Great article about the "obesity epidemic"

[firecat]

And not only because it uses my favorite example of confusing correlation with causation:

Killing Turkeys Causes Winter by Sandy Szwarc

(Those of you participating in the current LJ fat flame war, feel free to use this as ammo.)

Comments

[firecat]

I agree with your reasons for not liking fast food restaurants.

I don't agree that eating well, exercising regularly, and staying otherwise healthy (whatever all those things mean) make very many people not-fat. It's a popular myth, but in fact lots of people who are fat do all three.

People who are very thin are largely ignored because of all the screeching about how so many people are getting fatter, even though there's substantial evidence that being very thin is associated with (but not necessarily in a causal way, in either direction) worse health than being fat is.

[ailbhe]

IME, the people who are fat, fit, and healthy tend to be people who have always been fat, fit and healthy, rather than people who "could avoid becoming fat". I really wasn't saying that people who are naturally fat can just choose not to be. I said that lots of people could avoid becoming fat. I did mean there to be a clear distinction between the two.

Then there's people like me, with big fat wobbly bottoms and thighs, and slightly concave stomachs [0]. I'm fat _and_ preternaturally thin, at the same time! (No, not really, but the clothes manufacturers think so).

A.
[0] The stomach is gradually becoming convex, now. Bottom still wobbles though.

[firecat]

I'm sorry I misunderstood what you were saying about "becoming fat."

Then there's people like me, with big fat wobbly bottoms and thighs, and slightly concave stomachs.

Glenn Gaesser's book Big Fat Lies says that fat on the bottom and thighs protects against heart disease. So it's a good way to be, even if it makes it harder to buy clothes. :-P