[Vision2020] Obesity Compared To Tobacco: Premature Deaths: Physical Activity & Obesity
Wayne Price
bear at moscow.com
Mon Aug 17 16:27:33 PDT 2009
Ted,
Your argument is like the people that buy cheep land near an airport,
and then after living there a few years complain about the noise!
They knew there was noise and an airport when they built there, just
as bar workers knew there was smoke there. Noise exposure is a health
risk!
I tend to vote with my dollars, and will not go to a Moscow Bar.
On Aug 17, 2009, at 4:18 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:
> Apparently the Centers for Disease Control should update and correct
> their website, if you are correct about obesity (which is not caused
> only by diet, in many cases, but by lack of exercise. Obesity can
> occur with over consumption of calories, even from low fat food,
> compared to calorie burn) being as much or greater a health risk
> than tobacco.
>
> They continue to unequivocally declare "tobacco is the single most
> preventable cause of disease, disability and death in the United
> States."
>
> I am not trying to minimize anything regarding the risks of
> obesity. I only quoted the Centers for Disease Control from their
> current 2009 website, which at this moment continues to state in
> bold letters that tobacco is the nation's leading killer:
>
> http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/aag/pdf/tobacco.pdf
>
> Perhaps they are wrong. But this discussion is not essential to my
> argument about banning smoking in bars.
>
> You do not address what is an essential aspect of my argument
> regarding supporting a smoking ban in bars (or any workplace): that
> workers are exposed to the smoke, sometimes over their entire shift,
> with no way to avoid breathing the smoke. A worker at McDonald's,
> for example, does not have to eat part of the Big Macs the customers
> order and eat. In fact, a worker at McDonald's does not have to eat
> any of the food associated with that business, at all. So the
> argument regarding worker safety and health, regarding workers
> exposed to hazardous substance on the job that they cannot avoid,
> does not apply to the case of fatty food served in restaurants. I
> made this argument very explicitly.
>
> I recall clearly you stated workers who do not want to breathe
> tobacco smoke on the job in bars can work somewhere else if they
> don't like this... I don't accept this as a valid argument to
> justify exposing workers to hazardous and addictive substances on
> the job. Workers often must accept what work they can find,
> especially in this economy. But even if jobs were in abundance, I
> think reasonable standards of worker safety should be applied to all
> workplaces, and tobacco smoke exposure is hazardous, the medical
> facts are clear.
>
> Also, if you followed my comments in this discussion carefully, you
> would note that I mentioned that obesity is caused in great measure
> by a lack of exercise. So diet is only part of the behavioral
> syndrome associated with obesity. Low fat foods can contribute to
> obesity in someone not exercising enough. I can offer again, as I
> did before, my anecdotal evidence: I grew up in high school eating
> the fast food diet heavy in meat, fats, etc., in very large
> quantities, yet never became even close to obese. Why? Because I
> spent most of the year running, as much as 40-70 miles a week in
> cross country, track and on my own time, and in general led a very
> active lifestyle.
>
> Lack of exercise is one of the most important risk factors causing
> poor health or disease:
>
> http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/15458
>
> From website above:
>
> The researchers focused on four factors tied to reduced disease
> risk: never smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) lower than 30,
> performing at least 3.5 hours per week of physical activity, and
> following a healthy diet.
> -------------------------------------------
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Saundra Lund
> <v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm> wrote:
> Ted asked:
>
> “Can you provide a reference to the study that claims obesity is the
> number one cause of premature death in the US? I have not found any
> credible evidence that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the number
> one cause of premature death, though obesity has increased,
> especially among children. It would be interesting to look at this
> study, given it contradicts the Center for Disease Control.”
>
>
> Sorry for the delay in responding, Ted – this got lost in my Inbox,
> and then my motherboard started dying, etc.
>
>
> In any case, I was slightly mistaken about the study I was recalling
> – it wasn’t specific to the US and it only looked at men:
>
> http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=19244221
>
>
> Combined effects of overweight and smoking in late adolescence on
> subsequent mortality: nationwide cohort study
>
> BMJ. 2009 Feb 24;338:b496. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b496.
>
>
> “Conclusions Regardless of smoking status, overweight and obesity in
> late adolescence increases the risk of adult mortality. Obesity and
> overweight were as hazardous as heavy and light smoking,
> respectively, but there was no interaction between BMI and smoking
> status. The global obesity epidemic and smoking among adolescents
> remain important targets for intensified public health initiatives.”
>
>
> And, of course, I’m sure you know there have been a boatload of
> studies published since the 2005 CDC study you cited showing obesity
> to be as great a predictor of premature death as smoking – just go
> to PubMed and you can pull up recent studies with more than you ever
> wanted to know about obesity, morbidity, and mortality. Indeed, the
> more research that’s been done in recent years identifying the
> multitude of ways obesity negatively impacts health, the more
> researchers are predicting obesity will greatly eclipse smoking as
> the leading cause of premature death in all adult age groups.
>
>
> Look, the point is that neither obesity nor smoking are “healthy”
> and both individually are huge predictors for premature death, and
> not just in the US. I guess I just didn’t understand your interest
> in minimizing the risks associated with obesity and premature
> death. In fact, lots of people who have experienced both
> “addictions” think the food addiction and developing healthy eating
> habits is much, much more difficult to beat than tobacco,
> particularly in these times when more Americans are eating out – or
> grabbing food to go – than in this country’s history . . . well, at
> least until the GOP’s policies created the economic crisis. With
> smoking, you can just completely give it up, which isn’t something
> one can do with food.
>
>
> And, if our City Council is going to get in the business of
> prohibiting legal behavior, why shouldn’t they get in the businesses
> of telling local restaurants to serve healthier foods??? Regardless
> of activity levels, Ted, high fat diets aren’t healthy for anyone,
> nor are the low fiber foods that are epidemic on the Palouse. I’ve
> heard more people than I can count comment that the most veggies
> they eat are from when they eat in restaurants, which is a sad
> commentary. And, with a few notable exceptions, I’ve heard lots &
> lots of comments about the lack of affordable and healthy vegetarian
> options when eating out, both in the community and in our schools.
>
>
> Of course, I don’t think our City Council should be in the business
> of doing either, but since they’ve done one, why not the other?
>
>
>
> Saundra Lund
>
> Moscow, ID
>
>
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people
> to do nothing.
>
> ~ Edmund Burke
>
>
> ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through
> life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or
> reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written
> permission of the author.*****
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Ted Moffett [mailto:starbliss at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 3:33 PM
> To: Saundra Lund
> Cc: bear at moscow.com; Tom Hansen; Moscow Vision 2020
> Subject: Obesity Compared To Tobacco: Premature Deaths: Physical
> Activity & Obesity
>
>
> Saundra Lund v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm
> Wed Jun 24 11:15:40 PDT 2009 wrote:
>
>
> Let's see . . . obesity is either the #1 or #2 cause of premature
> death in
> the US depending on what study you read.
>
> -------------------
>
> Can you provide a reference to the study that claims obesity is the
> number one cause of premature death in the US? I have not found any
> credible evidence that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the number
> one cause of premature death, though obesity has increased,
> especially among children. It would be interesting to look at this
> study, given it contradicts the Center for Disease Control.
>
>
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