At the beginning of this week I stumbled across an article in Closer magazine online which carries the heading Obesity should be Treated Like Cancer. The statement itself had me reeling, and even reading the entire article from beginning to end didn't satisfy my understanding of why the article carries such an emotive title.
Don't get me wrong, I am quite aware that obesity and food addictions are a problem, but comparing it to cancer in my mind is simply not on. Obesity is a condition of lifestyle and choice, whereas cancer most certainly is not; there is no comparison.
The author of this article Jocelyn Cook goes on to quote the opinions of some people struggling with obesity. Barry Austin aged 43 became the proud owner of the title "Britain's Fattest Man" back in 2009 weighing in at a massive 65 stone and chose to consume a staggering nine curries on any given night and wash them down with an astounding forty pints of beer.
It's probably not going to be much of a surprise when I say that Mr Austin - and many others like him who have this terrible 'food addiction' - are sitting at home right now and allowing the state to quite literally feed them.
Living on disability allowance it is Barry himself who suggests that the NHS should be giving the morbidly obese of this country the same level of care that cancer suffers have. Unfortunately I am one of many people who will choose to disagree.
Barry Austin consumes up to 30,000 calories per day. The UK's fattest couple have cost the hard working tax payer an astonishing £650,000 combined and still they choose not to blame themselves, or indeed choose to help themselves into better health; this is their choice
I agree that yes, some people do need help and on some level obesity can be classed as a result of food addiction and ultimately a psychological problem, but as with any addiction, you've got to want to change the way you think about food and stop feeding your face with high calorie foods and carbonated drinks that are full of nothing but sugar.
One quote from Barry Austin that has done nothing but irk me reads: "It is not something these people choose to do," (over eat) "It's unfair to deny people help. Morbidly obese people should have carers to help them".
The fact of the matter here is that Mr Austin, and other 'sufferers' in the article, seem to think that sitting there and having carers wait on them hand and foot on a daily basis is the answer to their problems, but why wouldn't they; the state is paying for the obese to do it, it's paying for every single calorie that these so called food addicts consume.
If these people really want help, why don't they begin by helping themselves? Why not have a few meals less per day and switch to spending tax payers money on fruit and vegetables instead of takeaways and cakes!
Follow Fay Sayles on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Ms_Laid
Ciaran Devane: Age Is a Number Not an Excuse to Treat Older Cancer Patients Differently
Jeff Halevy: Obesity: How We Got Here
Overweight and obese women at greater risk of breast cancer recurrence
Study: Obesity may lower cognitive function for aging adults
Dramatic Increase In Men Diagnosed With Eating Disorders, Study Suggests
Martin Schoeller Captures Identical Twins In Photography Project (PICTURES, VIDEO)
'Malibu Barbie' Mum, Sarah Willman, Addicted To Tanning Despite Health Risks (PICTURES)
Breathing Problems During Sleep Linked To Alzheimer's Disease (PICTURES)
This article is total hogwash from one end to the other. The divide and conquer tactic is working fabulously in health care as it has done in every other area of society - now we will have the deserving and undeserving sick as well as the deserving and undeserving poor. Well done UK.
Perhaps, then, you should read a book or two! Perhaps, dare I say it, those books should come from different people than those from whom your wellspring of judgment gurgles. Perhaps you could read up on the voices coming from WITHIN the communities you so effortlessly malign. Perhaps a well-rounded and self-critical, a humble and open-minded, a truly well-intentioned rather than a paternalistic, ego-motivated mentality which paints you superior, others inferior and reinforces hierarchies already all-too-easily viewable, may be the order of the day? A thought. Take what you want. Leave the rest. As I have left the entirety of your ridiculous article above.
P.S. HuffPo -- shame on you for publishing this.
Slimming world I find to be excellent because if you give it proper try then it's the whole package. It's brilliant for food lovers because you dont have to give anything up and as long as you stick to the right things you can still binge while your getting your eating under control. It's got endless stuff to try out with alternative low-fat recipies for just about everything. You dont have to buy into brands or a single diet plan, in fact you get 3 very varied plans you can swap on a daily basis.
I could easily be obese but I get off my backside as I always have. Should health finances be spent on those who help themselves? Yes of course, anyway by trying to stay a bit fit, I have worked and contributed to this country since 1966. Me and my family should be first in the Queue for health care over lazy workshy obese layabouts. Left wing liberal pinko twits would have less to say, about helping layabouts if they themselves worked at proper jobs, Graham Plymouth
This is state of the art advice. Search it for yourself. Do web searches of only dot-edu websites. There's no other way for people with fatty livers to succeed at weight loss.
And yes, this health disorder is comparable to cancer in a certain sense, especially since few doctors except liver specialists seem to know how to treat it.
One other thing. The presence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) doesn't show up in standard blood tests. That's the way most doctors examine liver health. Only a biopsy can reveal it. But if you're obese, it's almost a foregone conclusion that you have NAFLD. It's a no-brainer. Why don't more doctors know this? I can't imagine. It borders on malpractice, in my opinion.
2. The exercise half of the equation has two parts. First, avoid aerobic exercise, especially in the beginning of your weight loss program. Instead, walk. Use the "talk test." Walk briskly and see if your heavy breathing makes it hard for you to talk or sing a song. If you have great difficulty, then slow down a little bit. You should have no more than moderate difficulty in talking. At this pace the body does not trigger the metabolism to make you tired (so you'll conserve energy) or make you hungry, (so you'll consume more calories). Your hunger and tiredness signals should remain fairly normal at this level of activity. Second, weight lifting/resistance training is better for you than aerobics. It also doesn't trigger the metabolism to the same degree that aerobic exercise does. And on top of that there's an added benefit. For every five pounds of muscle mass you add, you burn 250 more calories per day, even at rest!
That's it. Raw food nutrition, low aerobic exercise, and weight lifting/resistance training. That's the simple version of the formula.
Anyone with the thrifty gene who fails to heed this advice is setting themselves up for failure.
The only way for people with "the thrifty gene" to lose weight is if they take two basic approaches.
1. They need to try and primarily eat raw, fresh produce rather than cooked and processed foods. This is generally what liver specialists recommend as the way to reverse Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Improving the diet is about the only thing that can reverse liver disease. A good rule of thumb to go by is the DASH eating plan. Just use the DASH eating plan, and wherever possible substitute raw, fresh produce for cooked foods. This represents the dietary half of the equation.
(to be continued)
One of the main causes is processed foods. They usually have a combination of high sugar and high fat----a deadly combination for people with the thrifty gene. Those kinds of foods send the consumed calories directly to fat storage. And in people with the thrifty gene, their bodies get overloaded with fat. Their livers are literally drowning in fat.
There's a way to beat the cycle. And it doesn't require much will power. But it does require knowledge of the dynamics of the cycle and how to beat it. In other words, it's about working *smart* instead of working *hard*. If anyone is interested, I'll try and give them the short version of the only solution that will ever work. And I don't want a penny for telling them. This message isn't SPAM. I just don't want to go to the trouble unless someone wants to hear about it.
There's a disease in America called Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). One in five people suffer from it. One in five people are also obese. As yet, liver specialists don't know if obesity causes NAFLD or vice versa, but the two are related.
The cause is partially genetic and partially due to diet. People who gain weight easily and have trouble losing it have a genetic predisposition called "the thrifty gene." Their metabolisms are far slower than most people. The theory is that their ancestors experienced famines and their bodies had to get innovative in order to survive them. And they passed this innovation down to their descendants.
When people with the "thrifty gene" try to lose weight by dieting or exercise, their body immediately fights them by increasing their hunger signals and making them tired. It's the body's way of fighting famine. It's telling them to conserve energy and consume calories. That's what makes it so difficult for them to lose weight.
And whenever they do lose weight, they usually put the weight back on *doubled*! And with each successive attempt, it gets harder and harder. Their bodies make them continually hungry in an attempt to stay ahead of the perceived famine. Will power alone is not enough to beat the cycle. The body will always win over will power alone.
(to be continued)