Total body conductivity sounds like a fast and reasonable solution. It's not like you have to test those who fit in a single seat.
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Food, Fat, Obesity and Airplanes - a question
- Thread starter doublestop
- Start date
Total body conductivity sounds like a fast and reasonable solution. It's not like you have to test those who fit in a single seat.
Just ask how much it would be and if you can upgrade to first class
Then you'll not fee so bad about cramping the poor SOB next to you 
I'm 6'2", 270lbs and I'm miserable when I fly. I usually take a prescription pain med and sleep and drool on whoever is next to me 
Its pretty easy to find food that doesnt have all that crap in it. The problem is that its not convenient enough for everyone. People don't take their time these days to plan out their meals and actually cook a nutritious dinner, they want everything done & ready in 5 minutes. The US is by and large a 'microwave culture'. For the last year Ive mostly been eating fresh vegetables (which are pretty cheap), cheese, bread, pasta, rice, and some TVP (textured vegetable protein: soy). Ive dropped about 20lbs in the last year as a result of my new diet. For reference, I work 9 hour days in an office enviroment, sitting on TB all day. I drink lots of beer at home. I'm 6' tall and 165lbs, the weight I was at when I graduated high school 8 years ago. I play dodgeball (lazily, while drinking beer) once a week, and if the weather is good will go for a few mile hike on a weekend.
It's a numbers game. Less people to complain about booze, tobacco and weed restrictions.
Please remember that most of us work almost the entire first half of every year just to pay TAXES. Almost every household now has both parents working just to feed our out of control government entitlement system, and that situation is getting worse by the second. Imagine the effect this is having on our life styles and our children.
If I prepped and cooked everything I ate, I'd never have time to get any work done. A vicious cycle I tell you 
That's only valid as long as you plan on outlawing ANY activity that can cause harm. Smoking, drinking, eating salt or fat or sugar, driving, bike riding, rock climbing, sky diving, crossing the street, etc. Otherwise, someone is just sitting there and passing judgements that "this is ok (because I approve) and this is not ok (because I don't approve)."
How many joggers have bad knees from jogging or heart attacks while jogging? Do you mind paying for their medical care?
Besides, according to Sleeper, in a few years we'll discover that cigarettes and chocolate are good for you, won't we?
I think what a lot of it is is that Americans like to discriminate, and smokers and fat people are two of the few groups for which that is still allowed. Nothin' like pushing people around to make one feel important!
It's not that there isa right to eat unhealthy, but there is a right to live our own lives as we please so long as it doesn't negatively impact other people. Drinking and driving, Smoking, things like that can do that in serious ways. Being crammed in a seat for a few hours is no where even close to the same level.
The food issue is controversial because, unlike smoking and alcohol consumption, the government would have to regulate what you do in your home to achieve it's purpose. You can smoke in your home, or on your doorstep. You can get trashed in your apartment and so long as you don't get behind the wheel you're really not a threat to anyone's life. To get people healthier or whatever you'd have to regulate what people put in their mouths everywhere. Regulate proportions, etc.
No one has the right to fly, or to be comfortable on a flight while flying.I once flew from Las Vegas to Houston, I was 'crammed' between a fat gut left and a fat woman on the right.......not a pleasant flight!When I see obese people on CNN who claim their 'rights' to fly, I think: I - as a skinny guy - have a right to travel comfortably as well!
agreed. cooking healthy is extremely easy and the ingredients are easy to come by. unfortunately the rest of the equation isn't always the same. some people just have to work harder at staying thin than others regardless of what they eat.
You want to get to the root cause IMO its convenience and value.
In most cases we have a longer work week and a we all commute, this puts tremendous strain on the individual to maximize time spent.
McDonalds will sell you a big ol meal for $6.00 without having to leave your car.
Everything in America is mass marketed and produced, so companies invest tons of money into making their food taste better than their competitors, last longer on the shelves and come in higher quantities. The "taste better" part is where for a long time things went awry, as this means add more sugar and more fat. Soon all the cheap easy to cook food is un-healthy and real tasty. This drives out the market for expensive and healthy food. Hummus which is just ground chick peas costs 5 bucks for a little container. I could buy 2 pints of ice cream for that.
Even in college a chicken ceaser salad with one piece of cheap quality chicken/lettuce cost me $4.50, where as a bacon cheese burger with fries and a soda cost only $4.25
So in short: No time for exercise/to cook and the cheap food is the worst for you. It's not necessarily the American citizens fault but more a result of the size of the nation and its economic structure.
You see all this health obsession generated by our massive Pharmaceuticals industry which is now back lashing into food...Once the media hype gets large enough companies start offering "light" version of all their products and trying to profit that way, but we've all been eating the high fat/sugar versions for years and that stuff is addicting.
Let me end all this by saying that I'm big guy and I've been bigger and smaller than I am now, I'm 5'8 and never been below 198, a lot of this is metabolism and my lifestyle. I was at 265 for awhile and right now I'm around 225. The times I did the best where in college where I had free time to hike and had to walk everywhere I went. In the working world with a desk job it's real hard, I don't drink any sugar/fat, just water and diet snapple. I try to eat healthy but I'm limited to what I have the patience to prepare/what is served at the cafe at work. One can only eat so many turkey sandwiches in a week. Even the salad bar no has more noodle salad and cheese in it then vegetables, and salad dressing has more fat in it than the hamburger half the time.
I'm not a morning person and when I get home from work at 7:00 all I want to do is watch TV, it's hard enough to find time for bass. Forget it if I have band practice/bass lessons and I don't get in till 9:30 or midnight after work. I pretty much have to eat on the run or not eat/eat right before bed.
BTW my grocery list = baked chips, baked nachos/salsa, 2 packages of lunch meat (turkey and ham), bread, 4 cans of tuna(in water not oil), eggs, pickles, no sugar jello, 5 green apples, a container of hummus, crackers, cereal bars/cereal (basic 4), diet soda, white rice/chicken, sometimes some almonds...and I usually tack on a block of expensive cheese + crackers. Usually comes out to just over $100 bucks, and it varies a little, sometimes I eat baked beans, or a lot of soups...all the healthiest stuff I can find with the exception that nothing but the apples can go bad quickly, because I don't have time to grocery shop and if I buy lettuce, or mushrooms or w/e it all goes bad.
In most cases we have a longer work week and a we all commute, this puts tremendous strain on the individual to maximize time spent.
McDonalds will sell you a big ol meal for $6.00 without having to leave your car.
Everything in America is mass marketed and produced, so companies invest tons of money into making their food taste better than their competitors, last longer on the shelves and come in higher quantities. The "taste better" part is where for a long time things went awry, as this means add more sugar and more fat. Soon all the cheap easy to cook food is un-healthy and real tasty. This drives out the market for expensive and healthy food. Hummus which is just ground chick peas costs 5 bucks for a little container. I could buy 2 pints of ice cream for that.
Even in college a chicken ceaser salad with one piece of cheap quality chicken/lettuce cost me $4.50, where as a bacon cheese burger with fries and a soda cost only $4.25
So in short: No time for exercise/to cook and the cheap food is the worst for you. It's not necessarily the American citizens fault but more a result of the size of the nation and its economic structure.
You see all this health obsession generated by our massive Pharmaceuticals industry which is now back lashing into food...Once the media hype gets large enough companies start offering "light" version of all their products and trying to profit that way, but we've all been eating the high fat/sugar versions for years and that stuff is addicting.
Let me end all this by saying that I'm big guy and I've been bigger and smaller than I am now, I'm 5'8 and never been below 198, a lot of this is metabolism and my lifestyle. I was at 265 for awhile and right now I'm around 225. The times I did the best where in college where I had free time to hike and had to walk everywhere I went. In the working world with a desk job it's real hard, I don't drink any sugar/fat, just water and diet snapple. I try to eat healthy but I'm limited to what I have the patience to prepare/what is served at the cafe at work. One can only eat so many turkey sandwiches in a week. Even the salad bar no has more noodle salad and cheese in it then vegetables, and salad dressing has more fat in it than the hamburger half the time.
I'm not a morning person and when I get home from work at 7:00 all I want to do is watch TV, it's hard enough to find time for bass. Forget it if I have band practice/bass lessons and I don't get in till 9:30 or midnight after work. I pretty much have to eat on the run or not eat/eat right before bed.
BTW my grocery list = baked chips, baked nachos/salsa, 2 packages of lunch meat (turkey and ham), bread, 4 cans of tuna(in water not oil), eggs, pickles, no sugar jello, 5 green apples, a container of hummus, crackers, cereal bars/cereal (basic 4), diet soda, white rice/chicken, sometimes some almonds...and I usually tack on a block of expensive cheese + crackers. Usually comes out to just over $100 bucks, and it varies a little, sometimes I eat baked beans, or a lot of soups...all the healthiest stuff I can find with the exception that nothing but the apples can go bad quickly, because I don't have time to grocery shop and if I buy lettuce, or mushrooms or w/e it all goes bad.
How many joggers are in my hospital? Now compare that to smokers and obese patients.
Let me guess, you're a smoker, then hand me a bunch of propaganda on why your right to smoke is....bla bla bla.
You can be as cynical as you want, but the American government does not have the right to keep people from smoking for their own good.
...for now. Big tobacco was once thought to be a revenue generator. Even 5-6 years ago when I was a student, I saw several comprehensive studies showing that smokes should cost about $10 a pack to generate enough tax $ to break even and that's before inefficient government is factored in.
With the government expanding health care, I wouldn't be surprised to see heavier restrictions. You can't even smoke in a lot of bars, concert halls, etc, in a lot of cities.
Now, are the smokers also going to argue that seatbelt laws are dumb as well?
"Rights" only work in a well educated society.
First of all, without getting political, but the current healthcare bill is dead. There was a slim margin of opportunity for it to get passed in, and that's over.
Seat belts are a bad analog because you're in the public space while you're driving, so you abide by public laws, regulating things that are private lifestyle choices, like smoking, eating trans fats, etc, inside the home, is NOT within the rights granted to the United States government. I cannot speak to other countries since I haven't read their constitutions or other assorted founding documents.
Also be careful about what you say about where and to whom rights apply or work for, unless you want to come off sound like you promote an oligarchy or monarchy. The right to live one's own life and face the consequences of one's own actions is a basic human right. Where people go wrong and where this has been manipulated is when people expect others to pick up their mess for them and give them everything they need/want.
So if the ruling elite deem us to not be "well educated", should our rights be taken away?
Well, there is currently a debate about seatbelt laws going on in the KS legislature, and there's nothing about "dumb" in the debate. Actually, the debate has to do with conservative principals and intrusive blanket laws. You see, the neither of the Constitutions of both the USA or KS give the GOVERNMENT the right to protect me from myself. WE have rights, the government does not. So "are seatbelt laws dumb?" is a baseless question in this context. More properly one could ask "Are seatbelt laws justifiable under the principal of restricted government".
Same thing goes for smoking laws. It's not a matter of if smoking is ok or not (or eating sugar is ok or not). It is a matter of whether or not we want to allow any government to make those decisions for us!
"Rights" work everywhere, all the time. They are inalienable.
You just described most of what is currently wrong with society. Do you think those who defend the rights of smoking tend to have insurance or cover their own bills? Same tends to go with those who defend their right not to wear a seatbelt. I would know, spent a lot of time on trauma back in the day.
So if the ruling elite deem us to not be "well educated", should our rights be taken away?
They already do in the form of laws, restrictions, etc.
