“Obesity is a challenge we all face and is something close to my heart,” said the big-boned former vice-president of the United States. “It is a big challenge, and one that is getting bigger all the time. Let's face it, what fatties don't want is an increase in global temperatures, which is another piece of the pie.”Mr Gore said that he would embark on a lecture tour, sponsored by the new Haagen Dazs offsetting scheme, whereby, for every tub of posh ice cream that you buy, someone in India runs a lap of a forest. He is also planning a new movie on the perils of obesity, entitled 'A Big Fat Fact'. He also revealed that his work with the British government would be a new solo project.
“I feel I have gone as far as I can with my backing group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” he said. “You know how it is, artistic differences. The rest of the group has these pretensions at doing thoughtful work.”
The Peace Prize winner also brushed off criticism from the High Court of being alarmist and using misleading evidence.
“If it is alarmist and incorrect to say that we are all going to die when the whole of Mount Kilimanjaro melts on us, then I don't want to be right.” he said at the Vanity Fair after-ceremony party in Oslo.
The Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, said that Mr Gore's Nobel Prize winning talents of public relations, spectacular computer models and exaggerated claims were exactly the things needed to complement the government's action plan for combating obesity.
“Obesity is a problem that will have an impact on all areas of society, at home and at work,” said Mr Johnson. “We will need stronger sofas, and sturdier office chairs. Mr Gore's Oscar-winning talents will be able to connect with obese people right where it matters; sitting in the cinema, behind a jumbo bag of popcorn.”
26 comments:
lol. superb!!
lolz
Bwah, that windbag!
Lucky old UK!
Oh God I hope not .....I'm seriously peeved off with these issues ....if its not Climate change,..drinking alcohol, smoking....its Obesity we are being scaremongered on and the Media, Celebs and Government are
obsessed with it and have even got alot of society obsessed now too. But lets stick with the obesity issue we constantly hear these dire statistics and researches every two minutes about how its now an epidemic..... a scourge on humanity that must be driven out or it will mean all the young generation are going to die or have serious health implications but ask yourselves one thing .....where are they getting alot of these stats? Or perhaps the question asked should be where is alot of the funding coming from? I can tell you ...the Government and Health
Companies ....both of which have a lot to gain by creating and keeping this a major problem. What I think irritates me most is this compulsion to constantly label huge amounts of money that the fat cost the NHS....they add all costs of illnesses that are anyway remotely connected with obesity like Heart disease, diabetes, and even certain cancers and place it all on the fat's door......Like c'mon you can be slim and still get or have any of these illnesses? But the media is extremely selective on what they report on this issue for example concerning type 2 Diabetes.....
For years, they have claimed rising rates of obesity will fuel Type 2 Diabetes, producing the first generation of children with a shorter life expectancy than their parents ......But guess what?... Rates of Type 2 Diabetes in children are not skyrocketing. And now even many of the researchers who announced that steadily rising rates of life expectancy will suddenly drop admitted that their dire predictions were based on "collective judgment" rather than scientific evidence.
In fact, a study published late in June in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Type 2 Diabetes among children is "still relatively infrequent." And the accompanying editorial called it 'rare'. It's actually no coincidence that over the last 20 years rates of Type 2 Diabetes haven't changed significantly, but the prevalence of eating disorders has exploded.
Experts warn that over-the-top campaigns against childhood obesity are backfiring, causing kids to binge, diet, and develop eating disorders.
I also think it creates a form of prejudice against the overweight too which I have to say is pretty much present here even on this blog.
And I think this is relatively known particularly by the Government who are looking for scapegoats for a failing NHS and Health companies who are making a hell of a lot of money on the
back of a dieting fat obsessed culture....The Truth is they pick on the fat because they know they are the easy target.......the people nobody will stand up for and so the efficent
scapegoat. I also believe as amazing as this may sound the NHS could be facing increasing costs because people are generally living longer and utilising it more....but I don't see
many targeting the old!! or saying if the obese really do live shorter lives they may actually save us and the NHS money.
So apart from all this what else has the Obesity irradication policy done for us....oh yeah stopped kids eating dinners at school (Don't get me started on Jamie Oliver lol) and has reduced quality children's programmes and dramas by taking away their advertising revenue....well done crusaders!! And yes climb aboard Mr Gore and we may get a film soon called 'An Inconvenient Fat'
This whole thing would be funny if it wasn't so nasty, exploitative, conscienceless and unnecessarily sensationalistic
The fat are an easy target though. Not only a big taget but they don't move fast.
Legionmk59, all good sentiments mate, but don't make the mistake you are accusing others of. Life expectancy stats are barely effected by people living longer. They reflect people not dying young. People have always lived to 70s, 80s and beyond but less and less do we have raging child mortality rates.
It is child mortality that controls life expectancy.
If kids continue to eat rubbish at school and elsewhere then we might start to see an increase in child mortality (although that might not effect life expectancy since for that to happen at a population level it has to be very young children).
LOL - cant u c? Its just a conspirasy by the farmers 2 make us eat more veg! Leftie tree hugging veggies are trying to scare us all and the people who make brockoli are supporting dem.
No harm but you are arguing with me on minutia there mate I raised many points of particular note like the Type 2 Diabetes and how it is never reported on the UK media and your arguing about the definition of Life Expectancy to me...
What they are saying is that if your overweight or obese your going to live a shorter life or there is a chance of it I personally have seen no proof of this and I think it is scaremongering
There is also no proof that if a child is overweight or obese that his life is going to be any worse than a slim child (I know you all can't wait to get in those fat jokes again now here)
And I think alot of people don't see this because the way its presented in the media when they mention the Obese people in stats they automatically see the super obese of America and think thats what is been referred to which is
just plain crazy...in fact I think many would be surprised at exactly who we are referring to here as obese these days
Perhaps its time we stopped judging people's health by their weight
It was me that explained how life expectancy is calculated.
"I personally have seen no proof of this and I think it is scaremongering ". Do you really want to see it though?
Truth is, if you are overweight a little bit that's good. Your body is up for that because it stores excess energy as fat in case you can't eat for a few days. But if you are more than a few pounds overweight your body is now doing extra work for no reason. Your heart is "working for two" your joints are "supporting two" (you know what i mean). Smokers used to believe it was all scaremongering this talk of cancer ... tubby people can believe all they want. But the ahrsh fact is they are reducing both the quality of their lives and their life expectancy if they try and keep up.
Your body has a finite endurance. Years spent dragging excess weight around wear it out quicker. Years spent pumping blood into useless fat wear it out quicker.
True the very obese are used as extreme examples, but walk out into the street and you will see lots of very obese people! They are far from rare.
Yes, the media is scaremongering. That is how it works. But it doesn't mean there is no truth to it.
You may be right that children who are fat don't have poorer lives because they can't run and keep up with their friends at school, hate any form of physical exercise, or anything that involves getting a shower in a public place. They might love being the "jolly" one that people of the opposite sex thing are sweet "friends".
These aren't fat jokes, these are the experiences of a fat kid.
Hey I know all about being the fat kid... I was one and I was bullied for it too I was also pressured for years by these kids and my parents to diet and exercise...I was on every
diet and health plan known to man and one thing I know....it doesn't work JigglyJim unless
you want it to yourself unless you are dedicated... of course as I became older and got to my late teens after I left school when everyone else had basically given up I set to lose it myself which I did
But today I still struggle and I am confidently sure that it is genetic... I was always a big
child I was born 12 pounds and just got bigger and bigger and eventually got up to a crazy weight then as I said when I lost it (8 stone) I was still 13 stone 11 pounds at 5'9 which I
still wasn't happy with as I was still classified Overweight and not that far away from Obese
yet I had my Doctor at the time telling me to stop dieting and that to accept that people are just different sizes and weights. And I know people say Oh well done you done great losing that weight but the truth is I had a real grueling plan where I was going for two one hour walks daily...... two separate trainings and one meal a day and there was still times where I would lose nothing. What I'm really saying is that I firmly believe there are people out there who put on weight by just simply looking at a bun while there are really bad eaters who eat junk all day but don't put on an ounce (I have friends like this) and I think it is very easy for people to say oh these fatties should just lose weight or 'eat less,... exercise more' but its never that simple and I do believe these statistics and this Government and health company's campaign is just putting more pressure on overweight children....they are helping to create an even more prejudiced society towards the fat which is counterproductive. It just results in children developing eating disorders. Even today they are now talking about sending warning letters out to parents whose kids are assessed overweight in Primary school. Now in my opinion this is just another step towards ridiculing these kids
at a young age.
What makes it all so much worse in my mind is the fact that there is a hell of a lot of these stats and researches based on collective judgement rather than concrete scientific evidence... they are linking alot of illnesses to Obesity with very shaky evidence and then the way the media report it its stated as a certainty...even your claims there that if your carrying extra fat its going to wear out your body quicker has got no scientific basis the fact is you can be fat and still live alot longer than any thin man.
And even if you think JigglyJim that they could be right in what they are saying about the Obese can you truly sit there and be confident that this scaremongering is good or helpful?? Because all evidence so far has proven its completely ineffective in helping the fat lose weight but it does sell lots more health products and does continue to keep a very effective Scapegoat for a NHS which is constantly on the verge of disaster.
Having see some excellent work from the NHS recently I can say they aren't on the verge of disaster.
The thing is, people are getting fatter. Getting obese isn't good for the body. Yes some things are being blown out of proportion, but look how long it took to get smoking to be accepted as being the killer it is.
People, I am afraid, don't want to believe. They are quite happy to believe in things that other people do are bad, but not themselves. "Speeding is something other people do". "Other people drink and drive too much, not me". "Other people waste energy, not me". "You hear about other people suffering from x and y" Etc.
People can't fit into airline / train seats anymore. Paramedics struggle to lift increasingly large numbers of large people.
Most people don't realise just how inactive they are. Look at the madness of the "Fit and Fat campaign" - utter lunacy but people rationalise it as being "as fit as they need to be" despite the fact that the human heart has no such setting. There is fit and there is unfit for the heart.
You are right, fat people are being a target. but for most of them it is something they can control.
It is a simple equation:- If energy in > energy out then fat accrues. Most people do nowhere near enough exercise, these include people who are fat but don't eat much. They have balanced their intake. but they won't lose weight unless they do more exercise.
And lifting a KFC bargain bucket to the car is not exercise.
The NHS is always on the verge of disaster you just have to listen to the reports on the news every second day....
I can see we are just not going to agree JigglyJim you seem to constantly read from the same books as the media does spinning that fat is bad and unhealthy yet unable to provide proof of it
"People can't fit into airline / train seats anymore. Paramedics struggle to lift increasingly large numbers of large people."
And this comment is exactly what I'm referring to in earlier posts here...we really have a false sense of who we are talking about here due to the media coverage........people like yourself think we are talking about absolutely massive American super obese people who can't fit into seats...these are still rare in society.......I guarrantee you the majority of people classified obese in the UK can fit into train or airline seats.
And I have to say reading your post (and from listening to alot of Society generally) its almost like you don't want to help the people ....just point from afar... patronising that they should be able to do it themselves........ The problem is your solution there has been tried now and has simply not worked in fact the only thing it has substantially created is more eating disorders and prejudice.
"The NHS is always on the verge of disaster you just have to listen to the reports on the news every second day....
"I can see we are just not going to agree JigglyJim you seem to constantly read from the same books as the media does spinning that fat is bad and unhealthy yet unable to provide proof of it "
Look at these two paragraphs you have posted, one straight after the other. It is OK for you to believe media reports but not me? I have evidence of the NHS recently. It was excellent.
When I go outside and I see loads of people who struggle to sit on a train seat, in a bus seat or a plane seat. I see people who can't walk up stairs without being out of breath. I see people who can't even walk properly because their legs are so fat and their arms are so fat. Are these the rare super-obese people you are talking about? I see hundreds a day!
I hear endlessly work colleagues say "I just can't lose weight" whilst taking a lift up one or two floors. Having a latte or two, or "just one" chocolate. Who I know do zero exercise.
I also understand that the BMI system is alarming for people, doesn't take into account sex and build type (although we have to make sure we ignore the fat person's comfort myth of "big bones" here). But, equally, the middle of the weight ranges on the BMI scale are reasonable anyway.
But, to be honest, whose problem is it - really? The Fatties problem, that's who. If fatties want to be treated like smokers, a cadre of people who for decades ignored evidence because they chose not to believe it good luck to them. That's great.
At least if it goes wrong they won't come running to me. Not without stopping to get their breath back anyway.
Is this like the blog version of sumo wrestling? :-)
The first sentence I said about the NHS was stated with tongue in cheek... as it does seem every time you put on the news there is trouble in the Health System whether I believe it or you believe it is neither here nor there however you can't have it both ways either you can't say on one hand that there is no problem with the NHS and that the media is somehow misleading in this regard and than expect everyone else to believe the media on a subject like Obesity... And incidently just because you caught one hospital on perhaps a good day does not qualify as evidence for or against a whole Health System....
I have to say aswell that the second part of your post has just transcended into a barrage of prejudice talk against overweight people.....You have stopped even talking reason...how sad it must be to need to blame and point fingers rather than try and find solutions. Personally I think this problem is been completely blown out of proportion.. I do not see the hundreds of people you say you do that can't fit or even struggle to get into bus or train seats...... But the truth is it doesn't matter if we see them or not.... the media tell us they are everywhere ......so the vast majority believe ....some may even see them if they want to badly enough... after all there always has to be a crowd to hate....doesn't there??
I'll tell you though of people that do little exercise, eat junk all the time and never put on an ounce....now these people could have fat running through all their arteries and veins but they aren't seen as a heath risk...no its only those that display the fat that are considered that...... Perhaps we should be questioning everyone's lifestyles.... slim and fat alike and assessing it the risk.....There is far too much emphasis on weight being a measure of your health...and the sooner that people like yourself recognise that ....the better.
I said the media sensationalises. I am consistent. The media sensationalises NHS problems, it sensationalises helth problems. It is what the media does.
Yes, I am pointing the finger, because I am just being a realist. People can hide behind whatever they want but the harsh fact of life is that unlike passive smoking, global warming and other nightmare scenarios, there is only one thing that is going to sort fat poeple out. That is themselves. The fact that people want to ignore the truth that is as plain on the noses on their pudgy faces is up to them. It won't help them, but if it makes them sleep better at night so be it. Although "i have big bones" should be a shootable statement.
Yes, there will be people who are slim and have heart disease. There is enough education about that as well. But what is your point? The fact that some people actually have it harder than fat people to know they might have a dangerous lifestyle is what, OK? Or we should ignore the patently unhealthy and just focus on the stealth unhealthy?
However, they too can do something about it, they can read the packaging on the food they buy.
And this is the whole point about the fat debate. The screaming media et al have now got us better labelling of food than ever before. Jeez even at McDonalds it's straight forward to find out that a big mac is a day and half's fat in itself.
This is the whole point that you are missing. People are empowered to do something about their health. They can look at the packaging and decide if they really want to eat so many calories or so much fat today. And they can make a decision!
This is one of those issues where the "blame someone else" argument is really going to get people laughed out of town.
lol, Arguing on the Internet
You admit that the media sensationalise but you have made statements straight from their handbook you said quite clearly earlier that people are getting fatter....now unless your travelling the UK checking out every area, weighing and counting the Obese ....chances are your getting that particular theory from the media my friend..You also made statements that an increasing number can't fit into public transport seats and that paramedics are struggling to carry these large people now unless your traveling the country on trains and buses (not counting the fact whether your qualified to assess it in the first place) and then travel with some paramedics and have to carry these porkers in and out of an ambulance I don't see how you can credible make that assumption but the truth is JigglyJim your getting all this crap from the media....A media which you are now selective on what you take as credible....
And as for my point ...of which you ask later in your post...Your wrong I'm not saying we should just focus on the stealth unhealthy my point is quite clear......There should be no such difference...people's healths should not be assessed by their weights and you cannot just simply jump to a conclusion which seems to be so easy for everyone to do...'The majority of fat people are unhealthy and the majority of thin are healthy' not only is this untrue but also I think its a dangerous policy aswell because your given false impressions to people about their healths.
The screaming media as you call it may have got us better food labels.....wow The Obese's day is numbered lol. On the short straw its also got kids not eating school dinners and seriously crippled children's television in the UK well done you media health boys
As for blame I also don't accept fat people blaming others for their situation (which is a minority) but I definitely don't take these people who look down their noses at the overweight either and it is usually more these people assessing blame rather that the fat people and all this done with very little concrete evidence just consensus which is a very different thing!!!
Oh and anonymous we aren't arguing we are debating ;)
Having read the comments with interest I went to my local shopping centre today.
In approximately ten minutes I saw twenty people who, patently, could not fit into a bus seat or train seat without spilling onto the person next to them and would be cramped, uncomfortable and probably not even fit into an airline seat. I would not want to try and lift them and consider myself average build as I suppose are a lot of paramedics.
Now, I grant you, this was not scientific. It was approximately 10 minutes, and I wasn't being diligent, there may have been more than 20 around. I also accept that there were hundreds of other normally-sized people who are capable of taking full part in society around.
However, whatever way you slice it, at one every 30 seconds these people are not rare. Indeed if they were classified as we in the past have classified birds they would not be "lesser spotted" but instead known as the "common bloater".
Okay Anchorman lets go on the fact that you seen all these people whom you assess could not fit into public transport seats what makes you think that you wouldn't have seen that amount among the many of apparent normal weight people twenty years ago? Or in the 1950's? or in the 1800's for that matter? In fact I could very much argue that people were much more plump years ago ..... the average person definitely was and so were our idols just look at Jayne Mansfield she was hardly very slim ...or even old paintings of women...so what makes you think there weren't weighty people back then and that this is just a modern problem? The truth is we are only classifying these things now the last few years or so we don't know for sure how many obese people there was in the fifties let alone earlier. What I'm really getting at is ......Is 20 people among hundreds a huge number or an increase?
By right if you were to listren to the media on this subject you would be under the inpression that every second to third person you met should have been Obese.....
Legion, true our idols may have been plumper. But it is unlikely that you would confuse Jayne Mansfield for the average two ton biffer in the queue at a Gregg's Pastie shop.
Two ton Buffer?? This is very much my point too Anchorman... what is been assessed and counted in many of these statistics as obese is not what I consider obese or many others consider obese and the media is really giving a false impression on exactly who we are dealing with here....sure a hell of a lot of Rugby players are technically obese lol...and I wouldn't like to be the one calling one of them a two ton buffer lol
Oh I see. What you call obese matters more than anyone else. Sorry, I thought this was a sensible debate.
The BMI stats are fecked up. But let's be honest here. One knows if one is athletic, takes exercise and eats well. If one doesn't do those then the BMI stats are a good indicator.
Yes weightlifters come out as obese, but trust me, those fat people (who are plentiful and cannot lead normal lives) who are feeding McDonalds chips (imagine the salt) to toddlers in push-chairs (which I saw happen only yesterday) are not composed of muscle.
There is personal responsibility, unless you are saying fat people need to be treated as mentally as well as physically disabled?
"Oh I see. What you call obese matters more than anyone else. Sorry, I thought this was a sensible debate."
Huh?? If you actually read all of my post properly I also said 'what many others consider obese' too...... and your completely missing my point which is that when people hear on the news obesity numbers or stats they automatically jump to a conclusion that we are talking about extremely overweight people bordering on images of the super obese in America that can barely walk and I am merely saying that this is completely ludicrious to think.
And yes you and me and anyone else can assess normally by sight who may have fat or muscle but the rising numbers in stats do not have this luxury.....the stats we see every day on the news do not make the distinction between the two so I don't see how they can properly assess rises in obesity at all.
As for the rest of your post ....here we go again with someone else who can't wait to be discriminative and point the finger of blame.... I don't believe the numbers of obese people are plentiful at all and I most definitely doubt the idea that most assessed obese can't live normal lives lol.
And if only there was true personal responsibilty on this subject Poshbarry cause if there was we wouldn't be having this conversation....instead we have a society media and Government trying to force overweight people to change and not be responsible for themselves anymore and its been done through lies and misleading the masses on the subject.... You say "you are saying fat people need to be treated as mentally as well as physically disabled?" Get real buddy fat people are not treated as disabled.... full stop fat people are treated like a piriah... the modern day Jew....the ones nobody will ever stand up for....not even the overweight themselves....
Legion me old mukka :-
"I don't believe the numbers of obese people are plentiful at all "
They must be wrong then. Your belief is more important than stats.
These "common bloaters" really are all around. How more frequent than one every 30s do i need to see them before you accept that a hell of a lot of salad is being dodged?
If you don't see them then I bet you live on top of a hill, the "common bloater" doesn't do inclines.
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