Americans are nothing but fat pigs

[destruction]

Still growing: U.S. obesity rates increase

The rate of obesity continues to climb in Florida and around the country, a new health report found.

By JACOB GOLDSTEIN

jgoldstein@herald.com

More than one in five Floridians is obese, yet Florida remains slimmer than all but 12 other states, according to a report released Tuesday.

Obesity rates increased in every state except Oregon, which held steady.

''We have a crisis in poor nutrition and physical activity in this country,'' said Shelley Hearne, executive director of Trust for America's Health, the nonprofit group that released the report.

``It's simple math out there -- we're eating more and exercising less, and it's time that we deal with it in a much more systematic and realistic way.''

The report, based on data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found:

• Florida's adult obesity rate was 20.7 percent during 2002-2004. During the previous cycle measured by the report, 2001-2003, the statewide rate was 19.3 percent.

• During the same period, the national rate climbed from 22 percent to 22.7 percent.

• Among the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese adults, seven were in the Southeast -- Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina. More than a quarter of adults in those states are obese.

• Mississippi's 28.1 percent obesity rate was the nation's highest; Colorado's rate, 16.4 percent, was lowest.

• Roughly 119 million adult Americans, or 64.5 percent of the population, are overweight or obese.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

Obesity is linked to a variety of health problems, including diabetes, heart attack and strokes, and adds billions of dollars a year to healthcare spending, experts say.

The report called for a broad spectrum of responses, such as healthier school lunches, subsidized gym memberships for Medicare recipients and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

''As we build cul-de-sac-type subdivisions, people can no longer just walk to school, walk to church, walk to work,'' said former Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, one of the report's authors. ``They can't walk anyplace, so they have to get in the car and drive someplace.''

NO GOVERNMENT

Radley Balko, a policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, was skeptical of the report's call for public action.

''What you eat and how much you exercise are very private matters,'' he said. ``If government starts getting into the business of trying to regulate our pants size, I can't think of anything left that wouldn't be in the government's purview.''

In recent years, as the public health community's outcry over obesity rates has grown louder, federal, state and local governments have tried to address the issue.

ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE

Miami-Dade and Broward public schools are revamping lunch menus to make them healthier. State and county health officials have conducted obesity summits.

Yet rates have continued to rise.

''It's a toxic food environment,'' said Sheah Rarback, a registered dietitian at the University of Miami. ``Every gas station sells food. Every place we go, we're stimulated to eat. It's very hard to escape this constant stimulation for these quick grab-and-go foods, which are usually high calorie, low nutrition.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health/12458583.htm

[bxbomb]

we are by nature a gluttonous nation ...everything in excess

check this story out:

ROCHESTER, N.H. - As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' "

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern. The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate.

Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

Bruce Friedman, chairman of the board of medicine, said he could not discuss specific complaints. Assistant Attorney General Catherine Bernhard, who conducted the investigation, also would not comment, citing state law that complaints are confidential until the board takes disciplinary action.

The board's Web site says disciplinary sanctions may range from a reprimand to the revocation of all rights to practice in the state.

"Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone," said board member Kevin Costin.

Other overweight patients have come to Bennett's defense.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," Mindy Haney told WMUR-TV on Tuesday. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but acknowledged that the initially didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Doctor Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

[mfiorellino]

What do you expect? We're the nation that invented drive-thru McDonald's! People are too lazy to get out and walk to the counter to pick up their Big Macs and large Cokes. LOL.

[igloo]

What do you expect? We're the nation that invented drive-thru McDonald's! People are too lazy to get out and walk to the counter to pick up their Big Macs and large Cokes. LOL.

You left off the Super-Size fries and the 'diet" coke to go along with the Big mac