
I think the whole American dream is a scam, a lie. No such thing. Having lots of money, a new car, a country house and a penthouse doesn’t make anyone happy. Happiness comes from within, not from material things. Quite deceptive I think. While you think you’re happy because you’ve made it…You’ve got it all…In the end it only leaves you with a fat unhealthy body and wanting more. More pleasure, more material things and of course more food.
The American dream makes people restless and restlessness is what makes people eat too much. It’s a sad state of affairs indeed. Obesity is only one of many pitfalls of the alienated world we live in. 
Just guessing.
bobepine
maybe, i dunno. i do know that there isn’t one monolithic "american"dream but rather each person is allegedly free to pursue his dreams in any way they may manifest.
yes, consumerism and “keeping up with the jonese” is a pot hole filled road.
first one to luckenbach, texas wins.
Hey bob, an open straight razor in each hand, a crazy mad glint in your eye and maybe a string of drool on your chin will put off all but the most psychopathic of nutters, no matter what size they are. Trust me on this. 
That’s really true. The one thing the mean bastard is afraid of is the guy who is crazy. Unfortunately to convince them of your craziness sometimes you actually have to “be” crazy. It’s a dangerous game that I lost about half the time because, honestly, when push comes to shove, I ain’t all that crazy, and not nearly strong or quick or tough or mean enough. I’m really lucky all I got was punched in the head a few times. What weirds me out these days is that young Taiwanese guys especially still look at me sometimes as though I am a threat or in their territory or something. I mean really, don’t they know a harmless old git when they see one? Sheesh.
It certainly put me off going to the pub with you.
But I wasn’t drooling.
bobepine, I pointed out a few reasons why I think there’s this problem in US. The general mood there is one of entitlement and gluttony free of responsibility or regards to others. The “It won’t happen to me if it’s bad, it should happen to me if it’s good, and I require someone or something else to act as my common sense and willpower, bump everyone else” attitude is prevalent in many facets of contemporary American culture from health to education and how they do business.
Also the fact that people are quick to point fingers at others for their own problems rather than dealing with them themselves. Granted it’s easier to point them than get off your ass and take care of it, but there’s not even anything in place to make them want to do that.
I have heard of the inverse number of obese people, the higher up the income scale. I used to spend my summers cashiering at a big grocery store. My hometown is very split between the have’s and the have-not’s so I can vouch for the spending differences between those who had the money and those who used the “Ohio Card” (the food stamp debit card to eliminate trading stamps for drugs and alcohol). Those who were well-groomed bought lots of fruits and veggies and things to prepare meals. Those who used the Ohio Card would buy instant meals and junk food.
And there’s nothing in the system to prevent them from doing that. There are no classes where they can learn to prepare healthy meals. There are no nutrition programs except for WIC (Women, Infant, and Children program to help mothers buy high-protein foods prenatally, and after birth). And quite a few WIC mothers would become irate when I told them they couldn’t buy sugar-coated artificially-flavored cereals on their cereal vouchers or chocolate-peanut butter spreads with their peanut butter vouchers. Even when I showed them the pictures of the only things they were allowed to buy with each voucher. And I have a little problem with the way WIC encourages women to be reliant on formula and cow’s milk rather than to breastfeed (if the fact that it’s free wasn’t encouragement enough for poor mothers 
), but I’m digressing. Sorry.
It’s almost as if the food industry is setting people up for failure in health. I know it cannot be cheaper to manufacture garbage food than to grow it (although it involves waiting for it to grow and we all know how well people handle the delay of gratification), can it? The government discourages farmers from being successful at growing crops and food manufacturers seem bent on buying up and putting under the few remaining independent farmers to set up their factory farms where the products are used to produce more garbage food.
Everyone wants a quick fix and anything that takes effort is absolutely out of the question… thus exacerbating the problem of physical inertia and laziness letting sit inactive in their bodies.
Interesting insights, ImaniOU.
This was in the Washington Post a few days ago:
[quote][url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301279.html?referrer=email]Parents pass down a lot to their children, from hair and eye color to family heirlooms. But these days, an increasing number of children inherit something else: obesity and inactivity.
According to the latest government figures, nearly two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. And how much a parent weighs is the single most important predictor of whether a child will be overweight or obese.
Not surprisingly, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 40 years, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in six youngsters ages 6 to 19 is now obese and at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol levels and premature heart disease. An additional 15 percent of children and teens are at risk of becoming obese[/url].[/quote]
Some people need someone to kick them in the ass to get them to do something they need to do. I think almost all of us have needed that kick at one time or another. But it’s disturbing at how accomodating and encouraging American society seems to be of morbid obesity rather than taking a more active stance in fighting it.
Genetics may play a part in it, but I think a much larger part of obesity being passed down from parents is the attitude that it’s an acceptable and inevitable way to be. Parents who pass their unhealthy eating habits onto their children.
Similar to the abuse cycle.
I really don’t like to see people pointing fingers in every direction but their own, and it seems this obesity thing, especially the idea that it’s something that is in their genes and therefore untreatable, has this very notion at the heart of it.