"Should obesity be a 'disease"

Bring on all the smokers and all of the morbidly obese.

They pay all the taxes for smokes or cut their lives off at 54 because of heart disease, allowing those who can avoid early cancer or getting hit by a bus to pick up those Social Security checks for the last 15 years.

Keep smoking. Keep wolfing down those Nutty Bars.

 

Which is why a big backlash is growing against it.

I have heard people thundering on the radio that obesity and directly-obesity-related diseases should be specifically excluded as grounds for disability (in particular handicap license plates), and subject to massive health care surcharges.

 

I do, however, think lack of compassion should be considered a disease. It's becoming an epidemic.

 

Where do you see lack of compassion here?

 

Compassion comes at varying levels. I don't have compassion for the child rapist or murderer who wants to be let out of prison for the last six weeks of his life because he has terminal lung cancer.

I have the highest compassion when I come across sick kids, or a parent about to pass from some unexpected and deadly illness in the prime of life, leaving behind small children.

I don't have the same level of compassion for someone who has been smoking for 40 years and has been told he has three months nor for the woman who ate herself up to 400 pounds and dies at 36.

It isn't 1958 anymore. We all know how destructive smoking is. People who fire up that first Camel at 17 should know they could be hooked for life.

We all also should know overeating and obesity is the slow killer.

I'm not rail thin as I have a BMI between 26-27 but all of my levels "check out" as I run lots and stay active. When I'm slacking, it's a simple fix. Get on the scale every day -- face that truth -- and take the appropriate action.

People who are obese can start to reverse it immediately. It takes a long time if you're 400 pounds (just as it did to get to 400 pounds) to shed it but it can be done.

We are a nation that has abundance but not ambition which is a deadly combination. Smokers and the obese in the lower economic classes still have enough financial means where they can avoid that rock bottom moment where they don't see or feel the urgency to live healthier.

Then they surround themselves with other enablers who tell them "beauty is on the inside" instead of "you don't need that chocolate lava volcano from Domino's".

Where I do have acute compassion is when I see obese kids. It's heartbreaking. Dad wears a 44 waist and Mom is a size 24. And they have fat kids. It hurts to see this because I know the kids are probably unable to shake this unless they have the discipline and that they don't see that at home.

It's like giving your children a future of early heart disease, early death, depression, lack of career advancement and being ignored by society.

 

They CONTRIBUTE to obesity. But their contributions can be mitigated by CHOOSING to eat more healthy and CHOOSING to exercise your butt off and CHOOSING to seek help for depression.

 

I wouldn't classify obesity as a disease. With that said, when exmediahack noted that it does take time to lose weight, that's what we have to remember. For all you know, the person you see walking down the street who is overweight may just be starting a weight-loss program.

Also, we have to remember that being too thin can be just as unhealthy as being too fat. Monitor your weight, yes, but don't become obsessed with it.

 

One story from 8 years ago...

When I would step off the set after the late news, I would head to the gym near the station. They were usually only open about 30 minutes after I arrived. They'd usually stay open for me for an extra 20 minutes while they vacuumed and cleaned the place.

Often the only other person in the cardio section was this 40ish woman. 400 pounds. Saw her the day after Christmas one year. She was walking - slowly - on a treadmill.

Yet, for the next year, every night I was at the gym, I saw her there. After a few workouts, I talked with her for a few minutes. She said that her doctor said she was on the doorstep of diabetes and had clogged arteries was could have a heart attack at any moment.

So she walked. And walked.

After a year, she was down to, I think, 230. Six months after that, she was under 200 and even running on the treadmill at that point.

It took a long time for this woman to become healthy. I haven't lived in that town for years and sometimes wonder if she was able to maintain. It was damn inspirational to watch. I run for vanity. She walked and ran for survival.

 

Diabetics should be hung. All that tapping into the health system.....and ultimately our tax dollars.

 

Just Type 2s.

 

I run a ton. The first mile always stinks. Like starting an old car on a cold day. Yet miles 2-6 are glorious once I break through that wall

For the health benefits, I appreciate that all of the running I do helps, say, when I play basketball against younger guys who played college, I can hang in their game (I can't score at will on them as I never played at that level) and not embarrass myself.

The vanity part comes in when I run in the winter. I love it. Love shooting that glare of, "I'm 40 and running out here in 4 degrees while you're sitting in that car at that stoplight pounding that double cheeseburger".