Are fat people poor and stupid? Are parents of obese children stupid or evil?
There is a potentially controversial article in today's Sunday Times (UK) about obesity. The article postulates that fatness and obesity are directly related to poverty and ignorance; that rich, educated people are rarely fat. Also, it says, “Obese means not just podgy, but dangerously, disablingly, distastefully fat, as in American fat."…
Article comments
26 - Mike
I don't know what big deal is. What i find that is sicking isn't heavy people it is how people have become to disrectable and hurtful to others. We are all people and shouldn't be judge by how we look. Seems like so many people have gotten stuck on this. You sit here and complain about how USA has so many heavy people yet you don't think about how you are sitting here judging a person due to them being heavy. Does it matter? NO i think not! What makes a person a person isn't how they look, it's what thier personality is like.
It makes me sick seeing someone that is heavy, or person that doesn't fall in "Society Norm" and see how people treat them. They are very disrespectable, even cruel to these people. Like what was said " preponderance of vast, humongous people shaking the sidewalk as they walk along".
Now think how hurtful this is for someone that is reading this article and been fighting with their weight, depression and how people treat them. You had just made them feel even worse about themselves making them turn more inward and making them feel as if they are not wanted. Now this is what i find that is sicking. People are so rude and never think about anybody else.
If you never been heavy or poor then you have no right to talk. You have no idea what it is like. So instead of hurting someone with your words that you have no idea what it's like to be like.
Why don't you give them respect and love. Go up to the person make them feel good about themselves, make them feel like they are a person and not a freak. Get to know them i bet you would find some of the most wonderful people if you did. A person that would do anything to help you if need be.
Everytime you see someone you think is different and watch them walk pass you, your whispering to your friend on how person looks, all while laughing. That person knows what your doing and it hurts them, as they have experienced this their whole life and had very few people that treat them like a person.
I can say this because i am one of these people and have felt how cruel and hurtful people can be. You walk into a place and suddenly people are eyeing you, whisping, pointing laughting. Well this doesn't help you stop eating it makes you turn to it more. As it's your only escape from rude and cruel people.
27 - hjvgj
1 lov3 5eorg3 b578.
28 - sr
THANK'S FOR ENLIGHTING US BILL. HAPPEY EASTER TO YOU SIR.
29 - Justice
I'm big at 11 and get talked about. It does'nt matter I have self confidence
30 - Kevin
This discussion is only half right, missing the other half, exercise. Diet and exercise. Last time I checked running or jogging or walking was free, not just for the rich, and I bet a lot of "poor" people can at least afford a used bike(heck I bought one in college for $10.) It all comes back to LAZY. I want my food fast so that I can eat while watching my TV shows sitging on my butt.
As for diet its not that hard Stop drinking all that nasty soda, water is a lot cheaper.
31 - sr
What comes to mind is food lost in the body folds, stink, blocked up toilets, cost of tp, plungers, food, diet coke, horney men who like hippos, blocking up the local market on a go-go, giant melon size tits and aircraft overloaded. If I missed anything let me know.
32 - Joe
So, behind the Pacific Islanders, Americans are the fattest people in the world. As much as I detest the fact that the corporate giants are slowly poisoning so many Americans who make poor food choices I cannot help but ask myself why so many Americans choose to eat the garbage they eat. I am tired of hearing all the excuses. Get of your ass America. We have the potential for being one of the greatest nations in the world. Let's lead by example. Turn off the television. Get up from your cyber chair. Reality lies just outside your front door. Embrace this world while we still have the chance. So many mixed feelings about the "greatest" country on earth..
33 - Just me
I will tell you why so many Americans make crappy food choices. From the time when you are small children, your system begins to brainwash you. It takes ordinary children and turns them into stupid adults. Americans are lazy ignorant sheep. Not because they would naturally be that way, but because their system makes them such. This is a gross over-simplification but a lazy fat fuck, who spends his days sitting infront of a TV and only wants his burgers, fries, chips and coke, will buy a lot and stay out of the politics.
34 - Fred
After a couple of years working as a public school teacher in Massachusetts, I've found that the entire structure of eduation and surrounding social circumstances are very unhealthy for kids (physically and psychologically).
1. Schools add extra Math and English classes to bring kids up to speed on basic readng and writing skills to pass state tests - but eliminate physical education time.
2. Even where Phys. Ed. is mandatory a culture of laziness and indulgence obtains: kids that don't want to swim sit on the side and watch, kids don't have to do any structured exercise at all, etc.
3. School sports are centered on the elite kids on the football and basketball teams; everybody else is supposed come out and glorify the few on Friday nights.
4. Kids expect a car by Junior or Senior year of high school, so they work anywhere between 20 and 40 hours a week after school (sometimes until midnight) to afford the crippling insurance premiums a 17 year-old must pay ($2500 p.a.). And parents let them - even insist they work part-time for these types of expenses.
Added to the many other good reasons for obesity discussed above by other contributors - and you have a compelling case for a national tragedy - fast becoming a global tragedy. When was the last time you read about a politician banging on about exercise for teenagers?
35 - bliffle
And still people whine that poverty condemns them to over consume, which is specious on the face of it.
36 - STM
Yes, what bollocks eh, Bliff?
Go to a few places in Asia (or Africa) where poverty is real and see how many overweight people there are.
Hardly any.
37 - Yikes
Yikes! What has happened recently? Australia has become officially the fattest nation on earth. What is their excuse? Americans don't have an excuse.
You can read the article here.
38 - Yikes
By the way, how does being fat make ANY country a "bad" one? And why does America HAVE TO be the "greatest" country? I think Japan and France are the best countries and it's not because they're good looking people.
Those who judge others solely on appearance shouldn't talk because, in my opinion, they have A LOT more problems than fat people do. ;-)