Letters to the Editor
healthyskeptic
Published Letters: 671 Editor's Choice: 14
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btw, the poltical background to the anorexia screed
[Read the article: Anorexia: It's not just for teens]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The only reason anorexia comes up as frequently as it does, as opposed to say death by lightening strike or bee sting, is because a few feminists decides decades ago that anorexia (being a primarily female disease) must be caused by misogyny.
For decades they've been claiming that as the notion of young girls being oppressed into killing themselves dovetails perfectly into the argument beauty standards are so oppressive for all women. It's a much better argument for women as victims than adult women and their mall/fashion/cosmetics/magazine consumption habits for example. It ranks up there with the argument girl gymnasts are being oppressed (for being small and muscular and performing for an audience) while nobody claims male gymnasts are particularly oppressed for also being small, muscular, and performing.
It makes perfect sense, in a limited way, to attempt to adjust beauty standards to make themselves more ideal, and argue others have a moral obligation to find them beautiful and attractive. But it's foolish, because beauty standards aren;t actually as plastic as some people think, and some feminists have been the victims of their own propaganda. Actually, beauty standards for things like body proportions are pretty hardwired. Look at ancient fertility relics from pre-historic time. Many are caricatures of wasp waisted, busty, big hipped, hourglass figures. And the hourglass shape has health benefits. Waist fat is the least healthy of all fat, and wide shoulders, big chest, and broad hips, are all gender specific traits signaling reproductive fitness. Same goes for full lips, proportionate features, big clear eyes, and such.
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was that supposed to be witty?
[Read the article: Anorexia: It's not just for teens]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Really, were you under the impression that was some kind of witty comeback?
The fact is most of the leading causes of death are greatly exacerbated by obesity. Some are caused almost exclusively by obesity, for example type II diabetes is 80% caused by obesity.
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stupid question
[Read the article: Anorexia: It's not just for teens]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obesity generally isn't listed as a cause of death. If listed at all, it will list something more specific like heart attack first, and then perhaps cite the obesity as a factor. But obesity is a leading cause of the top preventable killers in America. Just go to the NIH death statistics and see.
Here's some of the diseases related to diet and exercise, all of which are greatly exacerbated by obesity. And the rate they kill Americans.
Cardiovascular diseases 29.34%
Ischemic heart disease 12.64
Malignant neoplasms (cancers) 12.49
Cerebrovascular disease (Stroke) 9.66
Respiratory infections 6.95
Lower respiratory tract infections 6.81
Respiratory diseases 6.49
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 4.82
Digestive diseases 3.45
Diabetes mellitus 1.73
Hypertensive heart disease 1.60
Stomach cancer 1.49
Colorectal cancer 1.09
Liver cancer 1.08
Alzheimer's disease and other dementias 0.70
Bladder cancer 0.31
Ovarian cancer 0.24
Uterine cancer 0.12
Over 80% of the diseases killing Americans have a high correlation with obesity. The diseases of heart, stroke, and diabetes are obvious. Respiratory health/longevity is greatly dependent on exercise exercise which is dependent on fitness/obesity. Many cancers, especially those of the digestive tract colon/rectum, are also related to obesity, due to diet, and also due to fat which is hormonally active and increases cancer. Women's cancers such as uterine and breast cancer are also associated with obesity, fatty diets, and elevated hormonal levels as a result of obesity. Studies have shown low fat diets greatly reduce breast cancer.
You'll never see "drunk driver" on the death certificate, because it's too general. It will say something like "massive cerebral contusion" or "neck fracture severing spinal cord" or such. Similarly, those who die of obesity have on their death certificates things like "massive cerebral hemorrhage" or "massive coronary" due to poor cardioid health as a result of obesity. Or organ failure due to diabetes. Or colon cancer. And so on.
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@Theatre of Cruelty
[Read the article: Anorexia: It's not just for teens]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The wikipedia entry is being cited because it's easy to access and understand. The wiki entry is also credible because it cites sources of legitimate studies and data. There are other sources of information such as science and medicine journals, but most of those are subscription based. If one has access i reccomend searching Nature or Science.
You by comparison are just rambling your personal opinions.
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@Dan Boland
[Read the article: Anorexia: It's not just for teens]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You present yourself as though you're the end-all, be-all of eating disorders and obesity.
No, I just represent myself as a person bothering to be a bit informed, which anyone could do. The sad thing is that many people are too intellectually lazy to bother.
Just because fewer people die from eating disorders doesn't make it any less of a problem.
Ah, yeah, it does. Death and suffering being the "problem" and the fact it happens orders of magnitude "less" from anorexia than from obesity.... equals "less problem." That's how it works. Orders of magnitude "less of a problem" in fact.
2/3 Americans, 200 million , are overweight. 1/3, 100 million obese. They all suffer serious illness as a consequence, ranging from terminal diseases to every day annoyances like fatigue and shortness of breath, sleep apnea, joint pains, etc. Only 0.3% have mild anorexia the symptoms of which are comparable to being mildly overweight. Only a tiny fraction of those are morbidly anorexic, which is almost non-existent. Not even a statistical blip.
Obesity related illness kills about two million people annually. Anorexia related illness kills a few hundred, tops. Which is equivalent to lightening strikes and bee stings.
It doesn't change the fact that little girls in this country obsess over their bodies like no other generation of children have before.
That's not a "fact." You don't seem to know what a "fact" is. Hint: the definition of fact is not you getting emotional, hyperventilating, and speculating from your personal world view, which is not a controlled and balanced study/knowledge on what this or "other generations" did or did not do. What you're demonstrating is the definition of "ignorance."
A fact is something that can be verified via a common standard. So for example, the statistics I gave are facts because they're based on credible, peer reviewed, studies.