{"id":3206,"date":"2011-07-21T20:47:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T02:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2011-07-21T20:47:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T02:47:18","slug":"brilliant-ideas-for-curing-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/21\/brilliant-ideas-for-curing-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"Brilliant Ideas For Curing Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some interesting theories on Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It have been popping in the news lately \u2013 and no, I\u2019m not talking about the book by Gary Taubes.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about ideas proposed by \u2026 uh \u2026 well, let\u2019s call them somewhat less-brilliant researchers.<\/em><\/p>\n

A doctor in St. Louis, for example, has decided that the main cause of the obesity epidemic is pregnancy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

National experts have suggested that if a woman is obese, she should gain far less weight when pregnant than previously thought:\u00a0 just 11 to 20 pounds.\u00a0 But one local doctor says even that is far too much. Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at St. Louis University School of Medicine, says an obese woman who gets knocked up shouldn’t gain so much as an ounce — and then adds that pregnancy, not an unhealthy affection for fast food and the La-Z-Boy, is “the main contributor to the obesity epidemic in this country.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe the doctor is onto something.\u00a0 While researching Fat Head<\/em>, I was surprised to learn that back in the days when obesity was rare, the vast majority of women never became pregnant.\u00a0 All the propagating of the species was accomplished by a small minority of women who then gave their babies to women who preferred to remain thin.\u00a0 Pretty much every family was made up of kids who were adopted — which is how Puritans and the upper-class British managed to raise large numbers of children without ever engaging in sex.\u00a0 It was also the reason that every individual bore a striking resemblance to at least 200 other individuals in their geographic area.\u00a0 Sure, the gene pool was a little shallow, but people were thin and that’s what mattered.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, all that began to change in the late 1960s with the arrival of loose morals — which became even looser after disco music was invented in the 1970s.\u00a0 Women who wanted to raise children began insisting on having their own babies, and the obesity epidemic was born.\u00a0 (By pure coincidence, this was also around the time the McGovern committee told everyone to eat more grains and other carbohydrates.)<\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re probably thinking:\u00a0 if Dr. Artal is correct that pregnancy is the primary cause of obesity, why are so many men obese? <\/em> All I can tell you is that both times my wife became pregnant, I got fatter.\u00a0 I can\u2019t explain the biological mechanism, but I expect science to provide an answer eventually.<\/p>\n

Since women apparently plan to keep producing their own babies, the real question is what to do about all the obesity their pregnancies are causing.\u00a0 A professor of bioethics has come up with a solution that was recently praised by a columnist for the Boston Globe<\/a>:\u00a0 we need to shame fat people into better eating habits:<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, fatty! Pull that doughnut out of your pie hole! You look like a pig, and you are costing me, and every other taxpayer, billions of dollars in unnecessary health care each year!\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you like my new public service ad campaign, designed to stigmatize the overweight and the obese in the same way smokers have been made to feel the knout of social opprobrium for the past quarter-century?<\/span><\/p>\n

I got the idea when I heard Professor Daniel Callahan, the retired cofounder of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institution, speak on a radio program about two weeks ago. Why aren\u2019t overeaters subject to the same stigmatization as smokers?, he mused. Why not indeed?<\/span><\/p>\n

Callahan makes a persuasive case: 67 percent of Americans are overweight, he writes. \u201cObesity is a leading cause of diabetes, heart disease, and kidney failure. There are some prima facie reasons for thinking about stigmatization as one more arrow in the quiver of possible solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can hardly be said that obesity is beyond individual control,\u2019\u2019 he continues. \u201cSo, why not stigmatize [the obese], bringing social pressure to bear?\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Boy, if only someone with Professor Callahan\u2019s deep understanding of what causes body-fat accumulation had been around when I was becoming an obese adolescent, I would have remained lean.\u00a0 When we had to play shirts vs. skins <\/em>in gym-class basketball games, it just never occurred to me to feel ashamed of my fat belly, love handles and boy-boobs.\u00a0 If the naturally-skinny boys in my class had cared more about me (and been armed with Professor Callahan\u2019s insights), they could have helped me out by calling me names like Lard-Ass, Fat Boy, Pudge, Booby Boy, Porky Pig<\/em>, or Butter Butt<\/em>.\u00a0 I now realize that with their kind-hearted acceptance of me (and the one other fat kid in class), they were inadvertently acting as enablers.<\/p>\n

So to all you obese people out there who are happy with your bodies, it\u2019s time to look yourself in the mirror and feel ashamed!\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait for Professor Callahan\u2019s ideas to catch fire and inspire some do-gooders to shame you \u2026 be pro-active and take responsibility for shaming yourself.<\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re probably thinking:\u00a0 But what about all the fat babies being born these days?\u00a0 Babies aren\u2019t capable of shaming themselves \u2026 if they were, they\u2019d\u00a0 be more conscientious about where and when they fill their diapers. <\/em><\/p>\n

Never fear.\u00a0 The British government has an answer for the wee tykes<\/a>:\u00a0 get them to exercise more!<\/p>\n

The British government says children under five — including those who can’t walk yet — should exercise every day. The new guidelines were issued Monday, partly to fight the obesity epidemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

In them, the department of health says children under five who can walk should be physically active for at least three hours a day. For babies who can’t walk yet, the government says physical activity should be encouraged from birth, including infants playing on their stomach and swimming sessions with their parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to admit, I don\u2019t know whether this advice will prove to be effective, since my only experience is with two little girls who are active even when I\u2019d like to them slow down for a change.\u00a0 Last night, for example, they grew bored with watching Man vs. Wild<\/em> from a seated position and decided to construct a bridge between the sofa and an ottoman, using several household items as building materials.\u00a0 When the bridge fell down under the older daughter\u2019s weight, I thought they\u2019d give up \u2026 but nope, they just built a new one.\u00a0 When that one fell down, they changed designs and built yet another one.\u00a0 When that fell down, they built another one.\u00a0 I was expecting them to start whistling the theme from The Bridge on the River Kwai <\/em>any minute.<\/p>\n

But if the British government wants the \u201cget your baby to exercise\u201d advice to be truly effective, I\u2019d suggest they combine it with Professor Callahan\u2019s insights and shame babies into working out.\u00a0 Then you\u2019d have a sure-fire cure for childhood obesity.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, Junior!\u00a0 Wiggle those arms!\u00a0 One-two-three-four \u2026 you\u2019re quitting at four reps?\u00a0 What are you, some kind of baby?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, actually\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cNo wonder you\u2019re so fat.\u00a0 Look at you, you little butterball!\u00a0 You\u2019ve got thighs like canned hams!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s baby fat, coach!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, sure it is.\u00a0 Listen, kid:\u00a0 you’re fat because your mother listened to some old Bee Gees songs from the 1970s and then went out and got herself pregnant, so now everybody\u2019s fat.\u00a0 Well, not here in jolly old England, Butterball!\u00a0 Not on my watch.\u00a0 Now drop and give me twenty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPushups!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWAAAAHHH!\u201d<\/p>\n

“Be quiet!\u00a0 Hey, what did you just put in your mouth?”<\/p>\n

“My thumb.”<\/p>\n

“Is there any fat in that thing?”<\/p>\n

“I’m a baby.\u00a0 I’m fat all over.”<\/p>\n

“Then take it out of your mouth, now!”<\/p>\n

\u201cWAAAAHHH!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yup, with all these brilliant new ideas being proposed, obesity will soon be nothing more than a bad memory \u2013 like disco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some interesting theories on Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It have been popping in the news lately \u2013 and no, I\u2019m not talking about the book… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-medicine","category-bad-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3218,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions\/3218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}