This was an article an acquaitance (sp?) of mine wrote when he was bored at work one day. Apparently he was inspired when he saw the lunch cart lady moving along the hall and she was so obese that it was difficult for her to waddle her way through the building.
WARNING NOTE: Although this article is not exactly a diatribe against overweight individuals, it’s not exactly a politically correct article either, and if you are sensitive on the subject of obesity you might want to avoid it.
"“A Generation of McFatties”
By Patrick Engler
So we’ve all hear of the obesity epidemic, but with the information provided we can conclude that there is no mystery as to why it is happening. Kids are fat these days, when I work I see them all over. I watch fat people ride on scooters, not because they’re disabled, but because walking is too hard for them. Fat people now take up handicap parking spots, not because they’re handicapped, but because walking from a normal parking spot to their scooter is too hard. As a society we need to recognize when we have a problem and come together as one to fix it. Obesity kills, just as smoking does. Changes to how companies operate need to be made, as well as lifestyle changes.
I remember as a kid before I had a car the best thing to do was just be outside. My favorite things to do were to rides bikes or play guns. Everything entailed me being outside, running around. I got a Nintendo in 1986 and I enjoyed it to an extent. Not all the kids got one, so I felt pretty special. However, it didn’t even come close to taking away time from my bike or my ramp building. One major problem these days is that kids are addicted to video games. They’re everywhere. Most don’t challenge them mentally and all don’t challenge them physically. The game manufacturers are creating kids who just sit around, inside, doing no more physical activity than pressing a couple buttons.
Later on I got a car and the playing I did as a kid started to lessen. I drove myself around to the places I needed to go because it was obviously faster. Before cell phones we strapped to every single person I remember that groups from my high school would always meet at a gas station to decide what to do. If you watch old movies, in the pre-cell era there were always meeting spots. You go, meet new people, and always find something fun to do. Since the introduction to mass cell phones people just don’t meet at those spots like they used to. They make a call to one friend and decide what to do. Consequently you meet less people, and are out doing fewer activities.
Another thing I’ve noticed is how much school spirit has changed over the years. I look in my mom’s yearbook and see how crazy everybody was for their high school. Kids wore their colors weekly and all went to the games. It was fun and cool to be all for school. By the time I graduated the only people who wore our “orange and black” were the football players when they wore their jerseys. The “cool” thing was to not want to be in school and not be emphatic towards it. Being involved in school leads to a more active lifestyle because you’re busy with school activities.
Television has not helped the cause either. I often see ads promoting weight loss without having to work out. How is that realistically possible? I mean are we that lazy that we decide we need to lose weight but we want to do it so without working out?! The constant barrage of ads like this puts the idea in peoples’ heads that working out is a hassle. So now people think, “I don’t want to work out, its too much of a hassle.” Another issue on tv is the mass volume of advertising. All of the places that serve fast food have mass advertising campaigns that dwarf that of say dairy or fruit ads. I’m guessing many of us when told to think of the first place that comes to mind when we say the word “hamburger” would say McDonalds. They hook people in by mass advertising to them. Other ways they hook people or kids in is with toys and play lands. Essentially what they’re doing is creating a sense of happiness within kids so that they regress into that happy feeling later in life and are basically hooked before they know it.
Lung cancer and obesity are almost equal causes of death now, yet for some reason its ok to heckle a smoker about smoking but not an obese person about their weight. Smoking is now shunned upon, but all-you-can eat places aren’t. It’s ok for me to turn around and watch three people stuff their faces with pizza but if somebody wants to smoke they have to sit outside on a bench. Why not make people eat outside on that same bench? Why do we treat overeating so much differently than smoking or drinking? People need to eat. That’s why. We don’t physically need to smoke or drink alcohol. The major argument for why it’s different is just that. It’s a cop out. Yes people need to eat, but why should they be forced into eating slices of pizza and burgers if they’re out and about around lunch time? Why not have more healthy restaurants available? It’s because healthy food doesn’t taste as good as fatty food. The people who feed you those burgers aren’t there to help you from being hungry, they’re a business. They don’t care about people because their goal is to make money. They capitalize on the fact that fatty food has a similar reaction in the brain to caffeine and heroin. It makes you crave it.
Basically we know why we’re getting fatter but A) we’ve become to lazy to do anything about it and B) the filthy rich capitalist CEO’s have too much money sunk into their lobbyists who are doing a great job in preventing any form of positive legislation from being passed. One of my favorite musicians once had a motto that he lived by, and it’s a great start to fixing this epidemic: “Kill Your TV.”"