Society is changing for the worse. (Obesity)

Member Name: Palice

Product:	Obesity
Date:	14/01/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: -

Disadvantages: Need I say it?

Yesterday I watched the Half Ton Son. The son in question was only 19, but weighed nearly 60 stone. He was almost completely bedridden; his mother waiting on him all day long, bringing him big mac after big mac while he barely moved except to play on his xbox.

He was the world's fattest teenager, and was about to go into hospital to have a gastric bypass.

He and his mother had some real pyschological problems. His mother in particular was really messed up; she had lost her first son (not to obesity) and seemed to be trapping her remaining son in the house with all that food. She was pretty obese herself, and bought hundreds of dollars (yes, obviously they're american) worth of junk food into the house, eating some herself but the majority going to her disgustingly fat son. She knew she was literally killing him, but she was more concerned that he not 'want for anything' - possibly to block out the pain of his dead brother.

I mention this not because it's a typical case, but because of the way the American way of life seemed geared up to his horrendous condition: not only did he have clothes that fitted him, he had chairs, a bed and a car, all massively bigger than they should be, which he could fit into. Also, in the program I didn't see one person who wasn't at least a little bit overweight - granted it was a program about obesity, but I'm talking about the hospital staff, checkout assistants in the supermarket, customers of the supermarket etc. etc.

It's a grim foreshadow of what it will be like in the UK in a few years if things don't change. Already we have womens' clothes that go up to size THIRTY TWO. This is simply encouraging people to overeat; if the clothes weren't available they might make some effort to change. It is said that the average woman in the UK is a size 16. This means that the average woman is OV-ER-WEIGHT and unhealthy!

We all know how obesity happens and how we can prevent it, but it seems the solution falls on deaf ears more often than not.

And it's becoming more and more socially acceptable to be overweight - at a certain age, it is almost expected; 35 year olds who are normal and healthy are praised for their 'great figures' and overweight people are paraded on shows like How to Look Good Naked as having 'great boobs' and a 'tiny waist' when in reality their waist is about 38", putting them at great risk of type 2 diabetes. Wake up people!

Ok, I'm generalising a lot here, but we tiptoe around the issue so much in the UK in case we offend people, someone needs to say it.

Summary: It needs to stop being socially acceptable to be overweight or obese. Only then will people change.