With All Due Respect to Our Beloved First Lady:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

...A recent study put the health care costs of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion per year. This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/first-lady-michelle-obama-launches-lets-move-americas-move-raise-a-healthier-genera

If obesity keeps young people from trapsing off to other people's homes to kill or be killed I'm going to start handing out deep-fried sticks of butter wrapped in bacon.

[Demeter]

1. Our First Lady Is Feeding Into Anorexia, Too

I really wish she would worry about healthcare. That's something we desperately need for those in pain among us, and to prevent the pain due to inadequate resources falling on another generation.

Or peace. Another one of those broken campaign promises.

Worrying about "fatness" is too much Nanny State, and far too suburban for those with the problem, who will despise her on principle, because she just doesn't get it.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. Feeding into anorexia?? There is a gulf between obesity and anorexia

Doctors who tell patients to lose weight are not feeding into anorexia. Neither are the kids TV spots that tell kids to exercise for an hour a day.

[goclark]

20. I agree ~

totally with your view.

[KittyWampus]

4. standing up for food stores in poor neighborhoods feeds into anorexia? Sorry, but your post is so

misguided it's almost stunning to find it on DU.

There is a world of difference between "fatness" and obesity.

[hlthe2b]

5. Please read up on the consequences of our obesity epidemic

Please... I don't wish to be antagonistic or argumentative with you, Demeter, but you don't know what you are talking about.

[fishwax]

27. Only in the sense that talking about anorexia is feeding into obesity

:eyes:

[hlthe2b]

3. I fthey die of a massive heart attack at age 28 here at home...

from their clogged arteries exacerbated by Type II diabetes, what have you gained?

[KittyWampus]

6. this topic on DU has touched a nerve. Your efforts in the Real World must face so many hurtles

Not least of which, people think a discussion about obesity and food choice is an attack on them, personally.

[hlthe2b]

21. I dont' have a problem putting myself in their shoes, unfortunately

but it doesn't make it any easier. I've fought my own tendency towards excess weight and yes, obesity for much of my life. I've learned the good habits, but like most humans, I slip sometimes. But, I also know that my ability to get a handle on my health is largely due to both education and at least some level of privilege (though I've also experienced the counting pennies until the next paycheck phenomenon and wondering who would help me if I lost my job). It isn't easy and blaming the obese provides NO solutions and NO results. If we don't get a handle on it, our current health care access crisis will balloon to the scale of threatening our entire economic security. It really is that serious, but you can only throw out the aspects of the problem that people are ready to face.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. They won't take as many people with them. nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

14. It was hyperbole

What I'm really saying exclusion from US military service is a good thing.

Although, no, it shouldn't be from obesity. Yes, obesity is bad.

It was just hyperbole to prove a separate point.

:hi:

[hlthe2b]

I know...

and I appreciate the point... ;)

[Lil Missy]

7. That's a really dumb idea. n/t

[blondeatlast]

8. Type II diabetes will keep them out as well, so bravo for your courageous

dimwittery.

[cali]

9. this is such a silly op

childhood obesity poses grave threats.

[ChicagoSuz219]

10. She's just promoting healthy eating habits...

...I don't have a huge problem with that.

[spanone]

12. i'm sure she's doing this so she can feed more bodies into the war machine.....shit

with all due respect i'm hiding this thread

[Cleita]

13. Also, she should be working to help people get out of poverty, which will automatically

improve their diets and will take care of a lot of obesity. Poor people who are underpaid or out of work are reduced to eating junk food because they have no choice. Being in the millionaire class often brings out cluelessness in people who haven't had to struggle with the realities of food choices on food stamps. Also, kids who are disadvantaged are the ones being recruited into the military these days.

[earth mom]

15. Good one!

:thumbsup:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

19. Thank-you for taking half a moment to grasp the context.

:hug:

[Mari333]

16. keep em fat!

[JBoy]

17. A better plan would be amputating their limbs. Quicker and more foolproof.

Also, do you know what happens when you deep-fry butter?

[crim son]

18. I've been waiting to read DU objections to Mrs. Obama's program.

Why can people not agree that it's better to eat healthy food & enjoy physical movement and thereby, in most cases, maintain a healthy body weight? No doubt there are many people for whom it's not so simple, but there are also a fair number for whom it is. Why not support their efforts?

[blondeatlast]

22. Because EVERYTHING has a hidden agenda.

I KNOW that when you responded to my sneeze yesterday, you were proselytizing.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

25. There is NO criticism of helathy food and exercise.

You're missing the greater point.

[Zywiec]

23. A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service

is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

24. Really people? Really?

hy·per·bo·le (h-pûrb-l)
n.
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect,


Can anyone SERIOUSLY believe I'm advocating obesity?

Did anyone (except one person so far) slow down long enough to think that maye it isn't anti-obesity that I'm against but rather feeding young people into the machine that sends them somewhere else to kill other people?

I would be acting in the height of foolishness if I responded to all these silly ciriticisms by claiming the critics were in favor of sending people to war.

Take half a moment before acting all outraged.

[blondeatlast]

26. Internet message board:

I can't see your face. With some DUers, I know when they are using hyperbole/humor/sarcasm/etc.

With you, well, sorry.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

28. Not to mention a couple of posts on DU mirror the claim/criticism and are dead serious.

[blondeatlast]

29. Indeed. nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

30. There are people actually advocating genuine obesity?

and/or resenting the 1st lady offering a genuinely good and heart-felt public service?

wow

just...wow


I can appreciate some of your reflexive reaction.

:hug:

Still, give a girl half a chance.

[Missy Vixen]

31. I'm with you

Movie popcorn for everyone -- with real butter, not that stuff they serve on it at the theater.

In the meantime, how about banning the subsidies to corn producers first, then taking the HFCS out of ALL foodstuffs?

I really love Michelle Obama, but she's going to have to give televised cooking lessons if she's serious about this.

:fistbump: