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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2011 : 17:25:29 [Permalink]
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Marfknox and Dave....
Having been asked by the estimable Marfknox as to how fucking ignorant I was, I retired to a session of self-examination and decided to find some informed opinion on the subject. I was truly surprised to learn that I was indeed ignorant, perhaps not to the degree of fucking ignorant, but nonetheless poorly informed on the relative incidence of Americans currently eating themselves to death as compared to smoking themselves to death.
The Center for Disease Control puts the proportion of adult? Americans who regularly smoke at 21% of the adult population. I assume if the number of children smoking were included, that figure wold be higher. The Gallup - Healthways Well-Being Index reports that 34.2 % of Americans (no clue whether children are included or not) are overweight or obese. The National Health and Examination Survey came up with 33.8%, and the National Centers for Disease Control estimates approximately 34% of Americans are obese. These three independent studies are remarkably close in their conclusions, apparently within a single standard deviation.
The British/Dutch medical journal The Lancet recently reported that a stunning 68% of Americans were seriously overweight or obese (including morbid obesity). This figure may be somewhat suspect, given the unusual correlation of the other three sources, but it is abundantly clear to me at this point that obesity is a greater health problem in America than is smoking.
I may have to expand my evangelical efforts to focus primarily on the health problems caused by overeating (largely, the unfortunate American appetite for fast food driven by both laziness and the monetary constraints that Marf pointed out.
I humbly apologize. I was wrong and you two, at least, were right.
Gluttony - or politely, overconsumption of unhealthy foods, is a larger health problem in this nation than is smoking.
Definitely food for thought!
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2011 : 06:46:03 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by Ebone4rock
Um, yeah Dave, I think that symbol would give marf the wrong impression. Quite phallic.
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If you tilt your head one way, it's a heart. If you tilt it the other way, it might be a butt. I don't see a phallus anyway in there.
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Obviously your mind is not dirty enough. |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2011 : 06:48:20 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
Originally posted by bngbuck
How many ... gluttons are there compared to smokers?
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In America? You're kidding, right?
Never in my entire life has I seen so many obese people at the same time, as when I visited Atlanta, GA for Dragon*Con. Not at Dragon*Con, but in the city outside the hotel...
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Funny, a co-worker of mine just got back from three weeks in Germany and was amazed by the lack of fat people there.
Does Europe have as many McDonalds and Burger Kings as we do? |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2011 : 07:40:29 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ebone4rock
Funny, a co-worker of mine just got back from three weeks in Germany and was amazed by the lack of fat people there.
Does Europe have as many McDonalds and Burger Kings as we do?
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With a very limited sample size, I estimate the number of such establishments to be 1 for every ~20'000 citizens. The town I live in has none (size ~20'000), the one my parents live in (~22'000) has one. The closest major city (~100'000) has five (+/-1) of them.
But I think the most important factor is that food we buy in stores aren't drenched in sugar or corn-syrup.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2011 : 07:51:48 [Permalink]
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bngbuck wrote: | I may have to expand my evangelical efforts to focus primarily on the healthproblems caused by overeating |
Oh dear. That was NOT my intention with that line of argument. Overweight people need more judgments made against them like I need a hole in my head.
| (largely, the unfortunate American appetite for fast food driven by both laziness and the monetary constraints that Marf pointed out. |
I did NOT point out laziness as a factor. I do not consider laziness a factor. Americans are certainly not more lazy than people in other cultures. In fact, our productivity is relatively high. The fact that we have to work so damn much and have less vacation/free time and more stress are more likely contributing factors to overeating or eating of foods which are more convenient but much less healthy.
I humbly apologize. I was wrong and you two, at least, were right.
Gluttony - or politely, overconsumption of unhealthy foods, is a larger health problem in this nation than is smoking. |
Thanks. And I apologize if my cursing and the intensity of my response to you were hurtful. I get excitable in debates. It isn't meant to be personal. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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| Edited by - marfknox on 09/02/2011 07:53:18 |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2011 : 13:32:04 [Permalink]
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Marf.....
| Thanks. And I apologize if my cursing and the intensity of my response to you were hurtful. I get excitable in debates. It isn't meant to be personal. |
Oh, no problem, Marf. Compared to other fusilades that I have taken here, your mild obscenities were actually quite soothing. I truly appreciate your gentle statement of contrition and I assure you that no offense was taken. I read all of your commentary here with great interest. Despite an occasionally prickly exterior, you obviously have a heart of gold and a mind of steel, and that's the fucking truth! (as some might say!)
I am not dead wrong very often, but when it becomes obvious that I have seriously misspoken, I try to quickly acknowledge it. The intellectual level of this forum demands that intentional misrepresentation of fact be quickly and loudly called out. It's when the dialog becomes really involved in deeply divided opinion, which is difficult or impossible to factcheck, that tempers get ruffled and ad hominen frequently breaks out.
This is an odd, but common phenomenon; and it is of great interest to me as I delve ever deeper into the endless fractals of the subject of Perception. Man is prone to ferociously defend and stoutly promote much (opinion) which frequently is not possible of empirical confirmation one way or the other.
The successes and failures of the processes called Critical Thinking in addressing these sometimes irrational statements (that are offered as fact but actually are only the ephemera of opinion); the "tools" of logical ratiocination frequently succeed in deconstructing opinion presented as fact statement; but also frequently fail to successfully separate truth from bullshit.
In my long study - over six years of research - of the search for a greater understanding of perception, I encountered here a strong effort to evaluate truth claims by utilizing the disciplines of logic and structured analysis, this SFN forum being largely devoted to the application of Critical Thinking.
Observing the practice of that discipline here, I am constantly reminded of how often emotional irrationality takes the tiller from reasoned analysis and veers off into name-calling and "flame wars", as is so colorfully described in netspeak. Ebone says | I don't like arguing simply for the sake of arguing (which seems to be the norm around here lately) |
. I could not agree more.
It seems to me that if a person's thesis is not contested and is accepted as valid; a critique of the methodology that person used to come to his conclusion may not terribly important. In a search for truth, the validity of the end may supercede the validity of the means.
What do you think? |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Skeptically quitting
