Of course, that’s the hard sale to make considering no one wants to change their behavior when modern medicine is “supposed” to do all the work for us.

I also agree that a small tax like 3% wouldn’t affect consumption over the long term. Sure, a few folks may protest on principle, but if they’re addicts, they’ll revert back to their modus operandi.

Whatever the outcome, it will be fun to watch because I really do believe that soda is the “new tobacco” and the debate is far from over.

Of course, the problem is keeping the bureaucrats hands off it and make sure it goes to the proper places.

But calling me a liar and insulting my family is way outside of the normal boundaries of blogging etiquette.

You’re 40 years old, not 4. So leave the temper tantrum in the playpen.

Had I been any other blogger, I would have deleted your comments immediately for inappropriate behavior, as well as hijacking a comments section based on sin taxes. Your comments were never about staying taxation, but more to discuss your sad/desperate plea to rally support for your near delusional belief that it’s perfectly acceptable to be a 40 year old female weighing 350 pounds.

There are plenty of bloggers who have struggled to keep off the weight, and if you ask around, I’m sure you’ll find them. JD at Get Rich Slowly is the first that comes to mind. Last I checked, he’s walking full marathons to stay fit. He lost the weight by cutting out the snacks, and busting his hump to burn off the weight, and but more importantly, he changed his eating behaviors to keep the weight off long term.

So instead of being so rude and sarcastic with the “genetic abnormality” and “Today Show” spiteful comments just because you’ve got a “chip on my shoulder the size of the Rocky Mountains about it“, perhaps you would consider that real people actually put in the work everyday to:

1) do real exercise everyday
2) use self control to back away from the table
3) modify their eating behaviors to curb their cravings
4) adjust their diets according to their weight loss or weight neutral goals

FYI: I’ve also deleted your ability to comment on this blog without prior approval. If you wish to have it reinstated, my private email is available in the contact me tab at the top.

And, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t normally call anyone out like this, particularly on their own blog – but you are either lying about your family’s astounding ability to lose weight and keep it off, or you have some absolutely amazing genetic thing going on that is to be envied beyond belief. Like, should be featured on “Good Morning, America!” amazing. Or the Today Show, at the very least.

I realize, too, that it is very difficult to have something that you believe to your core to be challenged in such a way – kinda like when you run into a spendthrift who doesn’t believe he can have a savings account, innit?

Best to you and yours on the holiday weekend as well. I hope you’ll at least do some research and look up the actual statistics regarding obesity and health. If you want study/journal names, let me know.

Who actually takes the time to write a 500+ word comment unless they’ve got a chip on their shoulder? So have the good nature to take out your frustrations to a forum somewhere else because I refuse to let you hijack the comment section just because your feelings are hurt.

And as for “the fact that any fool who has been on a diet can tell you that they don’t work. It is the ultra-rare person who loses weight and keeps it off.”

Me, grandmother, mother, two cousins. That’s one hand. Once we changed our eating behavior, keeping the weight off was easy.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend.

What I would suggest is that you, sir, READ the actual studies from which the data “proving” the life threatening nature of obesity is taken. What you will find (if you actual do this, which I’m 100% certain you will not) is that the overall data within said studies does not prove that theory – it only “proves” it when you select certain data and exclude other data from within the same study.

And yes, medical science is extending our lives, but if you apply logic to the issue it stands to reason that IF we are getting fatter and IF being fat shortens your life THEN our combined life spans should either be stalling or getting shorter. There’s no way around it. Regardless of advances in medical science.

I find it truly hysterical that you mention a “treatment” for “morbid obesity.” Really! Hysterical! I mean, gut-bustingly funny! Because I’m morbidly obese, as was established in my first post. Also healthy as can be. So what would I be treating, exactly? What medical condition would I be improving by losing weight? Blood sugar levels have been great for years, even through 2 pregnancies. Ditto blood pressure and cholesterol – which, at age 40, just this year has ’spiked’ into the high-normal range. And my joints feel better and work better than they did when I was a gangly teen who weighed half what I do now.

What we need to do in the health care system is remove obesity altogether as a “diagnosis”. Because it serves no one and no purpose other than to shame people regarding their size AND further line the pockets of weight loss industry – this despite the fact that any fool who has been on a diet can tell you that they don’t work. It is the ultra-rare person who loses weight and keeps it off. I mean, really. I bet you couldn’t count on one hand the number of people you personally know who lost more than 20 pounds and kept it off for more than 3 years. Even fewer who kept it off for 10 years – and that includes those who underwent the butchery known as “weight loss surgery”.

I understand that it makes part of the population feel morally superior to be able to point at people like me or your fat neighbor and accuse us of draining resources that would otherwise go to what they would deem as more deserving people but how about instead we all look beyond the fat and see the person? Or, if that person is ill, the affliction? Why? Because it is FAR easier to take one look at the fatty and, if he has heart disease, say that it is his own damn fault for being fat. While his thin brother, also with heart disease, gets a free pass. So Brother #1 is told to lose weight, while Brother #2 gets medication and surgical treatment without argument from anyone. So when Brother #1 dies, why do people say he died? Because he was fat. When he really died because of untreated heart disease.

As the old adage goes: Things are not always as they appear.

My intent wasn’t to offend — just say what many people are thinking. If you took it that way, it could be due to your above average sensitivity to the subject matter considering the tone of your comment portraying yourself as an “evil slob”.

This wasn’t intended to be an article submission to Nature or MMWR on the obesity trends of America. You can try to pick apart the science by downplaying the MSNBC videos, but just go to any widely accepted medical community you like and try to disprove that obesity is (and will continue to be) a life-shortening medical condition.

If you still don’t believe it, then may I suggest you write a grant, design your own study, and present the findings to disprove the CDC, AMA, NIH, and or any other globally recognized medical organization.

Fact is, the obese are living longer (and the non-obese alike) due to advances in medical technology and modern pharmacology for the express purpose of extending life beyond normal parameters. So I wouldn’t rest your entire argument of “being fat isn’t a death sentence” when one of the first treatments for morbid obesity is losing weight.

As the old adage goes: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I’ll start by saying I am a morbidly obese woman, 6 feet tall and 350 pounds. I’m also very healthy, with normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar, and high-normal cholesterol. Aside from scheduled visits for the birth control shot, I’ve seen my doctor less than once per year on average during my entire adult life.

It really ticks me off that people like you and, apparently, many who read your blog would take one look at me and assume that I’m a drain on healthcare. It further ticks me off that people who make posts like yours lamenting about how all the fatties are slurping up tax dollars like milkshakes at Sonic fail to notice things like the fact that while we’ve been getting fatter and fatter as a nation, we’ve also been living longer and longer. Or that, when you actually look at the hard data (and don’t rely on sound bites distributed to MSNBC via weight loss clinic “scientific studies”) you see that fat is not a death sentence, and that we fatties tend to live just as long and just as productively as you normal-weighters.

You might also consider that type II diabetes can actually LEAD to weight gain – people often go undiagnosed for years while they gain weight as a result of the disease, so that by the time they are diagnosed all anyone sees is THE FAT and therefore assume that the fat caused the diabetes rather than the other way around. Cut your disabled neighbor a little slack, unless you’ve been privy to his medical records for the past 20 years and know this to not be the case.

Having said all of that, I will also say that I suppose I would support a tax on junk food, but for reasons other than your own. Which are, namely, that they are (and/or should be) considered a luxury item – a completely unnecessary frivolity.

I rarely buy them because they are a poor value and I would much rather have some hearty beans and rice or homemade corn bread or something else far better tasting and much cheaper. Shocking, I know – a fatty who doesn’t munch down doritos & coke for breakfast! Pick yourself up off the floor, there’s more of us out there (that is, health conscious, frugal minded, & extraordinarily obese people) than you think.

And thanks to FS & MLR for supporting the idea that fatties aren’t all evil slobs. Much appreciated.

Sign me -

The Frugal FATTY

How’s that for a hypothesis?

I really think the anger generated against the obese is due to the recession. Since the obese fit the stereotypical model of over consumption, they’ve become an easy target.

Here’s an example: let’s say you have a 40 year old, 300+ pound neighbor living down the street. He has late onset adult diabetes (Type II), and drinks a 24 pack of soda every week. Then, one day, you notice he’s got a new handicapped sticker on his SUV. When asked why the sticker, he replies because of his weight. (I know a person such as this.)

Personally, I would feel kinda sad since he’s let himself deteriorate to the Nth degree, but also feel a little angry since his poor habits might be taking the parking spot of a veteran with an artificial leg.

As I said in the article, I don’t think a severe tax on soda is a smart idea. But, a 2 cent tax per can would hardly impact consumption at all (a purely unscientific guess) after you consider the volume of soda sold in the US. Then use it to help fund diabetes research or pay for obesity related illnesses.