The share of Americans medically obese is projected to rise to almost 50% by 2035

[StarSong]

I don't believe this for a minute. Ozempic-type drugs are quite effective. They are becoming cheaper and more accessible every day. Within a year or two anyone with obesity problems will be taking them.

The snack food industry is already seeing a downturn. So is the alcoholic beverage industry.

I was thinking the same thing. I must know ten people on these meds - their weight has dropped precipitously as have their medical problems.

 

[Dr.Colosso]

I have a grand daughter aged 26 that is very very obese. Each time I see her, she sure looks to have gotten bigger.
I notice especially when she is wearing clothes I saw her in 3 months prior and the seams are screaming for release.

Here is how she lies to herself.
She says working out does no good, it makes her hungry. She is eating "Healthy" : like chicken, no breads
or sweets, more vegetables, etc. She has the wording down pat. But -- we stop for lunch at Culvers (my son's choice)
and she orders not one but 2, chicken sandwiches but no bread, then a side salad with again, not 1 but 2 or more dressing
helpings. The chicken is deep fried not grilled. She was seen eating a pickle dipped in chocolate with sprinkles on it another
time at a fair rather than a funnel cake. . So she coats her veggies in dressing or ice cream topping?

Spend a day out with someone swearing they eat Only the Right Things. No tricks or games and just watch the lies
they tell themselves.
I am not saying all obese people do as she does but I bet many do. If she does eat a regular meal she claims it's a
rare treat and she's rewarding herself for losing 2 lbs. She does clean the whole plate with extra dressing on the side.
In my 30's I began to add some pounds and my late hubby said to me "I have no idea why you are gaining weight because
at meal time you eat half of what me and the boys do.
Then it was like a slap in the face wake up call. I am a taster when I cook, so I began to jot down how many "taste"
bites I took during the cooking process. I tasted nearly a whole plate full of food before I even sat down for the meal.

I have fought the weight battle on and off all my life. I had to get to the point for myself that "Being thin is better
than the taste of anything I eat, and accepting Yes, you can eat that: just NOT all of it.

Food is everywhere, you can't escape it. Reasons to eat are more forthcoming than dreams coming true. Dreams
take work, consistency and tenacity, especially to those wanting to be thinner. It's just hard work.

Then help her and don't go out to eat. You wouldn't take someone who tries to stop smoking or drinking to a bar. Then why take her to a restaurant that has unhealthy food? Isn't there some weird super healthy biological restaurant or something?

 

[outlander]

So using discipline to remain healthy has no positive benefits based on healthcare costs in the last year of life? I think I'm missing something here? Or maybe my self discipline to stay physically in shape is actually causing dementia to set in?

I knew I should have listened when people say watching your weight isn't worth it

 

[Della]

So using discipline to remain healthy has no positive benefits based on healthcare costs in the last year of life? I think I'm missing something here? Or maybe my self discipline to stay physically in shape is actually causing dementia to set in?

I knew I should have listened when people say watching your weight isn't worth it

I think you are missing something.

Unless you plan to get hit by a truck or struck by lightening, chances are good that you will be sick during the last year of your life. You will most likely have heart disease, cancer, or strokes. These things will, by definition, be very severe because you will die from them.

You will probably be hospitalized for weeks at a time, require very expensive drugs, and have treatments like chemotherapy or surgery. All these things cost far more money than trips to the doctor for cold medicine. That is why most people, no matter what type of lifestyle they have lived, will spend more money during their final year than during any other year of their lives.

Example: My brother was slim, never smoked, barely drank alcohol, ate expensive fruit, vegetables (loved kale) and seafood in fine restaurants in San Francisco, was a gourmet cook who made great healthy meals at home, and played tennis or golf almost every single day of his life. He almost never, ever needed to go to the doctor. He never even had a dental cavity.

Then, in his 79th year, while on the golf course he passed out and was diagnosed with cancer. He died 13 months later. During that year he had dozens of chemo infusions, 6 radiation treatments, weekly visits to the hospital and his final month inside the hospital. I expect his last year was close to 75% of his lifetime total of medical costs.

I'm not arguing that obese people tend to have higher medical costs on any given year than thin people. I've already said I agree with all the points Horseless Carriage made and Tazx repeated. I just said that the final year is expensive for everyone. Whatever your final disease is, it is fatal and that usually means hospital stays and that is very expensive.

Slim people do tend to live longer so your exercise and eating habits might give you a few more years. During those years you will be using resources that cost money. I'll be dead so I wont be using any taxpayer's money at all.

Feel free to gloat over my grave but remember that "using discipline to stay healthy," is not really possible. I'm all for exercise, I do it myself and I eat better and am not as fat as you might think from the position I've taken here, but so much of our health is beyond our control, we have genetics and luck to deal with, too. My other brother and I both smoked two packs a day for over 25 years, but we are in good health now and it was the non-smoker who got cancer.

My husband has 11 brothers and sisters, all grew up with good food and exercise, all remained thin and worked out, none smoked or drank heavily. Eleven of the 12 kids are now in their seventies to eighties. One sister died at age 58 of cancer for no known reason.

 

[Michael Z]

It's the processed foods (including most store bread), especially those high in carbs, modified starches, vegetable oils, and absurd amounts of sugar. I see my weight creep up a little as soon as I eat these for a few days but my weight self-regulates when I go back on a whole food diet with large amounts of fruits and vegetables.

 

[outlander]

Slim people do tend to live longer so your exercise and eating habits might give you a few more years. During those years you will be using resources that cost money. I'll be dead so I wont be using any taxpayer's money at all.

If staying in shape and watching your weight give you a few extra years, then won't the last year's medical expenses still be the same than if you died out of shape at an earlier age?

 

[Dr.Colosso]

It's the processed foods (including most store bread), especially those high in carbs, modified starches, vegetable oils, and absurd amounts of sugar. I see my weight creep up a little as soon as I eat these for a few days but my weight self-regulates when I go back on a whole food diet with large amounts of fruits and vegetables.

My son is now very into healthy eating. He even tried to take away the rabbits' pellets. He should eat more hay! Hey hello. That's a bit much. But yes modified starch, I saw that today. Lately I saw that they ate wall paper glue and put it in bread during WWII in the hunger winter.

We have a tv program. They looked it up. Modified starch is used in glue. They throw it in anything cause then they can put less tomatoes or whatever in it and a load of water with that stuff.

If you give the filth they feed humans to a pet they call you an animal abuser, but people? Oh that's fine.

 

[Della]

Slim people do tend to live longer so your exercise and eating habits might give you a few more years. During those years you will be using resources that cost money. I'll be dead so I wont be using any taxpayer's money at all.

If staying in shape and watching your weight give you a few extra years, then won't the last year's medical expenses still be the same than if you died out of shape at an earlier age?

Yes it will. That's what I've said here over and over.

By the way about 25% of the average person's lifetime healthcare cost is in their final year. That is the same for everyone even those who have been healthy all their lives.

 

[Sunkist]

I think you are missing something.

Unless you plan to get hit by a truck or struck by lightening, chances are good that you will be sick during the last year of your life. You will most likely have heart disease, cancer, or strokes. These things will, by definition, be very severe because you will die from them.

You will probably be hospitalized for weeks at a time, require very expensive drugs, and have treatments like chemotherapy or surgery. All these things cost far more money than trips to the doctor for cold medicine. That is why most people, no matter what type of lifestyle they have lived, will spend more money during their final year than during any other year of their lives.

This viewpoint is one reason 'assisted suicide' and/or 'euthanasia' is a bad idea.. and, while I can't place specifics, I read awhile back that it's already occurred- WITHOUT individuals' consent..

But if 'offing' old people to save money is the goal, then we're not really far from this (see image)..

 

[IrishEyes]

Then help her and don't go out to eat. You wouldn't take someone who tries to stop smoking or drinking to a bar. Then why take her to a restaurant that has unhealthy food? Isn't there some weird super healthy biological restaurant or something?

I did try and help her.
Had her come privately to my house and we took measurements, not a scale count and she actually began to lose
weight. Then her mother asked why she was coming to visit me so often and she said Grandma is helping me with something.
The visits stopped dead in their tracks. She has gained more since then. Mom I think wants her to stay large as it keeps her at
Mom's beck and call rather than out with friends or a man.

Slim or not it does not hurt to learn how to eat whether at home or out, that is her choice. If you leave her out of family outings because it
includes eating out, how will that make her feel? The main thing that needs to stop is her lying to herself and others that she eats healthy
as apparently with us or not , she is not eating healthy. Heart attack and Diabetes is strong in the family and I talked to her about that too.
Maybe what needs to stop is for her to bring up the subject herself each and every time.

 

[Dr.Colosso]

This viewpoint is one reason 'assisted suicide' and/or 'euthanasia' is a bad idea.. and, while I can't place specifics, I read awhile back that it's already occurred- WITHOUT individuals' consent..

But if 'offing' old people to save money is the goal, then we're not really far from this (see image)..

View attachment 483524

It really happens. People don't believe it. Euthanasia is legal in Holland, but when I say that about my dad on a Dutch news forum they don't believe it. No doctors never push for it. Oh no? My sis is a doc.

He had to fill in a paper if he wanted to be resuscitated. My sister said: That's standard that they ask that, but if you say yes they won't do it. She was not shocked that the doc pushed my mom over and over, who had been very clear and he had said it himself too when he still understood.

Yes but mrs you must understand that it costs money to keep him here and it's a lot of work for us. They forced him to go to a home. He wanted to stay at home. The home was for the rest great though and the nurses were fabulous and my sister told that doc off, but it was insane that she did that. The vet was friendlier about my guinea pig.

 

[HoneyNut]

I think the success of the new weight loss drugs proves that the majority of obese and overweight people are not lazy and lack self-discipline, otherwise a drug that acts like a natural hormone that tells the brain that food was eaten would not turn those same people into self-controlled energetic people.

The science has been telling us that too much sugar interrupts the metabolic process that tells the brain when we are full, that without that process working our brains think we are starving and reduce our energy to save calories and make us very hungry so we are motivated to eat.

But now the problem will be to change a person's food choices so that when coming off the drug a person's body can be supplying the chemical itself (otherwise it's right back to the brain thinking it is starving).

 

[IrishEyes]

Then help her and don't go out to eat. You wouldn't take someone who tries to stop smoking or drinking to a bar. Then why take her to a restaurant that has unhealthy food? Isn't there some weird super healthy biological restaurant or something?

One more reply for a bit more take on this concern I have of her.
She has had to have both knees replaced already, was told her weight really needed to go down.
She struggled through the post-surgery and did lose some weight then. As soon as she was back to
normal, back came the weight.
I was really hoping that would be her wake up call but soon as she could
get out and around her Mom took her out for pizza, Mexican food, Olive Garden since she had been stuck
at home and probably was sick of what she had been eating.
So not only is she fighting herself, she has her Mom enticing her at every turn.

 

[Dr.Colosso]

One more reply for a bit more take on this concern I have of her.
She has had to have both knees replaced already, was told her weight really needed to go down.
She struggled through the post-surgery and did lose some weight then. As soon as she was back to
normal, back came the weight.
I was really hoping that would be her wake up call but soon as she could
get out and around her Mom took her out for pizza, Mexican food, Olive Garden since she had been stuck
at home and probably was sick of what she had been eating.
So not only is she fighting herself, she has her Mom enticing her at every turn.

Wow. Her own mother sabotages it.

 

[Sunkist]

Wow. Her own mother sabotages it.

That's what I would have said, too.

 

[Dr.Colosso]

Profit versus health: 4 ways big global industries make people sick​

28 March 2023 - Wits University

It’s commonly known that alcohol and tobacco use make us ill. Less known is that just 4 industries account for at least one-third of global preventable deaths.

These industries are: unhealthy processed food and drinks, fossil fuels, alcohol and tobacco. Collectively they cause 19 million deaths every year, according to a recent series of reports published in The Lancet.

These deaths happen because of accepted business practices that prioritise profit over health - and not only through the companies’ products. This include cigarettes that cause cancer, sugary drinks that result in obesity or coal that drives carbon dioxide emissions, for example. The world’s largest commercial companies routinely operate in a way that masks their practices and allows them to continue and expand in the name of neoliberal economic freedoms.

These transnational corporations drive rapidly rising sickness and death levels, disability, environmental damage, and widening social inequities. The Lancet series describes a “pathological system” in which a substantial group of commercial actors are increasingly enabled to cause harm and to make others pay the costs of doing so. They profit without bearing any of the costs of the harmful products marketed to an unsuspecting public.

2023-03 - Profit versus health: 4 ways big global industries make people sick - Wits University

“Big Food” Is Making America Sick - PMC

``Big food”—agribusiness, manufacturers, restaurants, and marketers—is making America sick. The industry produces and aggressively markets foods laden with sugar, salt, saturated fat, and calories. It obfuscates nutritional information to confuse consumers, targeting young people and minorities in particular. It purchases influence at every level of government and fights commonsense regulations by funding “shadow” advocacy groups and sympathetic scientists. Big Food is relentless in litigating against any law that is likely to be effective in curbing unhealthy eating.

The industry has also historically supported medical and professional health conferences to minimize any singling out of unhealthy foods in dietary advice.

 

[Sunkist]

Profit versus health: 4 ways big global industries make people sick​

28 March 2023 - Wits University

It’s commonly known that alcohol and tobacco use make us ill. Less known is that just 4 industries account for at least one-third of global preventable deaths.

These industries are: unhealthy processed food and drinks, fossil fuels, alcohol and tobacco. Collectively they cause 19 million deaths every year, according to a recent series of reports published in The Lancet.

These deaths happen because of accepted business practices that prioritise profit over health - and not only through the companies’ products. This include cigarettes that cause cancer, sugary drinks that result in obesity or coal that drives carbon dioxide emissions, for example. The world’s largest commercial companies routinely operate in a way that masks their practices and allows them to continue and expand in the name of neoliberal economic freedoms.

These transnational corporations drive rapidly rising sickness and death levels, disability, environmental damage, and widening social inequities. The Lancet series describes a “pathological system” in which a substantial group of commercial actors are increasingly enabled to cause harm and to make others pay the costs of doing so. They profit without bearing any of the costs of the harmful products marketed to an unsuspecting public.

2023-03 - Profit versus health: 4 ways big global industries make people sick - Wits University

“Big Food” Is Making America Sick - PMC

``Big food”—agribusiness, manufacturers, restaurants, and marketers—is making America sick. The industry produces and aggressively markets foods laden with sugar, salt, saturated fat, and calories. It obfuscates nutritional information to confuse consumers, targeting young people and minorities in particular. It purchases influence at every level of government and fights commonsense regulations by funding “shadow” advocacy groups and sympathetic scientists. Big Food is relentless in litigating against any law that is likely to be effective in curbing unhealthy eating.

The industry has also historically supported medical and professional health conferences to minimize any singling out of unhealthy foods in dietary advice.

And don't forget who is REALLY 'running things'- making people sick, killing people, all to pad their lousy bank accounts: the pharmaceutical companies..

 

[Dr.Colosso]

How the FDA lets chemicals pour into America’s food supply

The FDA's restraints on food ingredients are limited and relatively feeble, especially compared with those in Europe, a KFF Health News examination found. There are at least 950 substances in our food that are not permitted in Europe, according to one expert's estimate, and chemicals linked to health concerns show up in hundreds of products that line the shelves of American supermarkets.

Chemicals such as titanium dioxide and potassium bromate, whose safety has been debated, are allowed in foods in the United States but not in Europe.

And it is already bad in Europe.

Parkinson, just caused by poison on fruit and vegetables. I saw yesterday that someone said it's like with Snow white and the poisoned apple. Why is the poisoned apple considered normal, but the biological one special. Biological should be normal.

The food industry makes people sick and then big pharma can make money on them too.

 

[Sunkist]

How the FDA lets chemicals pour into America’s food supply

The FDA's restraints on food ingredients are limited and relatively feeble, especially compared with those in Europe, a KFF Health News examination found. There are at least 950 substances in our food that are not permitted in Europe, according to one expert's estimate, and chemicals linked to health concerns show up in hundreds of products that line the shelves of American supermarkets.

Chemicals such as titanium dioxide and potassium bromate, whose safety has been debated, are allowed in foods in the United States but not in Europe.

And it is already bad in Europe.

Parkinson, just caused by poison on fruit and vegetables. I saw yesterday that someone said it's like with Snow white and the poisoned apple. Why is the poisoned apple considered normal, but the biological one special. Biological should be normal.

The food industry makes people sick and then big pharma can make money on them too.

CMS Open Payments

Plus they also have a hold on the FDA.. which is why all kinds of crap is approved that shouldn't be..

 

[TeePee]

It's not the economy, Paco Dennis, you give us too much credit. I have met the enemy and it is us.

Donuts just taste better than oatmeal and while the world crashes around me and I sit in my wheel chair with a sprained ankle I find that eating is my prime pleasure these days. How did I sprain my ankle? Standing too long in the kitchen while I made a fabulous, vegan macaroni and cheese casserole. Cooking is my second favorite thing.

Donuts wouldn't be a problem in moderation, but I have no wheel power to eat just one.

 

[StarSong]

I see lots of thinly veiled moral judgments and patting of one's own back on this thread, usually couched in "helpful advice."

Some of my siblings, relatives, friends and neighbors have battled weight for nearly their entire lifetimes. It's demoralizing and frustrating for them, and induces much self-loathing, particularly because "ideal bodies", i.e., models, are so underweight that "malnourished" wouldn't be an inappropriate descriptor.

The people in my life are good humans who work hard, care about their families, and happily lend a hand when the opportunity presents itself.

Consuming more food than one's body needs isn't a moral failure, it's a biological disconnect between evolutionary needs and today's food supply. Early humans dealt with ongoing calorie scarcity, starvation and the requirement of huge energy expenditures to hunt and gather wild foods. Modern humans face an overload of precisely what our ancestors craved: foods packed with fat and sweeteners, i.e., safe, calorie dense foods. Problem is, it's now available almost instantly and requires very little physical effort on our parts.

Some can resist these temptations more easily than others. I'm only slender because I watch my weight like a hawk, was blessed with reasonably good metabolism genes, and have the desire and wherewithal to mostly consume a plant-based diet.

It's certainly not because I'm morally superior to those I know who struggle with obesity.
Quite the opposite, I fear.

I celebrate the availability of meds that help people lose weight. My friends who are on these meds are so much happier with their bodies and their docs are delighted with the improvement in their bloodwork.

 

[Sunkist]

I'm concerned about people's lifespan and health.. nothing 'judgmental' about that.

 

[Irishdude]

I see lots of thinly veiled moral judgments and patting of one's own back on this thread, usually couched in "helpful advice."

Some of my siblings, relatives, friends and neighbors have battled weight for nearly their entire lifetimes. It's demoralizing and frustrating for them, and induces much self-loathing, particularly because "ideal bodies", i.e., models, are so underweight that "malnourished" wouldn't be an inappropriate descriptor.

The people in my life are good humans who work hard, care about their families, and happily lend a hand when the opportunity presents itself.

Consuming more food than one's body needs isn't a moral failure, it's a biological disconnect between evolutionary needs and today's food supply. Early humans dealt with ongoing calorie scarcity, starvation and the requirement of huge energy expenditures to hunt and gather wild foods. Modern humans face an overload of precisely what our ancestors craved: foods packed with fat and sweeteners, i.e., safe, calorie dense foods. Problem is, it's now available almost instantly and requires very little physical effort on our parts.

Some can resist these temptations more easily than others. I'm only slender because I watch my weight like a hawk, was blessed with reasonably good metabolism genes, and have the desire and wherewithal to mostly consume a plant-based diet.

It's certainly not because I'm morally superior to those I know who struggle with obesity.
Quite the opposite, I fear.

I celebrate the availability of meds that help people lose weight. My friends who are on these meds are so much happier with their bodies and their docs are delighted with the improvement in their bloodwork.

Couldn't agree with you more, StarSong.

 

[Della]

Thank you so much for your kind post, Star Song. I have actually been depressed over this thread. It's good to know that not everyone thinks I'm a worthless person with no self-respect or self-discipline.

Particularly right now as I've just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of my left ankle due to the tibia hitting it awkwardly since I broke it badly 16 years ago. I've had to walk with a cane ever since and I'm used to that, but now it looks like it's going to be a wheel chair for me most of the time.

 

[squatting dog]

It was a deliberate act that started in the mid to late 80's. Just look at what happened when the tobacco indusry decided to get into the food industry.

Philip Morris acquired General Foods (1985) and Kraft Foods (1988/1989), merging them into Kraft General Foods, which became one of the world's largest food companies at the time. This gave them control over brands like Oreo, Jell-O, Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, and many processed snacks and convenience foods.
R.J. Reynolds merged with Nabisco (1985), forming RJR Nabisco, controlling brands like Oreo, Ritz, and other snacks.

During the peak period (roughly 1980s to early 2000s), these two tobacco giants owned and influenced some of the leading U.S. food companies, particularly in processed, ultra-processed, and "hyper-palatable" foods (high in fat, sugar, salt, designed to be addictive). Research shows tobacco-owned brands disproportionately developed and promoted such foods, contributing to the rise of ultra-processed items that now dominate much of the American diet (e.g., studies indicatethey "dominated America's food supply" for over two decades in key segments).

Then............
Altria spun off Kraft Foods (fully by 2007).
RJR Nabisco's food assets were sold off earlier ( Nabisco to other entities, eventually leading to Mondelez for snacks).
Today, those food brands are owned by companies like Kraft Heinz, Mondelez International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, etc.

Notice... The legacy of tabacco industries influence persists in product formulations and marketing tactics. (ultra processed food).