Chubby Kids...

[Todd&Copper]

How do you know about Steve's insecurities?
Are you his shrink or something?
I agree with him on this so does that mean I'm insecure about my weight?
I've never had weight issues & neither have my husband or kids so I don't know what my problem is?!
Maybe you could fill me in?

The very judgmental tone of his post led me to believe that he only read select posts, and read into them what he wanted to justify his rant. Sorry if that offended you. Perhaps you, too, read too much into certain posts. Tone doesn't carry over into text, and you know what they say about making ASSumptions . . . .

 

[mkingdomlvr]

And you are free to do so, but why judge others who don't? And why judge yourself if you can no longer keep your physique at the epitome of physical perfection? Don't you think that is a waste of time and energy? Don't you think it is an indication of how shallow and anti-intellectual we've become?

I don't exercise and eat right to achieve some "physical perfection". I do it to stave off heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and any number of diseases that are directly related to obesity.

Check this report out: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/

If americans got 30 minutes of exercise every day and ate right, the money we spend on health care would plummet. Isn't that worth doing??

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

I don't exercise and eat right to achieve some "physical perfection". I do it to stave off heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and any number of diseases that are directly related to obesity.

Check this report out: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/

If americans got 30 minutes of exercise every day and ate right, the money we spend on health care would plummet. Isn't that worth doing??

Do you honestly think there there is anybody in this country who doesn't know it is healthy to do some exercise and eat better?

 

[Deb in IA]

Don't you think that is a waste of time and energy? Don't you think it is an indication of how shallow and anti-intellectual we've become?

Please explain to me how taking care of oneself, eating right, and exercising is anti-intellectual.

 

[3jsmommy]

And you are free to do so, but why judge others who don't? And why judge yourself if you can no longer keep your physique at the peak of physical perfection? Don't you think that is a waste of time and energy? Don't you think it is an indication of how shallow and anti-intellectual we've become?

I don't think it's shallow or anti-intellectual to try to be healthy, but to obsess over other people's weight or judge them for not meeting your standards is pretty sad!
Food can be an addiction & just like alcoholic's are more likely to have children that drink too much, some food addicts have kids that eat too much.
There are parents with all kinds of addictions, some alot worse than food!

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

Please explain to me how taking care of oneself, eating right, and exercising is anti-intellectual.

I never said it was. I was talking about judging others.

 

[mkingdomlvr]

So keep your body healthy all you want but don't worry about what's going on with people that you "saw in walmart, that were chubby"

The part about health care reform is BS, sorry but no matter how thin people are you still have a need for the government to address health care!

Did you read the CDC report and see the statistics? There will always be accidents, injuries, genetic diseases and illness, but if we eliminated the diseases that we give ourselves through our own behavior we would not be seeing these outrageous costs.

 

[3jsmommy]

The very judgmental tone of his post led me to believe that he only read select posts, and read into them what he wanted to justify his rant. Sorry if that offended you. Perhaps you, too, read too much into certain posts. Tone doesn't carry over into text, and you know what they say about making ASSumptions . . . .

No I don't what do they say about them?

 

[mkingdomlvr]

Just in case anyone is interested in what obesity cost us as a nation in 1998, and the number of obese adults and children has risen since 1998, so we're probably paying a LOT more:

According to a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003). Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. The primary data sets used to develop the spending estimates for this study included the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). The data also included information about each person’s health insurance status and sociodemographic characteristics.

Table 1, Aggregate Medical Spending, in Billions of Dollars, Attributable to Overweight and Obesity, by Insurance Status and Data Source, 1996–1998

Insurance Category
Overweight and Obesity Obesity
MEPS (1998) NHA (1998) MEPS (1998) NHA (1998)
Out-of-pocket $7.1 $12.8 $3.8 $6.9
Private $19.8 $28.1 $9.5 $16.1
Medicaid $3.7 $14.1 $2.7 $10.7
Medicare $20.9 $23.5 $10.8 $13.8
Total $51.5 $78.5 $26.8 $47.5

Note: Calculations based on data from the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey merged with the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys, and health care expenditures data from National Health Accounts (NHA). MEPS estimates do not include spending for institutionalized populations, including nursing home residents.
Source: Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003

As shown in Table 1, in 1998 aggregate adult medical expenditures attributable to overweight and obesity is estimated to be $51.5 billion using MEPS data and $78.5 billion using 1998 National Health Accounts (NHA) data. For obesity alone, the estimated costs are $26.8 billion and $47.5 billion, respectively. The inclusion of nursing home expenditures in the NHA estimates causes most of the difference between the MEPS and NHA results.

 

[3jsmommy]

Did you read the CDC report and see the statistics? There will always be accidents, injuries, genetic diseases and illness, but if we eliminated the diseases that we give ourselves through our own behavior we would not be seeing these outrageous costs.

No one is arguing that!
I was agreeing with a poster who was saying MYOB & be less judgemental of people based on their appearance.
Of course now it turns into posters saying they have to pay more for health care because of obesity. I guess that justifies judging other people & making assumptions about their parenting based on appearance?

Edited to add, I wrote the statement above before the last post, sometimes it's just too predictable!

 

[Deb in IA]

I never said it was. I was talking about judging others.

You can call it judging others; I call it public health.

And aren't doctors supposed to "judge" their patients?

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

Just in case anyone is interested in what obesity cost us as a nation in 1998, and the number of obese adults and children has risen since 1998, so we're probably paying a LOT more:

According to a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003). Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. The primary data sets used to develop the spending estimates for this study included the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). The data also included information about each person’s health insurance status and sociodemographic characteristics.

Table 1, Aggregate Medical Spending, in Billions of Dollars, Attributable to Overweight and Obesity, by Insurance Status and Data Source, 1996–1998

Insurance Category
Overweight and Obesity Obesity
MEPS (1998) NHA (1998) MEPS (1998) NHA (1998)
Out-of-pocket $7.1 $12.8 $3.8 $6.9
Private $19.8 $28.1 $9.5 $16.1
Medicaid $3.7 $14.1 $2.7 $10.7
Medicare $20.9 $23.5 $10.8 $13.8
Total $51.5 $78.5 $26.8 $47.5

Note: Calculations based on data from the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey merged with the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys, and health care expenditures data from National Health Accounts (NHA). MEPS estimates do not include spending for institutionalized populations, including nursing home residents.
Source: Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003

As shown in Table 1, in 1998 aggregate adult medical expenditures attributable to overweight and obesity is estimated to be $51.5 billion using MEPS data and $78.5 billion using 1998 National Health Accounts (NHA) data. For obesity alone, the estimated costs are $26.8 billion and $47.5 billion, respectively. The inclusion of nursing home expenditures in the NHA estimates causes most of the difference between the MEPS and NHA results.

Even if the above is accurate, it's peanuts compared to the war in Iraq. If we can afford that, we can afford to help the occassional fat old person get health care on Medicare.

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

You can call it judging others; I call it public health.

You call it public health to "tsk-tsk" when you see some fat kid at Wal-mart??? Gimme a break.

 

[mkingdomlvr]

Even if the above is accurate, it's peanuts compared to the war in Iraq. If we can afford that, we can afford to help the occassional fat old person get health care on Medicare.

Read the report Steve, take a few minutes and read it. It's not the "occasional fat old person". It's children, it's middle aged people, it's young adults.

If a corporation was putting something into the water supply that was causing the range of illnesses that obesity and being overweight are causing, people would be calling for the CEO's head on a stick!

Why don't we care enough to want our neighbors to be healthy?

 

[3jsmommy]

You can call it judging others; I call it public health.

And aren't doctors supposed to "judge" their patients?

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
I guess it could be translated like that, but somehow I don't think that was the original idea...

 

[Deb in IA]

You call it public health to "tsk-tsk" when you see some fat kid at Wal-mart??? Gimme a break.

ToddandCopper was right. If you read the posts, you will see that it was the OP who talked about the kid at WalMart, not me.

My patient was the 3 1/2 year old who weighs 120 pounds.

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

Read the report Steve, take a few minutes and read it. It's not the "occasional fat old person". It's children, it's middle aged people, it's young adults.

If a corporation was putting something into the water supply that was causing the range of illnesses that obesity and being overweight are causing, people would be calling for the CEO's head on a stick!

Same for smoking, speeding, drinking, and so many other things. Why do we reserve our enmity for fat people?

 

[crashbb]

Even if the above is accurate, it's peanuts compared to the war in Iraq. If we can afford that, we can afford to help the occassional fat old person get health care on Medicare.

Well that would be a complete non sequitur. The fact that the US is spending a huge of amount of money on the war in Iraq does has nothing, whatsoever, to do with this argument.

The argument that we are spending a huge amount on X, therefore you cannot begrudge us Y (particularly when X and Y having nothing to do with each other) is rather ridiculous. Actually, a stronger argument would be that we are spending a huge amount on X and therefore have no money left to spend on Y. And no, I'm not suggesting that the war is Iraq is a better use of money then Medicare for "fat old people", just pointing out the error in your argument.

 

[mkingdomlvr]

Same for smoking, speeding, drinking, and so many other things. Why do we reserve our enmity for fat people?

Do we? I was a smoker, and there was more than enough enmity for us at the time. I was called disgusting, stinky, lazy (although how that came from smoking I'll never know), not to mention the exaggerated coughing and waving of hands when people walked by. Ever read a thread here about people who smoke at the parks?

 

[SteveInBrooklyn]

Well that would be a complete non sequitur. The fact that the US is spending a huge of amount of money on the war in Iraq does has nothing, whatsoever, to do with this argument.

The argument that we are spending a huge amount on X, therefore you cannot begrudge us Y (particularly when X and Y having nothing to do with each other) is rather ridiculous. Actually, a stronger argument would be that we are spending a huge amount on X and therefore have no money left to spend on Y. And no, I'm not suggesting that the war is Iraq is a better use of money then Medicare for "fat old people", just pointing out the error in your argument.

No, that's not an error in logic. The argument is: if you can find money to KILL people, you can find money to HELP people. Can you see the logic in that?