[Stealth]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060906/hl_afp/healthobesityaustraliaconference_060906093244

SYDNEY (AFP) - The global obesity pandemic combined with society's anti-fat bias is more damaging to women than to men, an expert has warned at an international conference.

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"Being obese and female is as bad as it gets," Berit Heitmann, a nutritional and medical research advisor to the Danish government, told a meeting of world obesity experts gathered in Sydney Wednesday.

Not only were obese women socially stigmatised more than their male counterparts, but their health suffered to a greater degree, delegates at the 10th International Congress on Obesity heard.

Heitmann said that although gender differences in the obesity epidemic were narrowing, the vicious circle of obesity and poverty still had a greater impact on women.

Poverty was well known as both a contributor to and result of obesity, a condition that was five times more common among poor people in the developed world, she said.

A recent Finnish study showed that obese women faced more job discrimination and earned less, not only compared to men, but also to women of normal weight and obese men with a similar education and job.

"Appearance and size seem related to getting and keeping both job and salary," she said.

Prejudice began early in life for obese females, with children as young as three shunning their obese peers, Heitmann said.

Family, teachers and healthcare professionals were also more biased against obese girls and women than boys and men, she said.

"Obese women are deprived of friendships, intimate relationships, social interactions, education, income and respect," Heitmann said.

In the realm of education, with fewer grants and scholarships awarded to obese women, she said.

In addition to social disadvantages, obese women suffered more from diabetes, hypertension and heart disease than men with the same body mass index, Heitmann said.

"The risk of developing diabetes type two for an obese man is about half that of an obese woman," with similar figures for hypertension, she said.

Paradoxically, while obesity appeared to cause more disease in women, death rates were similar among the sexes, she said.

Women's tendency to carry more fat on the backside than on the stomach, where it was more dangerous, may explain this, she said.

Research dedicated to alleviating the burden of obesity on women's health included a study showing women could achieve weight loss more effectively when exercise was augmented by a higher protein diet.

Professor Donald Layman, whose 2005 study was published by the Journal of Nutrition, reported that higher protein diets, when combined with exercise, meant dieters tended to lose fat rather than muscle.

Although Layman was invited to speak by the lobby group Meat and Livestock Australia, Manny Oakes of CSIRO -- Australia's government body for scientific research -- called Layman's results exciting.

The obesity conference, which is held every four years, has drawn more than 2,000 academics and health professionals to seek practical ways of fighting the greatest single contributor to chronic disease worldwide.

The World Health Organisation says more than a billion people -- nearly one in six of the world's population -- are overweight, outnumbering the 800 million who are under-nourished.

i've bolded the parts that either make me sick, or that i laughed myself silly about

[Mathwiz6]

So... the ladies get more diseases, but survive more?

And they have big butts, but smaller stomachs (that I can believe  )

Practical ways of fighting obesity... there's that genetic modification technique... there's the roman way...

Yea! Rome has the answer!

How bout we take away the fat people's food, and give it to the poor people. Surely All overweight people eat enough for two[/sarcasm]

[Blue Lion]

I am so glad I'm not obese. Sometime it just boggles my mind how people can get so heavy.

[Ulala]

Same.

[achtung]

Ditto.

[Fineus]

How to combat obesity? Easy!

1. Get rid of the supersize option, or enforce far more stringent guidelines on what kind of foodstuffs should be put into fast-food.

2. Stop saying "you look lovely" when you know they look like an elephant.

3. Don't buy your kid that new Nintendo for Christmas. Get them a bike or some roller skates and send them out into the big bad world to get some good old healthy exercise.

4. Chocolate is not a fruit.

There. Sorted. And if you're still incapable of saying "no" to that fourth hamburger for breakfast then you should have any health benefits you have revoked as you clearly don't care about your own health, so why should anyone else.

[Shade]

5. Outlaw elevators and force people to use the stairs.

[Turambar]

even for ppl on the 9th floor?

[achtung]

even for ppl on the 9th floor?

No, even for people on the 20th floor.

[Fineus]

As someone who had to lift a 21 inch CRT monitor around when going to LAN parties, I think that's a bad idea.

As someone who sees obese people stuff down more calories in a meal than some families get for a week.. go right ahead. Make them work for their meals.

[IceFire]

How to combat obesity? Easy!

1. Get rid of the supersize option, or enforce far more stringent guidelines on what kind of foodstuffs should be put into fast-food.

2. Stop saying "you look lovely" when you know they look like an elephant.

3. Don't buy your kid that new Nintendo for Christmas. Get them a bike or some roller skates and send them out into the big bad world to get some good old healthy exercise.

4. Chocolate is not a fruit.

There. Sorted. And if you're still incapable of saying "no" to that fourth hamburger for breakfast then you should have any health benefits you have revoked as you clearly don't care about your own health, so why should anyone else.

Absolutely man!

[an0n]

They should just tell all the kids at school it's okay to beat the **** outta the fat kids within the school grounds.

Getting punched in the ****ing face every day should be motivation enough for anyone to lose some ****ing weight. Or at the very least to make friends to protect them - which would boost their self-esteem and make them want to lose weight anyways.

[Stealth]

yeah. but what makes me so sick is the liberal american will say

"But you can't judge everyone... some people can't help it. they're just obese genetically, etc"

bull.

maybe .01% of obese people can't help it, due to medication, etc. but 1/3 of America's population doesn't have that excuse.

nearly one in six of the world's population -- are overweight, outnumbering the 800 million who are under-nourished

^^^ that is a shame. an effing shame.

[Fineus]

That's a good point actually Stealth. Whenever you see a really fat person you hear people say "maybe they can't help it.. perhaps some disease or something..".

I'd really like to know what the hell kind of disease does that... and why in all my 22 years I've never heard its name once.

[Herra Tohtori]

Depression, for one... Metabolic disorder is another.

Most psychical conditions are illnesses just like others, but metabolic disorder is actually something that affects individual cells' ability to produce energy.

Regardless, the reason for all obesity is simple - those people eat more than they consume. It's as simple as that. If they consumed as much energy as they ate, they would not gain weight. And most of fat people really do not have illnesses/medications affecting their metabolism.

[Flipside]

I must admit some skepticism with regards to the estimated number of under-nourished people, considering I expect it's very very difficult to get accurate numbers out of large areas of the World, sometimes through incalcitrent governments, and sometimes purely because the country is too big to do a reasonable consensus.

Other than that, most of what is said here doesn't surprise me.

[Fineus]

So I take it that although depression is a very real occurence in people, it's more a matter of failing willpower that they continue to eat?

That's a tricky one. I respect that people can become very depressed, but I don't have much sympathy for people who comfort eat... like smokers, they know what they're doing and haven't the guts to stop themselves.

[Herra Tohtori]

Okay, for first, depression is a real illness. It's a disturbance of cerebral chemistry and can be treated with right medication, although complete healing process (the time the nerve system takes to regain proper balance) takes a lot of time.

Like any physical illness, depressed people can not really control all their actions. One of the symptoms can very well be that they are frankly unable to eat less, or alternately can't bring themselves to do excersize, or both, and that is nothing related to "strength of will". There can be other symptoms as well, similar in this regard. For example, someone simply cannot work. Not that they wouldn't want, or that they didn't know how to do it, they just... can't. Not a question of strength of will in case of depression. It also can't be healed by strength of will. That's one definition of serious depression.

But for most people, it's simply a bad habit of eating too much and moving too little that causestheir problem. And as difficult a habit change is, most people are not hindered by psychological problems, so in their case it really is about strength of will.

[IceFire]

We do all have to accept that some folks are going to be larger than others with more body fat by genetics alone.  Not everyone has a body builders body and not everyone has a runners body (or a combination therein).  Its a proportionality thing as a "skinny" person with a small bone structure can be obese too.

It also doesn't necessarily have to do with how much you consume...but of what you're consuming.  North Americans in general have a high caloric intake and thats myself included and I'm a beanpole.  The human body can adapt fairly drastically to how much your eating but it can only do so much when its taking in a load of junk and you're sitting around.  Now...I do of sitting. But I try and eat well (lots of water a day, the veggies, fruit, no soft drinks except on occasion, etc.) and do some exercise during the week.

[an0n]

Depression is not a ****ing illness.

It's a faggoty excuse for stupid, self-centered people to sit around whining for attention.

And you can whine all you want about how 'they physically can't function'.

C'z they say the same goddamn thing about people not being physically or psychologically capable of hacking their own limbs off - but people do it all the ****ing time when they're out hiking and nature ****s them up.

Being sad is no excuse for being a whiney pussy. Suck it up and get on with your ****ing life....