Excellent Article

[tamaranth]

... on the obsession with obesity.

"Over half the young women between the ages of 18 and 25 would prefer to be run over by a truck than be fat"

Comments

[absinthecity.livejournal.com]

That's extremely sad, especially since my first thought was "and not to mention a significant proportion of those over 25 as well, probably". I know my mother would certainly fit into that category :-/

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

There was a recent quote in an interview with Nigella Lawson. When Nigella's mother developed terminal cancer she said "What a relief, I don't have to worry about my weight any more". That says it all, really.

But to lighten the tone, I shall quote Jo Brand. "I must be an anorexic - whenever I look in the mirror I see a fat person".

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

We need to resist the pressure to overwork and underenjoy.

I like that sentiment, and I like the expression 'underenjoy'. Too much of that going on.

[reverendjim.livejournal.com]

I suppose being run over by a truck is one way to get slimmer.

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

Being run over by a steam roller would get you even thinner!

[latexiron.livejournal.com]

$419 million federal study involving 49,000 women

How on earth did they manage to spend nearly half-a-billion dollars on this project? To tell us the crashingly obvious?

Wouldn't it have been a far better plan to say "let's study only 2000 women, and spend the rest on educating the lazy bastards to walk more and drive less"?

Or give away 4 million running shoes or 2 million bicycles with the $400 million they had left over?

What a stupid survey.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I almost wonder if this is a hoax. Some of the answers quoted just seem bizarre - who the hell asks if you'd rather be fat or run over by a truck ferchrissake?! Certainly I'd love to see how the actual questions were phrased.

Plus: yes, you can be thin & unhealthy or overweight but otherwise fit, but how many overweight people are actually fit? Seems a strange thing to emphasize.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

how many overweight people are actually fit?

BP notwithstanding, I'm fairly fit (assuming we're talking about the traditional, healthy-and-strong sort of 'fit' rather than the definition that involves being called 'a bit of all right' by spotty youths).

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

I'm not denying that there are fit overweight people out there, or that there are unfit thin people. In terms of how excercise, you're doubtless fitter than me for example.
However, the article emphasized that point (about fit & fat vs unfit & skinny) at the start, then went on to say that most of us were slightly overweight because we drove to the shops & parked as close as possible & had sedentary jobs & vegged out of the tv all evening & basically were fat 'cos we didn't excercise at all - well, that hardly sounds like 'slightly overweight but fit' people to me!

I still want to see those questions tho'. How would you ask if one would rather be fat or run over by a truck? 'Mean' and 'stupid' seemed to be other options. Maybe it went like this:
Q: Which would you rather be?
1) Fat
2) Mean
3) Stupid
4) Run over by a truck

How can you answer that sensibly?

[techno-fear.livejournal.com]

I know that I can walk further, longer and faster than some of my thinner friends... thigh muscles my dear