Letters to the Editor
LeCastor
Published Letters: 1916 Editor's Choice: 86
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PETA & Co., it seems you're just starting class warfare
[Read the article: I want my foie gras!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ok, vegans/vegetarians/ PETA/etc., One Question: What's the difference between the process of making foie gras and steak, chicken, pork, fish, etc.? they all involve these animals not living in the bucolic wild, they are all killed so that humans can eat them, etc.
So, if there is no difference, then all of you should be be just as indignant about someone eating a chicken sandwich or a steak as you are about foie gras.
But it seems to me that you are not. Foie gras has become the cause celebre for animal rights' activists, but it would be dishonest to say that the practices that create foie gras are worse than steak or bacon etc.
And i think the real point is that you all know that few people will follow you down the "don't eat or kill any animals" path -- people need proteins too much, and like the taste of animal fats too much.
So you try to chip away with these easy, cheap causes -- foie gras! it has a french name, only the rich and gourmand can afford it or appreciate it! it's easy to stir middle-class populism against something like foie gras. And since the percentage of people who eat it is small, it will be easy to find a rich-people-hating majority. It will be a great way to strike against the rich for many people. You're exploiting the lowest human feelings towards your cause.
But see how far you get with the equally horrific videotapes and grandstanding regarding veal and steak. Much fewer people would support that, and you know it.
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Oh for pete's sake, get your facts straight.
[Read the article: I want my foie gras!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You frothing PETA people, here's some friendly advice: get your facts straight, you'll be a lot more convincing.
At some point in our society we have to think common good over individual wants and desires. 70% of Americans are obese. Obese. Why? Because they are constantly being assailed with messages that they have the right to consume saturated fat, processed foods until they can no longer leave the house.
70%? Come on! How can you even type that without wondering whether it's true? 42% are overweight. 20% are obese. 2% are severely obese i.e. can't leave the house.
http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/obesity_US.shtml
At some point we have to realize that treating beings that God created with the capacity to think and feel as we do, with a central nervous system like us, that tearing them to shreds, dismembering them while still alive, forcing the most horrific cruelties upon beings with no voice is wrong.
Also, nice way of imposing your religious views on every's dietary choices. good luck with this strategy.
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Obesity is not the same thing as being overweight.
[Read the article: I want my foie gras!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Getting your facts straight
LeCastor,
You said
70% of Americans are obese... 70%? Come on! How can you even type that without wondering whether it's true? 42% are overweight. 20% are obese... http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/obesity_US.shtml
Actually, that very page says, "The number of adults who are overweight or obese has continued to increase, as shown in Table 1. Currently, 64.5 percent of U.S. adults, age 20 years and older, are overweight and 30.5 percent are obese." The number 42% does not appear on that page anywhere that I can see. For you to cite that page as saying 42% are overweight seems not just inaccurate but dishonest. It simply doesn't say that.
Well, i actually did the math from the webpage. It said that there are 127 million overweight americans. There's 300 million americans -- 127 divided by 300 = 42%. It also said 60 million are obees - 60 divided by 300 = 20 %. and so on. Now, i thought that the obese were included in the overweight (since if you're obese, you're necessarily overweight). But, if you add up the 60 million plus the 127 million, you get 187 million. 187 divided by 300 = 62%.
Furthermore, these data are from the CDC from 1999-2000. More recent data, also from the CDC, can be found at the actual CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm where it states, "Percent of noninstitutionalized adults age 20 years and over who are overweight or obese: 66.3". So I'd say 70% is a pretty good off-the-cuff estimate.
I hate to point this out, but there is a difference between overweight and obese, and neither you nor the original poster seem to care. Of the 187 overweight (including obese) people from the numbers above, 32% of the people are obese. to equate obesity with being overweight is smudging the facts dishonestly, i think.
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It's stupid and bad for your health to celebrate weight gain
[Read the article: Loving the "freshman 15"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Weight gain after the age of 18 is a risk factor for many diseases, including breast cancer:
"ATLANTA - The amount of weight a woman gains after age 18 is a strong signal as to whether she will get breast cancer later in life, according to new research released Wednesday by the American Cancer Society.
In one of the largest studies of weight and breast cancer to date, researchers said older women who gained 20 to 30 pounds after high school graduation were 40 percent more likely to get breast cancer than women who kept the weight off.
The risk doubled if a woman gained more than 70 pounds, said Heather Spencer Feigelson, senior epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society.
“Breast cancer is strongly dependent on body weight,” Feigelson said. “Even modest amounts of weight gain lead to a significantly increased risk of breast cancer.”
Weight gain and body mass have long been known to be risk factors for breast cancer."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4374471/
I don't really see anything to celebrate here. 20+ pounds (15 is close to 20) increases breat cancer risk. And the earlier you put it on, the harder it will be to take off, and the more you are likely to keep putting it on.
It's almost deplorable that Broadsheet is celebrating starting gaining as much as 15 pounds the first year after high school.