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The Bulging Costs Of America's Obesity Epidemic
A month ago we chronicled what we consider one of the biggest problems for America's long-term viability in "No Country For Thin Men: 75% Of Americans To Be Obese By 2020" which goes straight to the heart of the biggest shortfall in America's balance sheet: the net present value of future spending associated with Medicare and various other healthcare related programs, which will sadly only rise as more and more Americans become morbidly obese, and demand more expensive health service out of the piggy bank that even now has tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities. And while the future is certainly not bright, the past and present are just as bleak. A Reuters report focuses on just how it is that America got to where it is today (most likely sitting in front a computer, eating potato chips and drinking sugar-laden soda): "The percentage of Americans who are obese (with a BMI of 30 or higher) has tripled since 1960, to 34 percent, while the incidence of extreme or "morbid" obesity (BMI above 40) has risen sixfold, to 6 percent. The percentage of overweight Americans (BMI of 25 to 29.9) has held steady: It was 34 percent in 2008 and 32 percent in 1961. What seems to have happened is that for every healthy-weight person who "graduated" into overweight, an overweight person graduated into obesity." Which is not surprising: with pink and white slime food substitutes (as an example) allowing more and more low income individuals to drown their sorrows in fat (aka high calorie dollar meals) it was only a matter of time. Sadly, there is nothing in the equation that indicates this is set to change any time soon, even as the all too real costs, to both the individual and to society, mount in an exponential manner.
Here is a sample of how America's obesity epidemic is causing not just the average circumference of Americans to explode, but also how it is sending private and public sector costs and expenses through the stratosphere:
- U.S. hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients.
- The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking.
- Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960.
- Because obesity raises the risk of a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, the obese are absent from work more often than people of healthy weight. The most obese men take 5.9 more sick days a year; the most obese women, 9.4 days more. Obesity-related absenteeism costs employers as much as $6.4 billion a year, health economists led by Eric Finkelstein of Duke University calculated.
- The very obese lose one month of productive work per year, costing employers an average of $3,792 per very obese male worker and $3,037 per female. Total annual cost of presenteeism due to obesity: $30 billion.
- Obese men rack up an additional $1,152 a year in medical spending, especially for hospitalizations and prescription drugs, Cawley and Chad Meyerhoefer of Lehigh University reported in January in the Journal of Health Economics.
- Obese women account for an extra $3,613 a year. Using data from 9,852 men (average BMI: 28) and 13,837 women (average BMI: 27) ages 20 to 64, among whom 28 percent were obese, the researchers found even higher costs among the uninsured: annual medical spending for an obese person was $3,271 compared with $512 for the non-obese.
- Nationally, that comes to $190 billion a year in additional medical spending as a result of obesity, calculated Cawley, or 20.6 percent of U.S. health care expenditures.
And guess who ends up eating (no pun intended) the shortfall? You:
- Those extra medical costs are partly born by the
non-obese, in the form of higher taxes to support Medicaid and higher
health insurance premiums. Obese women raise such "third party"
expenditures $3,220 a year each; obese men, $967 a year, Cawley and
Meyerhoefer found.
That is only the beginning:
The startling economic costs of obesity, often borne by the non-obese, could become the epidemic's second-hand smoke. Only when scientists discovered that nonsmokers were developing lung cancer and other diseases from breathing smoke-filled air did policymakers get serious about fighting the habit, in particular by establishing nonsmoking zones. The costs that smoking added to Medicaid also spurred action. Now, as economists put a price tag on sky-high body mass indexes (BMIs), policymakers as well as the private sector are mobilizing to find solutions to the obesity epidemic.
The private sector is starting to take steps to trim America's fat, so to say, with negative reinforcement:
The U.S. health care reform law of 2010 allows employers to charge obese workers 30 percent to 50 percent more for health insurance if they decline to participate in a qualified wellness program. The law also includes carrots and celery sticks, so to speak, to persuade Medicare and Medicaid enrollees to see a primary care physician about losing weight, and funds community demonstration programs for weight loss.
Naturally, in a country which loathes negative reinforcement more than anything (as it involved work to undo retroactive shortfalls), cries of discrimination against fat people are reaching fever pitch:
Such measures do not sit well with all obese Americans. Advocacy groups formed to "end size discrimination" argue that it is possible to be healthy "at every size," taking issue with the findings that obesity necessarily comes with added medical costs.
Oddly enough, nobody had a problem with smokers being stigmatized: after all while eating is optional, even stuffing your mouth with the worst filth imaginable, it is simply unamerican to blame someone for eating. Smoking is a different matter entirely. Yet when one cuts to the chase, smoking is a far lower financial drag on society than fatness (sic):
One recent surprise is the discovery that the costs of obesity exceed those of smoking. In a paper published in March, scientists at the Mayo Clinic toted up the exact medical costs of 30,529 Mayo employees, adult dependents, and retirees over several years.
"Smoking added about 20 percent a year to medical costs," said Mayo's James Naessens. "Obesity was similar, but morbid obesity increased those costs by 50 percent a year. There really is an economic justification for employers to offer programs to help the very obese lose weight."
And here we get into some rather Mengelian demographic reverse eugenics:
For years researchers suspected that the higher medical costs of obesity might be offset by the possibility that the obese would die young, and thus never rack up spending for nursing homes, Alzheimer's care, and other pricey items.
That's what happens to smokers. While they do incur higher medical costs than nonsmokers in any given year, their lifetime drain on public and private dollars is less because they die sooner. "Smokers die early enough that they save Social Security, private pensions, and Medicare" trillions of dollars, said Duke's Finkelstein. "But mortality isn't that much higher among the obese."
In other words, those damn fat people just refuse to die. One is unsure whether to laugh or cry that this is the kind of prudent financial analysis that would carry tens, if not hundreds of trillions in unfunded medical costs. And yet, that's precisely what it is.
Where one does have to laugh is when extrpolating physical events as a result of obesity. Such as gas prices.
Some costs of obesity reflect basic physics. It requires twice as much energy to move 250 pounds than 125 pounds. As a result, a vehicle burns more gasoline carrying heavier passengers than lighter ones.
"Growing obesity rates increase fuel consumption," said engineer Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois. How much? An additional 938 million gallons of gasoline each year due to overweight and obesity in the United States, or 0.8 percent, he calculated. That's $4 billion extra.
It gets better:
The built environment generally is changing to accommodate larger Americans. New York's commuter trains are considering new cars with seats able to hold 400 pounds. Blue Bird is widening the front doors on its school buses so wider kids can fit. And at both the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, seats are wider than their predecessors by 1 to 2 inches.
The new performance testing proposed by transit officials for buses, assuming an average passenger weight of 175 instead of 150 pounds, arise from concerns that heavier passengers might pose a safety threat. If too much weight is behind the rear axle, a bus can lose steering. And every additional pound increases a moving vehicle's momentum, requiring more force to stop and thereby putting greater demands on brakes. Manufacturers have told the FTA the proposal will require them to upgrade several components.
Leave it to Keynesians to justify away fatness:
"Yes, a heart attack will generate economic activity, since the surgeon and hospital get paid, but not in a good way," said Murray Ross, vice president of Kaiser Permanente's Institute for Health Policy. "If we avoided that heart attack we could have put the money to better use, such as in education or investments in clean energy."
From Broken Window to Busted Ticker falacy. Brilliant.
The best news, however, is that at least the fat are as docile as Hindu cows (just before they are eaten in the local McDonalds):
The books on obesity remain open. The latest entry: An obese man is 64 percent less likely to be arrested for a crime than a healthy man. Researchers have yet to run the numbers on what that might save.
And so it goes on.
As noted, while we are unsure whether to laugh or cry, the sad conclusion sticks out like an overflowing midsection: spending related to America's obesity epidemic will merely continue to rise. One can argue about the behvioral reasons for this propensity of Americans to chew the fat until one is blue in the face, but the truth is that until cheap, low quality food is easily accessible, as long as a sedentary lifestyle is dominant (and with more and more working in front of a computer all day long this won't change any time soon), and as long as healthcare is supposedly prefunded and exists to everyone, the problem will only get worse.
So go out, have that $0.99 cent meal, and enjoy life. Because a stray heart attack is only a few cholesterol molecules away.
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One thing I never hear discussed whenever this subject is brought up: the fact that all of these huge people take massive dumps.
Where'd you get this data?
You're not just guessing, right?
I just returned from disneyworld. its an international scene. the weight problem appears to be an international thing - not just USA.
The japanese, perhaps thanks to radiated food, looked as thin as always.
The pink slime thing puts me on edge a bit since I eat at mcD's regularly. Its gross. But, I don't blame mcD's.
I blame Paula Dean. Imagine if she had to publish food data like mcD's does. The food police would close her
down. We pretend that other restaurants are "good" when we have no proof of what the likes of Paula do to the
food behind the kitchen door. I'm 52, 150lbs and 6' tall. Its not mcD's that's the problem. I eat out 1000 times
a year. The problem is the "other" restaurants. It is hell to get "reasonable" food and proportions at US restaurants...
The problem is the "other" restaurants. It is hell to get "reasonable" food and proportions at US restaurants...
Oh come on, is that really accurate? Most menus I have ever seen (probably ALL) have seemingly healthy options on their menus, including McD. It's just at a restaurant, speaking for myself here, I usually tend to indulge, because it is a rare treat or occasion.
What restaurant does not have a baked fish with vegetable side dishes, "no bread basket thank you." "No dessert thank you." What could be healthier than that? Or a big old Greek Salad: That has got to be the healthiest thing I can even think of, though I rarely get it when I am at a restaurant
If God made man according to his Image....
THERE'S NO MORE PLACE IN HEAVEN!!
FULL!!
Bloat....bloat on.....
For those of you saying that we have a choice to eat healthy I refer you to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Yes we do have a choice but we have been programmed since birth to choose and believe certain things according to will of the elites shapping society. It takes strong people like ourselves to question what we believe, to jump outside the box society has been imprisoned in. Remember what got you to this web site in the first place, question everything! Becareful though society has a history of killing those who questioned the status quo like Jesus, Buddha and Socrates just to name a few. We must stay strong and help others get out of this prison.
I am a Global Guerrilla.
I've never been even close to overweight. So in my youth ate as I pleased because I could...
One day almost a decade ago, out of the blue I became so sick I honesty thought I was dying. I had never felt so awful and helpless for so long. In the ER, the dismissive doctor told me to go home and take Prilosec and antacids.
A miracle. I was cured. Stomach acid is all - everyone gets it...
The miracle had a half life of six months. I started getting sick again. The years rolled on and a string of doctors offered no solutions to my chronic illness other than to up the dosage of Prilosec and Zantac (or play merry go round with all the other ppi drugs) - I was more miserable than ever.
It finally got to the point where not only was I getting ill, but was having "attacks". I would get the feeling like I was going to faint, vomit, defecate and urinate all at the same time - even with nothing in my system. I was freezing, yet sweating, my hands and feet tingled and numb. I shook and my heart raced. All of the symptoms, all at once - for hours at a time. I couldn't sleep I would pace around the house miserable for hours until I was so exhausted I could finally fall asleep.
These attacks became more and more common and doctor after doctor told me it was "stress". I became afraid to eat. I realized I could not live this way and was considering suicide at one point. Yes, these attacks were really that bad...I had no quality of life.
I was getting no real help from any of these doctors - they always had another pill to try that worked for a few weeks at most. I did what every desperate person does - I Googled.
After months of message boards, chat rooms and WebMD articles trying to self diagnose - I ran across a doctor in the UK who was answering questions. I wrote him a detailed description...in ten minutes he responded.
The good doctor had a low opinion of US medical system and wasn't shy about it. He told me flat out to throw out the meds and go to the health food store and buy magnesium malate, probiotics and digestive enzymes. Drink water, eat applesauce and almonds for a few days and when I was feeling better to go see a nutritionist. He told me to avoid sugar like it was rat poison. He said odds are I had fatty liver - it didn't matter I was not overweight and not a drinker.
A miracle. A real one. It was a week of hell but I started to improve. I slowly got my life back over the next few months. I took his advice and went to a nutritionist. Best $75 dollars I ever spent. Understanding how food affects and works with the body was a eye opener. It goes far beyond "eat your fruits and vegetables".
I am now in better shape now than I was 20 years ago. I still order a pizza now and again. Still enjoy a dessert every so often. I just pay close attention to what I eat, and avoid prepackaged foods as much as possible.
I not preaching. Life is short - far be it from me to tell others what they should do or think, that was not the point of this post. I just wanted to "pay it forward" in case there was someone out there in hell like I was. If so, I hope this helps...
What? You went shopping at natural food store? You're NOT supposed to do that.
There was...sticker shock. Apparently, when you don't make HFCS the main ingredient in food it becomes twice as expensive.
And HFCS is EVERYWHERE. Look at a random food label now and again, and chances are good you'll find it lurking as one of the key ingredients. It's in cookies, cakes, breads, crackers, drinks, ...Hell, I even found in my dog's food. The corn(hole) lobby is now running ads defending HFCS, saying it's just the same as cane sugar. While that MAY be true, HFCS is everywhere. IT's like the Borg of sweeteners.
The attractiveness of HFCS to food processors is obvious. It's cheaper. And it's cheaper in large part because of price supports/subsidies given to the Fanjul family and other dominators of the US cane sugar industry. So isnt it swell we get to pay twice for our collective sweet tooth?
And the main problem with it, from a public health standpoint, is the fructose, which must be processed by the liver. It is an insidious sugar that humans evolved only getting much access to when fruits were ripe in season, not year around all day long in high concentrations.
Also, note that HFCS is 55% fructose, but cain sugar is 50% fructose. Both are VERY bad for you, but HFCS is a tad more pernicious because it is cheaper, subsidized heavily, and 10% stronger in fructose.
HD - kudos to you for continuing to search for answers and not being afraid to accept the fact that you have been a victim of blatant malpractice by the medical establishment. Antacids and proton pump inhibitors are HUGE business. Just watch the evening news (gasp!) sometime. Every other ad is for the little purple pill. Our bodies produce acid for a reason!!! A corrosive environment is required to properly break down food to extract the nutrients and properly excrete the waste. Most people with acid reflux actually don't produce ENOUGH acid. The undigested food sits in the stomach fermenting, causing gas to push the slightly acidic food back up into the esophagus which is not protected against acid. It burns.
For anyone suffering from heartburn, GERD, acid reflux, etc., I strongly encourage you to check out Chris Kresser's website. I take a digestive enzyme supplement with every meal along with two HCl pills and I never get reflux anymore. Gone too is my chronic constipation. An added bonus is that I eat less food since I'm actually extracting a greater proportion of energy, vitamins, and minerals from the food I consume.
Fat is the new poor.
Poor people have been fat for a few centuries, everywhere where industrially produced sugar and refined flour are key food sources of the poor.
"Thirty-five million Americans went to sleep one night in 1998 at a government-approved weight and woke up "overweight" the next morning, thanks to a change in the government’s definition. That group includes currently "overweight" celebrities like Will Smith and Pierce Brosnan, as well as NBA stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It even includes George W. Bush, considered the most fit president in U.S. history. "Overweight" had previously been defined as a BMI of 27.8 for men and 27.3 for women; in 1998 it was lowered to a BMI of 25 for both genders"
Why do I see so many super fat duds around then?
Not saying people are not getting fatter, just saying things are not as bad as they claim. As this is a financial blog, its like saying The Dow beat so and so investment (PMs) over the last 10 years without mentioning that 2 companies were replaced in the Dow (GM being one) after imploding. In other words the baseline changed....also read my second post which I think explains the "fat duds" (sic) around
The "overweight" lable is bullshit because it's based on statistical generalities--it's meaningless on an individual level. Height and weight based measurement is just crude: muscle is heavier than fat but the that measure makes no distinction.
They do this all the time. Same thing with cholesterol. The health industry leverages government in that they get them to accept "higher health standards" so as to cast a wider net. More sick people = more customers. Good for business. Of course, they'll never stop. Already they say breathing is bad. It's all about __________ in the end, isn't it?
Meanwhile > 90% of the public swallows the lies the medical establishment dishes out. Even ZH'ers will defend their studies. As one poster put it, what led you to ZH? Question everything.
"The conviction that smoking causes lung cancer is probably so embedded in Western culture now, largely through 60 years of repetition, that it's probably almost part of the DNA now. People may be uncertain about almost everything else, but they're certain about that. It's the one thing that almost everybody is quite certain about. And that makes it a belief on which an awful lot is riding. If people find out that this belief is mistaken, that it'll mean that nobody knows anything about anything. That everything they know is wrong. And that's an intolerable thought. So people will carry on believing that smoking causes lung cancer, because the alternative is too terrifying to contemplate."
http://frank-davis.livejournal.com/123363.html
" ...high calorie dollar meals..." ??
It's not a McDonald's problem. And it's not a dollar meals problem. And it's not (necessarily) a high calorie problem. It's a problem with which types of foods our calories are coming from. Calories from sugars and starches contribute to fat gain. Lower carbs, and brief but intense weekly exercise, will lose weight.
You mean treat our bodies the way they were programmed over tens of thousands of years to be treated? Eating plants and animals and occasionally running for your life and carrying heavy items from time to time? Makes sense to me! Hunter-gatherer societies eating large amounts of saturated animal fat are lean and don't develop diabetes and cancer until they start eating a civilized diet high in refined carbs.
Of course, it requires working out some cognitive dissonance issues. We've been programmed to believe that consuming fat is bad. Cut the grains, sugars, hydrogenated vegetable oils, and commercial dairy for 30 days and I'll bet you'll feel like a million bucks. Your body and mind will awaken. Once you transition from a sugar-burner to a fat burner, which take a few days, you will no longer experience those ups and downs caused by high blood glucose followed by the inevetible insulin spike which brings on a sudden energy crash, followed by a cortisol spike and more carb cravings. It's a vicous cycle that is no longer part of my life. I've cheated a few times with pizza, a piece of cake, etc. and it's never worth it.
But wait! There's more! (Pun intended)
Gradual weight gain left unchecked may lead to the onset of the dreaded "Dick-Doo" disease.
That's when your tummy sticks out more than your dick do.
it's a self-replenishing and mobile strategic oil reserve.
My horse vet clued me in on this one... only purchase and consume food at the grocery store that is located on the perimeter areas. Stay out of the aisles.
It's genetic. My Grampa at the tender age of 32:
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/12205512-md.jpg
Handsome devil.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder...
One thing I noticed nobody is looking at "Low Fat" labeling sponsored by the FDA.
"You see, if you're a food manufacturer and you're removing the fat from some food, you need to replace it with something else or it won't taste very good. So, we wound up with a slew of low-fat products loaded with sugar. And since high-fructose corn syrup was now available cheaply, adding sweetness was an easy thing to do.
So easy, in fact, that high-fructose corn syrup started showing up in hundreds -- if not thousands -- of food products.
At the same time as all of this was happening, American started eating more of everything. This, too, is no coincidence. Here's why: If I give you a carton of Domino's sugar and tell you to eat till your heart's content, you won't consume very much. Same thing with butter. But if I put them together, something magical happens. Combine sugar and fat and every one of your evolutionary buttons are pushed. Manufacturers know this. Cravings get activated, brain chemistry starts firing, you can literally eat this stuff 'till you bust"
IE fat fills you up sugar always leaves you wanted more.
We just need leaders who are not afraid to confront the fat issue when they see it, like Berlusconi did with Merkel when he called her an "unfuckable lard-ass".
Food chain issue. We ate the burger that grew on a cow that was produced to be exceptionally big. In a few years lightbulbs will not be needed as we eat the fish from the nuclear oceans.
Big fat glowing masses waddling toward Washington. A revolution of revulsion.
“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”
-- Jim Rohn
The old carbo loaded "food pyramid" is the reason so many americans are obese. Obesity and diabetes go in hand in hand from that source. Carrying extra weight sucks incresingly with age as old joints suffer and fail under the load. Diabetes sucks as you go blind and loose appendages.
How about a Fat Tax?
Yes, by all means let's hand govt even more power and control over us? Why not just ask for a proper fitting noose?
we used to call that "being the brunt of scorn and jokes" back in the 80's, but it's all been ruled inhumane and damaging to feelings so it's not done any longer.
Make that a "Carb Tax" Fat (natural fat) is not the problem, and particulary not the vilified saturated variety. Humans evolved eating loads of that, and still thrive on it when they choose or have to eat mostly meat and animal fat.
A natural human response to an uncertain future is to eat, eat, and eat some more.
Rule #1 maintain cardio....
Why all the worry? Sooner or later, those arteries will clog up and solve the problem. Just have stealth rationing (sugar pills instead of actual medicine for chubbies, delay surgeries for them, make lots of elevators closed for repairs, etc.) to accelerate the winnowing of humanity. Or, just wait for the total collapse and then they're good temporary jersey barriers between your family and the hordes and/or zombies.
If we don't have obese people what would happen to all those people earning a living from diet scams, weight loss clinics, pharmaceutical sales, special clothing, more profits for drug companies and cosmetic surgery. Oh yeah, what would happen to all those factory food producers if obese people ate less of their cheap ingredients. Isn't unemployment bad enough without adding more to the ranks. What we should do is come up with new stuff to make people sick in other ways so more people could be employed keeping them alive.
the same thing that happened to all those laid off mortgage brokers and RE agents. They would have to get a real job. like Wal MArt greeter.
Forget about the science. We need scapegoats from among the 99%ers. Some are white. Some are black. Some are men. Some are women. Some are gay. Some are straight. But they are all disgustingly fat and deserving of their fate. Fat people it is.
Even though we all already have an opinion....remember, we really do not know why sooooo many people are getting fat. I'm sure deep down inside most think it is simple gluttony....but why now? As easy as it is for us to chuckle and smirk we should consider the possibility that some environmental factor is contributing to the epidemic. If estrogen like substances can cause frogs to grow both sex organs why not some similar weird hormone like substance in the water or food chain that causes strange behavior in adipose tissue?
20 years ago a family doctor in Australia found a bacteria that caused duodenal ulcers. We had developed an entire mythology about ulcers over the past few hundred years before that. With his discovery woooosh all myths gone...and a treatment was soon developed. No promises but the same could happen with obesity. I'll buy a pound of butter for the reaseacher who makes the big discovery.
20 years ago a family doctor in Australia found a bacteria that caused duodenal ulcers. We had developed an entire mythology about ulcers over the past few hundred years before that. With his discovery woooosh all myths gone...and a treatment was soon developed. No promises but the same could happen with obesity. I'll buy a pound of butter for the reaseacher who makes the big discovery.
I'm glad you mentioned the link between a certain bacteria causing ulcers because it is totally bogus. Ulcers are psychosomatic. The bacteria exists only to repair the ulcer. The fact that it was discovered means that the patient was/is already in the healing stage of the disease. So doctors prescribe a medication to kill the bacteria and the healing is delayed. No bacteria of any kind will ever cause someone to get an ulcer.
Citation, please?
stop eating sugar and stop eating grains
I've been eating paleo lately, cans and cans of coconut milk tons of bacon fat hundreds of calories, I've never felt better
Don't give useful advice man.
Tell these fuckers to go stuff more ho hos.
She reminds me of the feds balance sheet but at least she's balnced fore and aft. She is seriously hording assets for lean times.TBTF too big to fall over.
too big to fuck?
Time to get the food industry back on track ! when you eat shit, that's how you become...fat, sick,....big business for the pharmaceutical industry.....geez...they really figured it out all around !
Ask any farmer how they get an animal ready for market (ie. slaughter), and they will tell you "Feed them corn". Is it any different for humans?
Our N. American diet now has 5 times the amount of sugar in it that we ate in the 1900's.
Food is no longer made to be nutritious. Today it is made to maximize profits for the big food industries, as long as it doesn't kill off the customers too quickly. If the food can be made addictive, thereby maximizing sales, all the better for the big food corporations.
Note that the cigarette manufacturers diversified into big food once cigarette sales started to heat up with government regulations and restrictions in the 1970's. DO you think they applied the "secret sauce" of cigarette marketing to their newly purchased big food products?
The documentary "King Corn" took samples of hair from many people all over the USA, analyzing them for the ratios of carbon isotopes (C12, C13, C14, C16). The ratios present can acurately tell us the source of the carbon of which humans have grown their bodies. The lab analysis of human hair showed that the carbon in humans was 92% from corn. That comes from corn flakes for breakfast, high fructose corn syrup in almost all factory food, and the meat we eat, almost all of it raised on corn.
Mom always told us to eat a balanced diet. When 92% of us comes from corn, it looks like we didn't listen to Mom.
In Nov. 2011, the UN said that the greatest health concern for the developing world are the chronic metalbolic diseases (eg. obesity, high blood pressure, cancer, dementia, diabetes, and high blood lipids). Of those who are obese, 80% of them have metalbolic disease. Of those who are skinny, 20% have metabolic disease. In total, that is more than 60% of the entire US population who have metablic disease today.
When you look at all of these metabolic diseases, the cost of these metabolic diseases to the US medical system is 73% of the total expenditure on health. Each year it gets worse.
The cause of the metabolic disease? Primarily, it is too much sugar, especially too much fructose. Secondly, it is a diet of too many carbohydrates (sugar being one of the worst carbohydrates).
By cutting back to a diet containing about 10% carbohydrates, everybody will be healthier. Most people who currently have metabolic disease will put their metabolic disease into remission, only returning if they stray again into eating excessive carbohydrates.
If we don't change soon, the cost of the medical care and the lost productivity will bankrupt the nation.
Note that the cigarette manufacturers diversified into big food once cigarette sales started to heat up with government regulations and restrictions in the 1970's. DO you think they applied the "secret sauce" of cigarette marketing to their newly purchased big food products?
Nothing wrong with eating grain fed cattle. Nothing wrong with smoking tobacco. The beef is juicier and tastier. Smoking cigarettes relaxes you, helps you concentrate, and stimulates you. I eat grain feed beef. I smoke regularly. I'm healthier than most people I know.
how far can you run?
I do 5 miles every other day.
I rarely exercise. The very few times that I've ran I do quite well.
We can talk about the problem of obesity all we want, but let's be honest.
If you eat healthy and exercise and live to be 100 all you will end up with is dementia and loneliness and brittle bones and peeing over yourself.
Nobody gets out of here alive.
Yes, America is obese now. But if you look at postcards of people in bathing suits from 1900 to 1920's you will they look just like today's Americans in size. The whole obese diet thing is a sham. Even pigeons, new born babies, squirrels, and pets are 20 to 30% heavier then they were 25 years ago. That's not from eating to much, that's from something in the food chain.
My awakening occurred when I began searching for the truth about the economy, finance, etc. It became abundantly clear that I could not count on being informed by mainstream, corporate-owned media to provide the truth. That's how I stumbled onto this site where I have been a daily reader since 2009.
Over the past year, I have focused more on health, disease, nutrition, and again have learned that Big Pharma, Big Agra, and Big Media are not going to be honest with us. It's good to see quite a few commenters on this thread have done the same. Eating nutrient-dense food and the right supplements of vitamins and minerals will provide your body with the energy and nourishment it needs. I am now energy-efficient. My body does not have to process a lot of waste and toxins. My skin looks better than it ever has. I lost 40 pounds in 6 months and have effortlessly kept it off for the past 6 months. I have more energy than I've had since I was a kid. My mood and energy levels remain consistent throughout the day. I can easily skip lunch without getting a headache or missing a step. I no longer suffer from chronic joint pain, seasonal allergies, and even my rosacea is gone. There are many ways to lose weight. In fact, I did the high fiber, low fat thing a few times and lost weight, but was hungry all the time and always gained the weight back. Now, I only eat when I'm hungry and the hunger is not the panic-inducing, brain fog, headache-causing variety. It's a subtle reminder that I need to refuel.
For anyone interested, I highly recommend reading up on Mark Sisson (Primal Blueprint) or Robb Wolf (The Paleo Solution). It's not just about carbs, refined sugars, and HFCS. The hydrogenated oils, gut-irritating grains, and other inflammatory items we regulalary consume as part of the Standard American Diet were not part of our evolutionary development until very recently in human history. Most of us can blame our allergies, joint pain, and autoimmune diseases on the modern diet.