G_j (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:02 PM
Original message
What If Being Fat Is Not Your Fault? Epidemic May Be Fueled by Chemicals in Everyday Products
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/143036/what_if_b...
What If Being Fat Is Not Your Fault? America's Obesity Epidemic May Be Fueled by Chemicals
in Everyday Products
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted October 3, 2009.
Chemicals called 'obesogens' are in our food, cars and homes, according to recent scientific
studies -- and they may be making us fat.
It's hard to escape the image of Americans as slothful and overweight. But what if being
fat weren't totally our fault?
The narrative we pound into our heads everyday is that we live in a country where fast food
rules, where morning coffee drinks can provide nearly one-quarter of your daily calories before
you even get to breakfast, and where you can have pizza topped with Oreos.
<snip>
There is a lot of emphasis on personal responsibility when it comes to weight, but the
prevalence of something scientists are now calling "obesogens" may put a crinkle in that
posturing.
Sharon Begley of Newsweek reported:
Evidence has been steadily accumulating that certain hormone-mimicking pollutants, ubiquitous
in the food chain, have two previously unsuspected effects. They act on genes in the developing
fetus and newborn to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, which stay with you for life. And
they may alter metabolic rate, so that the body hoards calories rather than burning them, like
a physiological Scrooge.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6697800Obesogens?! Yeah, that's the ticket! DUmmies will embrace anything, no matter how ridiculous,
if it promises an alternative to personal responsibility. It's not their fault!
It isn't DUmmy waiting for hope's fault he's fat:
waiting for hope (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:44 PM
26. One Dr of mine put me on Lexapro - wasn't till about three months in I realized weight gain
was a common side effect - which the makers don't advertise. I've been off it now for about
three months and am starting to see some difference.
It isn't DUmmy ccinamon's fault she's fat:
ccinamon (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:43 PM
51. not everyone who smokes gets cancer....
not everyone who is overweight gets diabetes...external stimulation just increases your risks if
you have the correct (or if you look at it another way, incorrect) genes/susceptiblity.
It probably works the same way as allergens work...not everyone gets allergies to the same
thing.
And it isn't DUmmy Hekate's fault she is an incredible lardass:
Hekate (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:09 PM
3. More salt on my air-popped popcorn, please. The Skinny Brigade will show up shortly...
... reminding us that All We Need To Do is Put The Fork Down. Nothing more to see here,
move along.
Meanwhile, Kessler's The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
is a good read. We've been manipulated by the food industry as surely as smokers were/are
manipulated by the tobacco industry.
The Skinny Brigade has arrived!
BlooInBloo (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:13 PM
5. Sounds to me like lots of folks are far more concerned with it not being their fault...
than with resolving the situation.
(shrug) Whatever. I'm not obese and never will be - so it's no skin off my nose to happily nod
and say "yup - not your fault - nothing you could have possibly done to avoid it". If that makes
them feel better, fine by me. I wish them the best.
BlooInBloo (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:23 PM
12. Nope, it's nobody's fault. Hell - there's not even a such thing as fault..
People can't exert any influence over any portion of their lives. People are really just like rocks.
It's not the rock's fault for falling, after all.
I don't agree with thinking of people in this way (it's inhumane in the *extreme*), but many
do. I *can* just nod and go along, however.
Missy Vixen (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:09 PM
35. BlooInBloo, I'm more than happy to accept blame for the things I did wrong
Could I have made better food choices? Yeah. Could I have gotten more exercise? Sure. Am I
fighting a chronic illness that insures I have the metabolism of a sloth? Yep.
There is more to the obesity epidemic than "calories in, calories out". It's a multi-pronged
issue. If you say that you're "not obese and never will be," then you have no dog in this fight,
do you?
It's just one of those scientific puzzles, how fat cells can be created without calories. But somehow,
fat DUmmies can do it!
DUmmy Balbus speaks truth, which isn't well-received by the DUmp's Lard Brigade:
Balbus (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:32 PM
46. "There is more to the obesity epidemic than "calories in, calories out". "
No, there is not. It is just that simple. No matter what medications you're on, no matter what
disease you have, no matter how slow your metabolism is, if you burn more calories than you
eat it is absolutely impossible not to lose weight.
The wetback Polack, the obnoxiously arrogant DUmmy nadinbrzrskhszchkski, is a profound lardass:
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:41 PM
By the way... when I gained with Avandia I kept a food diary. I was consuming 950 calories per
day and still gained over 50 pounds in three mounts
DUmmy nadinbrszsrcezckskzcki reminds everyone again that DUmmies lie, all the time they lie.
The Korean tub of lard DUmmy Juche:
Juche (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:10 PM
37. Try lose 40 pounds and keep it off for 5 years
If you can keep it off for 5 years, you are part of a tiny minority. Since we evolved not to starve in
famines, it is near impossible for people to lose weight and keep it off long term.
DUmmy Juche doesn't have an enormous beer gut, it's humanity's insurance against extinction.
obliviously (942 posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:17 PM
9. I have found that if I eat a lot of food I gain weight.
And if I eat less food I lose weight. I don't know how to explain it I am baffled by this phenomenon!
Scout (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:42 PM
24. perhaps you can't explain it because you are a simpleton with poor language skills.
perhaps not.
DUmmy Scout is obviously a fatass.
Ozymanithrax (521 posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:25 PM
Not saying that chemicals may not be part of the problem, but simply eating too much is a
major factor.
The tubby DUmmy KittyWampus:
KittyWampus (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:34 PM
20. The responses so far on this thread demonstrate the extent of assholery on DU AND
the ignorance that exists among supposedly well-informed liberals about nutrition and weight control.
I object. This thread does not begin to demonstrate the extent of assholery on DU.
Hekate (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:48 PM
30. They come right on cue. While sufferers look for answers (NOT excuses), the Brigade stomps...
... on them as hard as they can. It's like *******ed junior high -- no mercy, great ignorance.
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:09 PM
36. Well for me it was... stoped dieting
started to eat intuitively... yes when I am hungry I eat, when I am not, I don't
Stopped taking some meds... (they were part of the problem)
And walla weight dropped.
Walla?!?! Walla!? The arrogantly obnoxious DUmmy nadinbrszezsecinszki, the self-proclaimed smartest
fat person on all the internets, thinks the word is "walla"? Maybe she thinks the word stems from the city
in Washington state, Walla Walla. And in addition to her self-proclaimed brilliance, she is sooo
cosmopolitan?
DUmmy UGP, a fat nutcase, has taken the novel approach to weight loss of having body parts cut off.
It's effective, and easier than reducing caloric intake:
undergroundpanther (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:06 PM
34. They had success
And they feel entitled to push it on everyone else as if they have the answer,which they don't
have for everyone else.If dieting really worked nobody would be fat, considering the social pressure
and shame our fat phobic culture heaps onto overweight people.
But than again I do not expect fanatics to recognize their faith in the old and pointless calories
in /out idea is a failure.They have to pat themselves for being martyrs ya know, after all they
got skinny doing it so everyone should do what they did..so they claim.... to them I flip up the
middle finger because they are projecting themselves on everyone.The calories in/out crowd is
closed minded....
Aren't we all members of the "calories in/out crowd"?
undergroundpanther (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 09:59 PM
32. I am overweight
I have dieted and each time my weight would plateau and I would begin gaining.I'd stay with
the diet than reduce intake more and the cycle would repeated. I remember passing out in the
line at weight watchers because I was not getting enough protein in their diet regimen they
had me on. I yo yoed.Yo yo weight gain and loss is more dangerous to your health than being
overweight.I do not diet anymore.
DUmmy UGP at Weight Watchers? Now that would be a sight!
mistertrickster (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-04-09 10:14 PM
40. I can believe that. Go back and look at the movie "Woodstock" filmed 40 years ago.
The thing that really struck me and a lot of other people was how skinny all the kids were then.
A collection of 20-something drug abusers today would probably be a slender crowd as well.
This is a big bonfire, blazing away. Surprisingly, the enormous quarter-ton DUmmy from Las Vegas
hasn't arrived. He normally pops up to give diet advice.