Medics want obesity warnings on clothing...

yup. not every size 16 is a fat, lazy, face stuffer, either.

 

There's all kinds of reasons why someone is the size they are. I eat very healthy, am very active, and wear a size 10-12. I can't help I got thick hips

But seriously, people can be any size and be unhealthy. One of my girlfriends said she was at her skinniest (a size 5) when she was in college, because she was on the "vodka till you puke diet".

 

Its pretty much a widely proven fact that you cost everyone from the government to your employer a wide variety of costs in a wide variety of ways.

Its perhaps one of the most overstudied phenomena around.

At any rate, universal healthcare implies universal responsability.

 

Hahahaha. That's really funny.

Technically, by what this article says, all my clothes should say something along the lines of, "HEY! You're fat. You're going to be obese! We warned you!"

That's ridiculous.

 

I found the article that I origionally posted in italics elsewhere....so it wasn't just fox news...

 

When I was a size 11 pant(which I'm sure is unnoticably smaller than a 12), I thought I was fat. I now look at those, and think, "Why did I think I was fat?" I was probably thirteen years old. At 12/13, I was probably about 130 pounds. That's a bit overweight, but still nothing to worry about. Not only does this affect women, but it also affect kids. How is the helpphone line going to handle it when a 10 year old kid phones in complaining and crying that they've been called obese? As if teasing at school wasn't torture enough. What a horrible idea. Obesity isn't the problem, mixed messages in media, combined with disgusting food is the problem.

I remember when I was a kid, I saw people like Christina Aguilara, Britney Spears, etc. on TV. During commercial breaks from their music videos, I'd see previews for Entertainment Tonight saying "A roll can be seen from her bikini!". Then, I'd see commercials for Baskin Robbins, Pizza Hut, etc. Then I'd go to the store with my mom and buy hormone-filled chicken breast, go to the till and see the National Enquirer's front cover of someone's photoshopped chubby butt cheek hanging out of their short shorts. After getting in the car, we'd turn on the radio and here more complaints about the latest celebrity's fashion faux pas at the latest awards show. I'd get home and eat dinner with the family, encouraged not to waste, and then I'd get bigger, and then I'd get depressed because everywhere I went there would be people brainwashing me into thinking I should be a certain way, and then brainwashing me to eat Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins! How confusing for a kid! I started to eat more when i thought of this. And then I'd get bigger and think about it some more.. and eat more.. and the process continued.


When my mother took me shopping for clothing as a kid, I was so embarrassed when things wouldn't fit me in the change room. my mom would say "Should I get a size 11 then?" (when a 9 didn't fit). I remember being so mortified that she said my size out loud. I wanted to melt in the change room never to be seen from again. When I saw the number "11" on the tag, I felt like I was a tub of useless goo, only put on the planet to balance the world's beauty with uglieness.

As a child, I also had clinical depression (genetically passed down). I don't even want to think about what I might have done if I took a pair of pants home, was about to rip off the tag, and saw a 'helpline' for obesity. Alone in my room. As a depressed kid. That's just not cool.

In fact, it's downright harassment. No better than the kids at school. No one gives panhandlers a few coins ont he street with a note attached with a number to a job search agency. Some people need some compassion.

 

and some people need to be informed of the obesity hotline.

not every fat person is fat because they're lazy and overeat, but is it really so wrong for someone to at least question their diet and exercise habits every so often anyway? i think size twelve is the place where small framed women start to become "obese" to fit into. a large framed woman might not have to worry about obesity til size 18 but as an overall warning 12 is fine.

also, stop whining because you're letting advertisers think for you and you dont like the end result. they shouldnt have commercials for tasty food wah, now i have to eat it! or there's pretty girls on tv, now i have to be as skinny as they are

that makes you weak, accept the responsibility for choosing your own damn food or hand over the power to and dont expect anyone to care when you find that you are fat because the food companies wanted you to be or skinny because all the pretty girls on tv wanted you to be.

 

Snelio, there is research attesting to the fact that advertising has an effect on you, even if you don't want it to or are not aware of it. I'm sure the lady knows now what caused her to feel, act, and think like she did. But in that moment, I'm sure she didn't know and just felt bad with no explanation that she could feasibly think of in that moment.

I do not think that there should be an obesity warning, or for that fact, an anorexia warning on clothing. I knew size zeros that were totally healthy looking (shorter women) and size 18s that looked amazingly healthy as well.

If there are going to be obesity warnings, it should be on the brightly packaged, transfat, high fructose corn syrup, and carb-filled foods. Yes, people can responsibly eat those foods. But as a national average, we eat 75 lbs of HFCS. It's hidden in almost every packaged and processed food we eat. So, if all foods with HFCS had some sort of warning, maybe people would make the right connection: unhealthy foods lead to unhealthy lifestyle lead to unhealthy people.

Label foods, not clothing.

 

Cite it then.

 

Sorry but children are naturally easy to convince with media. It doesn't mean I was "weak", it meant I was a kid who was used to being told what to do, and I didn't understand the mixed messages coming from society and the media.

 

the world's always going to have problems, our responses are the only things that change. it seems that the most common approach nowadays is to babysit us :/

political correctness minds our mouths, the law our manners, and now our lifestyles and eating habits are being shaped too.

if something goes wrong, just sue somebody! it's not actually your fault. we're adults, but none of us with adult responsibility.

so let's wave goodbye to common sense, it's a bit last century after all... and let's say hello to obnoxious labels signposting us through our lives.

 

That's just outrageous! I know I'm 'thick' I don't needed to be reminded everytime I wear pants. IdentityCrisis, I can relate to you. I was the same way. I was so depressed when I was younger (ages 8-16) that I looked at all my clothes in disgust because I felt so fat. I remember when I was younger (around 5) my grandma took me clothes shopping and there was this beautiful pink dress that I was looking at and she's like "you'd never be able to fit into that." I've been 'big' most of my life. It's my genetic makeup. I have big hips & the butt to go with them. Don't punish me because my fathers big boned & my grandma. I may be short, but that doesn't mean that I'm 'unhealthy' at my size. I actually look quite decent. I've been told that I should be 90 lbs, and I just think that's disgusting (since i'm 4'11) and I don't think I should be that small. I think I could tone up, but my weight doesn't matter. It's whether I loose inches, not lbs.

 

if you're going to eat the food eat it and shut the hell up. no one made you do it and no one cares why you did.



and if you are cool with the way you look let someone who isnt have the chance to fix it.

 

More companies would be inclined to make their foods healthier if they did this. Less friggin' corn syrup, & other substandard ingredients. They should put more taxes on shitty food, & then put that money into health care. Will that happen? I seriously doubt it.
Getting rid of sweets near checkouts might curtail extra spending on impulse buys for parents...Not really a bad idea either.
The rest of that report is total garbage though. It's way out of line. What is being done to food now in many instances is way out of line as well.

 

haha. there's a big fuckin difference.

i *thought* i was anorexic for a while because i would look at my friends shoving their faces full of fried chicken and candy and soda and not want to do that, want to know exactly what i was putting in my body, want to keep myself healthy. i thought there was something wrong with me for not finding happiness in food. i think that most "anorexic" people in america right now are just confused, and don't know how to feed themselves without poisoning themselves at the same time. of course, there are those who just want to get as thin as possible, will cry when they look in the mirror, and THAT is a real disease that shouldn't be made fun of. still, i think it was created by our backwards, confused society CONSTANTLY pumping us full of fear of EVERYTHING. but going to a grocery store and looking at food labels and not being able to find a single thing you feel comfortable putting in your body isn't an illness, it's a sign of the times.

it is just plain healthier to eat only as much as your body really needs. there are people chugging diet cokes all day to achieve that, filling their bodies with aspartame. there are people buying whatever looks and smells good, and still not getting any more nutrients than the ones who don't eat anything.

i think people on both ends of the scale just need to learn how to take care of themselves, need to know what makes their own bodies run. and stop blaming people besides themselves, or blaming some illness that they DO NOT HAVE. read a few books. figure out what might be the problem, and try to address it directly. in the end, if they want to kill themselves, that's up to them i guess. if you want to be healthy, you can be. if you don't, eat or don't eat whatever you want.

barely anyone takes the time to actually do the math. you can easily find out, according to your height and age and such, what a healthy weight is, and how many calories you should be consuming per day. you can easily figure out what nutrients your body is lacking, or what you should be getting more of to balance out your lifestyle. it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

i think the real problems are an addiction to food and ignorance about what food really is. what we eat is really more of a drug than it is nourishment, we want it to make ourselves feel good, not to keep our bodies going. food is happiness for SO many people, and they eat so much more than they need to without realizing it.

agh i'm ranting. whatever. do what you will. information is out there if you want it.

 

well, there are overweight people who aren't overweight from stuffing their faces. there are very thin people who aren't anorexic. but if we're going to be putting insulting and patronizing warnings on clothing, making sweeping claims about why a person doesn't look "right," then we might as well do it do everyone. it's only fair.

 

There should be warnings on clothing made of plaid for people over the age of 8. who are not Scottish. "Warning: You look like a goof, and obviously can't dress youself."

 

actually I make it 118.5lbs and u're still in the healthy range.

first off this is a UK idea as reported in the BMJ which the publication for the British Medical Associaton. basically it's the lowest common denominator in terms of medical journals in the UK (least likely to be original research of any significance). what it does tend to publish are articles like these which are meant to be general guidelines as to how to improve the health of the nation.

personally and professonally speaking I think that something does need to be done about the increasing obesity especially given that the UK is committed to universal FREE healthcare. if the public are paying for it (especially in this modern era where resources are getting more scarce) then the public in general should be aware of how much of a drain on resources this is even more so because this is problem which can be solved and in many cases is self-perpetuated.

as to whether obesity can be measured, there is a relatively simple formula called the BMI (body mass index) which can be calculated an which if high has been shown to increae risk of things of a myriad of conditions. if you want to calculate your BMI, it is weight in kilograms (lbs divided by 2.2) over height in metres squared.

The International Obesity Task Force identifies three "Classes" of obesity: in Class 1 obesity (BMI of 30 to 34.9) there is a "moderate" risk of co-morbidities developing; in Class 2 obesity (BMI of 35 to 39.9) the risk is "severe"; and in Class 3 or "morbid" obesity (BMI in excess of 40) that risk is "very severe".

as an example - a 1.75m tall man (5'9") would need to weigh 91.8kg (202lbs) to have a BMI of 30. A BMI of less than 25 (168lb/76kg) would be healthy. with a weight in between classed as overweight.

the medical truth is that people in developed countries are getting fatter and worse defending the alterations of body weight as a non self perpetuated problem. as with any treatment for a medical condition, the first step remains the acknowledgement of a disease state.

what strikes me most is that this is reported under women's issues when I'm pretty sure the BMJ article would reference men as well as women's clothes for these warnings. in some ways men have it even worse as women have the protective effects of oestrogen whereas men have to deal with testosterone which increases their risk of developing co-morbidities compared to women of the same age (at least till women become menopausal).

actually they could but this ignores the point the BMA is trying to make which is that obesity is becoming a burden on the resources of the NHS and we should be targetting such people so that they can take active steps to reverse the trend. anorexia and similar problems cause a much smaller burden on the NHS and financially speaking, it's probably cheaper to treat the ones that show up than to put into place a huge public health drive to educate the public. yes, unfortunate but we do have to justify how we spend the public's money in the NHS to get the most bang for the buck.

 

damn. i look super cute in plaid.

 

nobody eats healthy and becomes obese.