Obese Fee–Are Fat People Victims or Volunteers?

A blog brought my attention to this article called ‘Obese fee’ plan revised to give fitness more weight.

COLUMBIA — Legislation to slap obese state workers with a $25 monthly surcharge on their health insurance on Tuesday turned into a proposal to offer fitness discounts for employees after debate before a Senate subcommittee.

And looking this up on other blogs, it appears this isn’t the first time. (I don’t read news, sorry.) The food and health industry has created an obesity epidemic, and now the government is looking to cash in on it. No surprise there.

The comments following the article seem to favor the opinion that people are not responsible for their obesity or diseases. Overweight is now a disability. It must just be coincidence that the countries with the most obese people are countries consuming the standard American diet of processed, high-fat food and high-fat, grain-fed meat. It’s some freak of nature that a slim Asian comes to America and gets fat when she starts eating like her American friends.

I’ll have to take the unpopular view and state that most (I didn’t say all, so don’t get your panties in a wad) overweight people are responsible for their condition and they do cost the government (translation: you and me) more in health care costs.

Personally, I don’t have health insurance and I don’t go to doctors. I try to eat organic food when I can afford it and avoid processed foods. I educate myself on how to be healthy. I didn’t idle my car when I had one. I recycle. I don’t use toxic chemicals in my body or my yard and my cleaning supplies are eco-friendly, blah blah blah.

Two years ago I was obese. I lost 20 pounds through diet changes and now I’m just fat. In two months I won’t be fat anymore, because I know what is causing my overweight condition–poor diet and lack of movement–and I’m ready to do something about it.

I don’t think I should be paying so much for health care because other people would rather watch TV than read a health book or walk to the grocery store. I read on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup that the average American spends 13 solid years in front of the TV. Thirteen years!!!!

I also don’t think it’s fair that my tax dollars should pay for farm subsidies so farmers can grow Monsanto grains to feed to cows and make HFC and cheap, processed foods that fat people love.

I don’t like inhaling carbon monoxide from people sitting in idling cars.

I don’t appreciate that all those people taking drugs to suppress symptoms that would resolve if they addressed cause are polluting the water I drink.

On the Other Hand

I will say that the government has no business taxing fat people until they’re willing to clean up the graft in their system and publish the truth about the current dietary recommendations, which recommend far too much fat in the diet.

Americans are consuming anywhere from 30 to 60 percent fat in their diet every day and we show it in our girth. Scientists recommend no more than 30 percent, but we should actually consume around 10 percent of our calories as fat and definitely not beyond 15 percent, which, unfortunately, means eating no more grain-fed cows, among other things.

I went to Nutridiary and planned out a healthy day’s menu using low-fat ingredients. This is what you call your three-squares. How did I do?

Breakfast

Wheat toast–2 slices
Butter–3 pats
Coffee–1 cup brewed
Sugar–1 packet
Half and half–1 ounce
Egg–1 hardboiled

Here’s the graph of nutrients:

Lunch

Tuna fish salad–1 cup
Lowfat milk–1 cup
French roll
Butter–1 pat

Dinner

Beef, short loin, t-bone steak, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0″ fat, USDA choice, cooked, broiled–1 piece excluding refuse (311 g)
Baked potato with sour cream and chives (I’ve been good all day!)
Tossed salad–1-1/2 cup
Kraft light ranch dressing–2 T
Red wine–1 glass

I also decided to have a mid-afternoon snack:

Donut–1 medium
Coffee–1 cup
Half and half–1 ounce
Sugar–1 packet

Damn! Half of the calories I’ve eaten in this doctor-recommended diet are coming from fat! Imagine if I got up and had 2 eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast with milk and coffee for breakfast, a cheeseburger with fries and a coke for lunch, a Snickers bar and a donut for snacks, and a large supreme pizza followed by a huge bowl of ice cream for dinner, which would be my preferred dietary if it weren’t so deadly.

Tagged as: calories, diet, dietary, drugs, fat, obese, obesity, overweight, tax