About Those Fat People
July 29, 2009 / 3:21 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierOn my radio show tonight, on RFC [10EST, 9 CST], I talk about exactly what Megan McCardle says here:
These aren’t just a way to save on health care; they’re a way to extend and expand the cultural hegemony of wealthy white elites. No, seriously. Living a fit, active life is correlated with being healthier. But then, as an economist recently pointed out to me, so is being religious, being married, and living in a small town; how come we don’t have any programs to promote these “healthy lifestyles”? When you listen to obesity experts, or health wonks, talk, their assertions boil down to the idea that overweight people are either too stupid to understand why they get fat, or have not yet been made sufficiently aware of society’s disgust for their condition. Yet this does not describe any of the overweight people I have ever known, including the construction workers and office clerks at Ground Zero. All were very well aware that the burgers and fries they ate made them fat, and hitting the salad bar instead would probably help them lose weight. They either didn’t care, or felt powerless to control their hunger. They were also very well aware that society thought they were disgusting, and many of them had internalized this message to the point of open despair. What does another public campaign about overeating have to offer them, other than oozing condescension?
Government-run health care is a way for the government to control every aspect of your life from cradle to grave. The control won’t be scientifically based, it will be based on whatever moral high horse whomever runs the government agencies decides to ride. There are very compelling reasons to oppose government run health care: we can’t afford it, it will stifle innovation, it discriminates against the elderly and poor, and it is a scheme (ill-advised at that) to redistribute wealth. But the biggest reason to oppose it boils down to civil liberties.
When the government controls health care, they control you.
7 Responses to “About Those Fat People”
July 29 2009 / 4:26 pm
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I have waged my own personal battle against weight, and I have come to believe that anyone who has not been at least 75 lbs overweight doesn’t really understand the issue at all. I was about 150 lbs overweight at my peak, and I lost 100 lbs (fairly easily) on a low-carb diet. And then stayed on that level for nearly 10 years.
The reason for the limited success in my weight loss was that I simply was not able to overcome the nonstop barrage of disinformation coming from both government and the food industry. I knew that most of what I was getting from my gov’t doctor (I’m a veteran) was BS, but I did not realize the extent of it until I read Dr. Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite ( I just looked up the Amazon ranking: #14! So I’m not the only Kessler fan. http://bit.ly/2ilgc3 ) That is a truly amazing book, and I’m going to have to spend some time writing up a more thorough review on my own blog.
One little experiment that I tried because of the information I got from that book was to stop using artificial sweetener in my coffee. That alone caused my appetite to diminish all out of proportion to the minor change. I then reduced my overall consumption of artificial sweeteners by about 70%, and the scale has started moving down again. Maybe this time I’ll finally dump that last 50 lbs.
Artificial sweeteners weren’t the only culprit I learned about from Dr. Kessler, and I am in the process of experimenting with other variables, and the preliminary results are surprisingly good. It’s amazing to be able to eat a small lunch and feel full — for hours.
But back to the topic at hand, the American Obesity Epidemic is largely the result of disinformation, most of which is coming from the food industry, but much of it is coming from our government. Putting the government in charge of healthcare is guaranteed to make this even worse.
If you want to get a handle on your own weight problem, a good place to start is reading all you can on low-carb, and then getting Dr. Kessler’s book for information on how to actually make it work.
July 29 2009 / 9:53 pm
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TX would you clarify whether you mean that ceasing to any sweeteners helped you to lose weight or whether you replaced the artificial ones with natural sugars and think that switching is effective.
July 30 2009 / 5:47 am
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To lose the first 100 lbs, one of the changes I made was to replace sugar with artificial sweeteners. But even during that time, I noticed that I did better when I also cut back on artificial sweeteners. The other major change was to eliminate gluten. I don’t know whether that helped my weight loss (it probably did), but it did have one really amazing effect: The painful arthritis in my hands went away suddenly and completely.
It appears that in order to lose the last of the excess weight, I’m just going to have to get used to not eating things that taste sweet. So, the answer to your question is that I have NOT added back sugar in any form to my diet. One of the psychological triggers Dr. Kessler talks about in his book is sweetness itself, although he does not actually address the issue of artificial sweeteners. I have just combined the overall principles he outlined in his book with what I already knew about low-carb (I have a rather large list of books to recommend), and did some personal experiments to see how various things affected me personally. I also plan to write up my own experience in some detail. There might even be my own book in there someday…
July 30 2009 / 6:55 am
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One of the things about weight loss that a lot of “professionals” don’t even talk about – different people require different diets in order to work. Everyone’s body is different and their metabolism is different (even different at different ages). What works great for one person, might not work the best for another person. I’ve tried them all over the years when I was still married and after and found that some just don’t work for me.
What works for me is by-the-book Atkins – not any of the modified ones. Which boils down to Less Carbs and Sugar. I’m a disabled vet from the first Gulf War and all those oil fires screwed up my lungs, so I have a hard time doing anything more than walking for exercise when I used to play basketball, softball, and all sorts of strenuous cardio – along with not having to worry about what I eat because I had the metabolism to handle it. Now I have to do just the opposite – I can’t do all the fun exercises (even the boring ones) and have to watch what I eat.
The other two issues that are hard for me is time and money. Not being able to eat basically any processed food means you have to buy a lot of fresh stuff and cook it – and it also means more smaller trips to the store because when you’re only feeding one, even freezing can’t save some of the Sam’s Club portions – which also mean it’s more $$$$. With work slowing down, it’s hard to AFFORD to get back on a diet that works for MY body.
July 30 2009 / 9:03 am
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While I find this discussion interesting, it is drifting off-topic for Dr. Clouthier’s post. I really need to write a post on this topic on my own blog, and invite you to participate there, so we don’t further burden the folks here that might not be interested in reading anecdotes about weight loss.
July 30 2009 / 11:50 am
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Hey guys,
I wrote a new post you might enjoy talking about weight loss. Feel free to add your insight. The post is mostly a free association, certainly not the last authoritative statement.
July 30 2009 / 9:25 pm
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I have written up a more complete review of Dr. Kessler’s book on my own blog, http://chl-tx.com/instructorsview/book-review-the-end-of-overeating/, and I invite comments.