|
|
This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
|
|
Author
|
Topic: New York plans to ban sugared drinks over 16 oz.
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 06-01-2012 02:04 PM
quote: Monte L. Fullmer
This goes on the same drift as in the Homeowner's Association for new suburbs that are popping up everywhere: a covenant, that the owner signs with the purchase of the house, that the rules that the HOA drafts up to have "the perfect neighborhood", and charges the homeowner a yearly fee and issues fines to the homeowner if a rule or rules are broken.
Veering slightly OT, but my fiancee lives in a development with a HOA, and in some ways they do have their plus points. I found it strange when I first heard about them - not being able to repaint your house or even stick a light fitting on an exterior wall without their permission, or being fined if you don't mow the front lawn ever two weeks is not something I'd ever come across in England. They do seem to deter "neighbours from hell", though, and there seems to be a general view around the place that HOA developments have less of a crime (and especially burglary) problem than areas without one. As against which, the annual fee strikes me as an utter ripoff, and no-one seems to know what the HOA actually does with the money. The other problem seems to be that when there are foreclosed and/or jingle mailed properties in a HOA development they are often left to fall into disrepair if they're owned by the bank for a significant period: if the HOA tries to fine the bank and the bank doesn't pay up, there's not much the HOA can do about it except sue the bank, which they don't want to do because of the cost. And that situation in turn makes it more difficult to sell the empty property, because any propsective buyer knows that they'll have to do a ton of expensive work to get the HOA off their back the moment they move in.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 06-01-2012 02:07 PM
I think most Americans are living in denial when it comes to their health. Many have no idea at all how good or bad their condition may be. They may think they're healthy when they really are not. It just seems more pleasant not knowing the truth and going on with one's life doing what feels good.
A general rule among people into working out goes: you shouldn't drink your calories. Artifically sweetened sodas, coffees and other juices seem like an obvious, easy target.
Unfortunately the obesity problem is far more complex and pervasive. It's going to take a lot more than some soda pop rule to get the desired results. Ultimately Americans are going to be required to take an active role managing their health. IMHO, Americans do more to properly maintain their cars than they do to maintain themselves.
quote: Leo Enticknap
Exercising and encouraging common sense/personal responsibility in what you eat and drink and how much exercise you get is much more effective, and if people aren't willing to do that voluntarily, any attempt to force them will almost certainly end in failure.
It depends on how they're forced. Since our government has little desire or ability to do anything about the obesity problem insurance companies and employers are beginning to weigh in on the matter. It may come down to Americans being forced to manage their wellness in order to keep a job.
We have a company-wide random drug testing policy at my work place. If someone wants the freedom to get high he can try doing so, but he can't work here while he's pursuing that freedom. The costs of liability and workers comp insurance premiums (along with certain DOT regulations) forced us to say "no" to drug user freedoms. Likewise, some companies are now intentionally not hiring smokers and people who are obese in order to hold down the costs of their group health insurance premiums.
The insurance companies are finally starting to realize they'll be making more money by emphasizing wellness management and making it cheaper for people to get preventative medical care. In the long run they'll pay out less in claims than they would by letting policy holders do the usual: just do whatever, go with the flow and then react to medical disaster.
Obviously things like wellness management and preventative health care do not excite anyone with a lot of money invested in medical related stocks.
There's a lot more profit to be made from cutting open some guy's chest, performing a triple bypass and then price gouging him for drugs he has to take for the rest of his life. The problem is that medical business model is not sustainable. The taxpayers can't keep eating the rising costs. High health insurance costs are another reason for businesses to send any jobs they can to other countries or hire American employees and not pay any benefits. This problem is hurting the United States' competitive ability in the global economy.
quote: Mike Blakesley
I've always been skinny my whole life, so imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when my doctor told me I needed to lose 10 to 15 pounds. So what did I do? I stopped eating that nightly snack before I went to bed, which I'd gotten into the habit of doing. Pounds: Gone in about 2 weeks.
Skinny people can die of heart attacks too. High cholesterol and high blood pressure can occur in any adult, not just those suffering from obesity.
One of my closest friends is seriously overweight (over 300 pounds) and has a number of health problems that are really starting to accumulate. I've tried encouraging him to join the gym but had no luck. He told me lately he's been drinking bottled water like it's going out of style. His thirst is suddenly that powerful. I warned him that's a symptom of Type 2 Diabetes and that he ought to see his doctor ASAP. I'm concerned he could drop dead of a heart attack before he is 50. He'll probably keep going with the flow until it happens.
When you think about it the deck is heavily stacked against any American who has the usual lifestyle of working at a desk all day, being a couch potato at home during prime time, staying up too late and then not getting enough sleep.
Lack of physical activity, sleep deprivation and workplace stress makes an already bad situation worse. The body will crave the empty calories found in junk foods and sweetened drinks. The stress hormone cortisol will make the body more efficient at storing those calories in fat cells.
I don't like how the food industry has turned healthy foods into a "luxury asset class." Check the prices in any Whole Foods grocery store and you'll understand why some people jokingly call the place "Whole Paycheck." Likewise, some of the cheapest, most quick to prepare foods are among the most unhealthy. A brick of ramen noodles costs under 20˘. It's no wonder why a disproportionate share of obese Americans are in low income classes (and often without any health insurance either).
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 06-01-2012 02:27 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
Skinny people can die of heart attacks too. High cholesterol and high blood pressure can occur in any adult, not just those suffering from obesity.
You are always putting thoughts into people's mouths. I never said I wasn't at risk due to being skinny. Anybody can have a heart attack, any time, anywhere, whether you have high cholestorol or blood pressure or you don't.
I had two good friends who were athletic. One was a runner...he died in his sleep at home when he was 19. The other dropped dead while playing basketball at age 23. Both heart attacks. My dad, on the other hand, ate a terrible diet, smoked like a chimney (unfiltered Camels), drank at least a sixer of beer a day, and never exercised a day in his life. He lived to 77.
With sodas, as with everything else, moderation is the key. But we don't need that legislated. The cops have enough to do now.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 06-01-2012 03:16 PM
Sorry, it wasn't my intention to put words in your mouth; I was simply stating the fact skinny people can and do die of heart attacks. It underscores the problem of so many Americans living in denial about their state of health. The high and rising cost of health care is doing more to encourage Americans to stay away from the doctor's office. It's a negative feedback loop making an already bad problem grow worse.
Regarding the stories of who lived and who died doing what, just about anyone I hear defending America's freedom of living unhealthy always has an anecdotal story of someone who lived healthy but died young and another who lived to a ripe old age smoking, drinking excessively and eating badly.
Mike, I'm not saying your defending the right to live badly with your story, but I've heard plenty of others defending the "right" to smoke or do other unhealthy things use those anecdotal stories to spin the idea those high risk activities are just dandy for anyone and that we should just stop worrying about all this health crap.
For every one of those "sister's uncle's 2nd cousin's brother's great grandfather over in the next county" guys who lived to be 110 with a daily diet of 2 packs of cigarettes, a 6-pack of beer, burgers, pizza and no veggies, etc. at least 1000 other people are going to die pretty young doing the same thing. Over 500,000 Americans die every year from heart disease. Type 2 diabetes kills a bunch every year too. Those conditions are preventable.
My cousin Tammy is a few years younger than me. She is a widow to her first husband, who died at the age of 29 from a massive heart attack. He was obese. People aren't supposed to die of heart attacks until they're at least in their 40s, right? With the kinds of foods and drinks being sold over the last 20 years and kids staying indoors, tied to computers and video game consoles, obesity and heart disease are making their starts in people at ever younger ages.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 06-01-2012 04:34 PM
Ha ha! Good one, Manny!
quote: Joe Redifer
"Artificially sweetened" is a rather ambiguous term.
Yeah, I guess I should have clarified that better.
Nevertheless, I consider High Fructose Corn Syrup to be at the very least an unnatural sweetener (instead of artificial). Numerous chemicals are used to create the processed sweetener: caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, alpha-amylase, gluco-amylase, isomerase, powdered carbon, calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate. One of the methods used to create caustic soda involves use of mercury. The human body has a more difficult time metabolizing HFCS than it does the largely sucrose make-up of cane sugar or beet sugar.
No calorie artificial sweeteners (like the Splenda and Nutrasweet brands) are produced using some pretty strange chemicals. But at least they won't add inches to your waist line or help burn out your pancreas and turn you into a diabetic.
quote: Ron Funderburg
It is great to be alive and pride, fear of cost or whatever are not going to keep me from having real pains checked out from now on.
Thank goodness you were able to see a doctor in time, Ron. That sounds like quite a painful ordeal. I hope you make a full recovery soon.
A couple years ago our lead neon tube bender lost his wife to a heart attack. IIRC, she was 49 years old. In the days leading up to her death she had lots of chest pain, some of it really bad. She refused to go to the doctor's office or E.R. out of fear of what the treatment would cost and in the hope the pain would just go away like it always did in the past. One day their college age son came home for lunch and found her dead. She wasn't overweight or obese. She was fairly thin, but didn't exercise and ate stuff like pizza often.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic