Chances are I/you/we are too fat!

[kimmy]

Surely people who support the right of adults to make their own choices should be in favor of some sort of food-labelling requirement? Inaccurate or non-existant labelling is in direct opposition to the notion that people should have the right to make informed decisions.

-k

[ian5]

Personally, I favour putting arsenic in food. Throw a little warfarin in there while you're at it.

For those of us who appreciate freedom, personal responsibility is the preferred alternative to government interference. Why invoke public policy where it's not needed?

I love how a socialist health care system naturally leads to greater and greater incursions into the private lives of the citizenry. Nothing's off limits, because everything can potentially affect your health.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe I've become too much of a liberal, but yes, everything can affect a person's health. Yes maybe we should leave everyone to take responsibility for themselves. But so far we haven't seen people do that. We are still smoking, we are still eating absolute crap that is poisoning our bodies, and we still make choice upon choice that has resulted in the slow deterioration of our bodies. Yet somehow, we claim to have advanced as a society. The result is that our health care system has taken a massive beating. Rather than spending money on doctors to heal people with illnesses beyond their control, we are forced to spend scads of money treating people with lung cancer and heart disease. What is scary is that knowing all of this I will be next.

Further, doesn't it seem that the higher cost of healthy food results in a system where the rich can get healthier and the poor have no choice but to eat poison? Is this another example where long life and prosperity is relegated to the wealthy?

Ian

[BHS]

Further, doesn't it seem that the higher cost of healthy food results in a system where the rich can get healthier and the poor have no choice but to eat poison?  Is this another example where long life and prosperity is relegated to the wealthy?

Ian

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Welcome to reality. No amount of government interference is going to change the fact that some people live long and prosper where others fall short and fail.

[mirror]

Welcome to reality. No amount of government interference is going to change the fact that some people live long and prosper where others fall short and fail.

I disagree.

We can do whatever we want, including changing eating habits, through taxation. Tax the crap out of bad food, just like we do with alcohol and cigarettes, and I don't know what we are waiting for to tax mj, and make the good food available to as much of our society as possible through lower costs to the consumer.

Labelling is another problem. perhaps manufacturers shouls be forced to put the ingredients, etc., in as big lettering as anything else on the label. and could we not also force corporations to set up on their websites all the nutritional information we require to make informed decisions as I wish we would do away with most of the wasteful packaging we see in the stores.

And when are we ever going to bite the bullet on the metric system? Thank you Mr Mulroney for screwing that up as another sop to your corporate friends. How can people compare prices easily with two different systems?

[BHS]

Welcome to reality. No amount of government interference is going to change the fact that some people live long and prosper where others fall short and fail.

I disagree.

We can do whatever we want, including changing eating habits, through taxation. Tax the crap out of bad food, just like we do with alcohol and cigarettes, and I don't know what we are waiting for to tax mj, and make the good food available to as much of our society as possible through lower costs to the consumer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And when you've taxed everything there is to tax, and some people still live longer and have happier lives, what will you do then to cut them down to size?

Also interesting to note: this proposal goes against notion of a pluralist society, in that it creates another way that wealthy people (who can afford to pay the taxes on luxury foods) have it better than poor people (who have to stick with their government-issue boiled turnip or whatever the latest health fad stipulates).

[mirror]

Welcome to reality. No amount of government interference is going to change the fact that some people live long and prosper where others fall short and fail.

I disagree.

We can do whatever we want, including changing eating habits, through taxation. Tax the crap out of bad food, just like we do with alcohol and cigarettes, and I don't know what we are waiting for to tax mj, and make the good food available to as much of our society as possible through lower costs to the consumer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And when you've taxed everything there is to tax, and some people still live longer and have happier lives, what will you do then to cut them down to size?

Also interesting to note: this proposal goes against notion of a pluralist society, in that it creates another way that wealthy people (who can afford to pay the taxes on luxury foods) have it better than poor people (who have to stick with their government-issue boiled turnip or whatever the latest health fad stipulates).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you believe Canada's health food guide. I don't. Apparently they were all set to publish it when secret milk industry corporate lobbyists forced the government to double the quanity of milk in the guide. The guide has some good stuff in it but some is BS.

[BHS]

Do you believe Canada's health food guide. I don't. Apparently they were all set to publish it when secret milk industry corporate lobbyists forced the government to double the quanity of milk in the guide. The guide has some good stuff in it but some is BS.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is this sarcasm, or are you being serious? My doctor continually makes reference to the food guide as if it were some sort of magic formula, but it looks like common sense to me. Atkins would disagree with the principle of equal importance of the four food groups, and I think that it's a little simplistic, but I think anyone wanting to maintain a healthy weight could stick to the guide without problems.

[cybercoma]

People are genetically predisposed to the three basic body types. An endomorph will never become an exomorph and be a fitness mode, it's genetically impossible. This isn't to say that you can't lose weight or be healthy, but once an endomorph, always an endomorph whether you're 300lbs, 180lbs or 120lbs.

There's no magic diet. Make sure you get all the nutrients you need by eating a diversity of food, but watch your caloric intake. Get moderate excersize and that's it, you'll be healthy. There is no secret here. People who live sedentary lives and eat way more food than they need will be unhealthy, just as the opposite is true. If you're extremely active and don't get the right nutrients you'll also be unhealthy.

There's no secret here, everyone knows what to do...some people through lack of willpower or physical limitations are simply unwilling or unable to do it.

[for_liberty]

I think it is obious that there is a problem. All you have to do is look around, but i think the BMI inflates the numbers. About 5 years ago i was 185lbs to 190lbs and I am just under 6 feet tall. Acording to the BMI chart at my doctors office i was over weight. Yet i was working out with weights alot back then and my body fat percentage was only 13%. That is far from fat. And i was really healthy. All my numbers from my blood tests where good.

[BHS]

I think it is obious that there is a problem. All you have to do is look around, but i think the BMI inflates the numbers. About 5 years ago i was 185lbs to 190lbs and I am just under 6 feet tall. Acording to the BMI chart at my doctors office i was over weight.  Yet i was working out with weights alot back then and my body fat percentage was only 13%. That is far from fat. And i was really healthy. All my numbers from my blood tests where good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, BMI is just a guideline. I attended Weight Watchers for a while, and though they use BMI to determine lifetime goals for members they stress that everybody is different and you should consult with your doctor before trying to fall within those limits. A healthy weight for some people is outside of the BMI parameters.

[SirSpanky]

Too general a guide for such a diverse thing.

Micheal Jordan would be considered overweight, simply because of his muscle mass. I don't think anyone would be able to call him obese with a straight face.

[BHS]

Too general a guide for such a diverse thing.

Micheal Jordan would be considered overweight, simply because of his muscle mass. I don't think anyone would be able to call him obese with a straight face.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, not in his prime. He's had a few cheeseburgers since then.