Fat City: What can stop obesity?
Why obesity is not your doctors problemAddicted. The word is useless in my clinic, a mere barrier to any hope of self-determined change. My patient is not addicted; hes a very lonely, unemployed young man who has gradually become socially isolated to the extent that the only thing available to him for comfort and entertainment is food. He has no friends, no money to buy other consumables, little education, no partner, no job. Some days he doesnt leave his bed. The choice for him is to eat this food or experience no pleasure. The surgeon and I discuss his situation, concerned that he may overeat after the band has been fitted. We tell him that surgery may not be appropriate for him, given his situation. The patient is perturbed. Well, what are you going to do for me if you wont do the operation? Dont you have some kind of ethical responsibility to help me lose weight?
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We can decide as a country, as a world, that we are going to consume what we have until were done, eating as much as we wish and treating all the concomitant diseases by diverting substantial amounts of government revenue into medicine and pharmaceuticals. If we do choose this path and we are most of the way there already we must be honest about what we are choosing to do: to spend our countrys money on the consequences of indiscriminate consumption.
duffyduff
(3,251 posts)Size prejudice needs to go the way of racism and sexism.
supernova
(39,345 posts)and get behind Low Carb High Fat nutrition.
Making people feel awful about themselves for what is really a high carb addiction and with it bad health measurements and diabetes is no way to treat human beings who need help.
Aristus
(66,381 posts)HFCS suppresses the secretion of our satiety hormone, leptin, that informs the brain when we are full, and that it's time to stop eating.
When leptin is suppressed, we keep eating, and eating, and eating because we don't feel satisfied.
The rise of obesity in the US roughly parallels the increase in the use of HFCS in the food & beverage industries.
klook
(12,155 posts)She tackles the uncomfortable issue of morbid obesity and considers ways to try to reverse the trend.
It must be very frustrating for doctors who try to help people who regularly consume such a massive excess of calories. I know somebody casually who had bariatric surgery but just could not change her eating habits. Tough situation, and I fear she'll die way before she would if she were just moderately overweight like most of us.