Obesity declared a disease by AMA - Page 22

On June 21 2013 03:52 Stress wrote:
To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.

On June 21 2013 03:52 Stress wrote:
To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.

On June 21 2013 03:52 Stress wrote:
To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.

On June 21 2013 03:52 Stress wrote:
To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.

On June 21 2013 03:56 Fruscainte wrote:
[quote]

I'm going to have to agree here. It's a mental condition if anything. I had experience with this, and it really is nothing more than that. You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times.

I don't know how they got to the conclusion that this is a disease, but anything to provide more awareness is good in my book as far as I'm concerned though.

On June 21 2013 04:06 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

Your logic kind of breaks down when you get to sexually transmitted diseases. Aside from rape, a person who contracts an STD did so due to their own carelessness or complacency, but STD's are still very real diseases.

It really comes down to how you define the word disease, and whether or not victims act like victims or act like survivors. People are right in that too many people use "I'm sick! Alcoholism/Obesity/Drug Addiction is a disease!" as an excuse to be apathetic in their recovery, like it's out of their control. That's wrong, and the AMA would do well to clarify and say that just because obesity is a disease, it does not mean you have an excuse to stay obese.

But if you look at the condition medically, I have a hard time calling it a "disease." Alcoholism has very specific, well-researched effects on the mind and body, especially when the person is deprived of alcohol. In that way you can suffer from the disease of alcoholism. It doesn't mean that person should be pitied or excuses should be made for them because of their condition, it just is what it is.

If this designation of obesity as a disease puts more money into the hands of people that can actually reduce the percentage of Americans who are obese, I have no qualms with the promotion. If all this does is cause more people to be excessively overweight, stressing out our medical infrastructure and explaining away their self-abuse by saying they have a disease, then we have a problem.

It all comes from the preconception that we have, for whatever reason, that a person who suffers from a disease should be pitied, no matter the disease or circumstances behind it. A child with Leukemia or a young woman with breast cancer should be pitied. The 60-year old chain smoker with lung cancer and the 350 lb man who needs a quadruple bypass should not. But they all have diseases that require treatment, whether we like it or not.

On June 21 2013 03:56 Fruscainte wrote:
[quote]

I'm going to have to agree here. It's a mental condition if anything. I had experience with this, and it really is nothing more than that. You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times.

I don't know how they got to the conclusion that this is a disease, but anything to provide more awareness is good in my book as far as I'm concerned though.

On June 21 2013 04:06 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

Your logic kind of breaks down when you get to sexually transmitted diseases. Aside from rape, a person who contracts an STD did so due to their own carelessness or complacency, but STD's are still very real diseases.

It really comes down to how you define the word disease, and whether or not victims act like victims or act like survivors. People are right in that too many people use "I'm sick! Alcoholism/Obesity/Drug Addiction is a disease!" as an excuse to be apathetic in their recovery, like it's out of their control. That's wrong, and the AMA would do well to clarify and say that just because obesity is a disease, it does not mean you have an excuse to stay obese.

But if you look at the condition medically, I have a hard time calling it a "disease." Alcoholism has very specific, well-researched effects on the mind and body, especially when the person is deprived of alcohol. In that way you can suffer from the disease of alcoholism. It doesn't mean that person should be pitied or excuses should be made for them because of their condition, it just is what it is.

If this designation of obesity as a disease puts more money into the hands of people that can actually reduce the percentage of Americans who are obese, I have no qualms with the promotion. If all this does is cause more people to be excessively overweight, stressing out our medical infrastructure and explaining away their self-abuse by saying they have a disease, then we have a problem.

It all comes from the preconception that we have, for whatever reason, that a person who suffers from a disease should be pitied, no matter the disease or circumstances behind it. A child with Leukemia or a young woman with breast cancer should be pitied. The 60-year old chain smoker with lung cancer and the 350 lb man who needs a quadruple bypass should not. But they all have diseases that require treatment, whether we like it or not.

On June 22 2013 03:31 TheRealPaciFist wrote:
[quote]

[quote]

From the way people are describing it, I keep getting the impression that obesity is (ignoring for a moment the cases where it is an actual disease, a la glanular disorder) an addiction, and they're classifying addictions as diseases. I'm coming from a different realm of addiction, and "You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times." strikes a freaking bone with me, it sounds exactly what I go through with regards to my completely not-food-related addiction

On June 22 2013 03:31 TheRealPaciFist wrote:
[quote]

[quote]

From the way people are describing it, I keep getting the impression that obesity is (ignoring for a moment the cases where it is an actual disease, a la glanular disorder) an addiction, and they're classifying addictions as diseases. I'm coming from a different realm of addiction, and "You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times." strikes a freaking bone with me, it sounds exactly what I go through with regards to my completely not-food-related addiction

On June 22 2013 03:40 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

But obesity is an addiction like video gaming or porn are addictions. You feel compelled to do it mentally or psychologically, but you won't go through the withdrawal symptoms that an alcoholic or heroin addict go through if you start eating less. There is a legitimate physiological effect that drug addiction has on the body beyond just putting on a few pounds, which is why I have no problem classifying them as diseases. Withdrawal symptoms from certain drugs are capable of killing people and I don't think the same can be said of dieting.

On June 22 2013 03:40 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

But obesity is an addiction like video gaming or porn are addictions. You feel compelled to do it mentally or psychologically, but you won't go through the withdrawal symptoms that an alcoholic or heroin addict go through if you start eating less. There is a legitimate physiological effect that drug addiction has on the body beyond just putting on a few pounds, which is why I have no problem classifying them as diseases. Withdrawal symptoms from certain drugs are capable of killing people and I don't think the same can be said of dieting.

On June 22 2013 03:57 Klondikebar wrote:
[quote]

That's incredibly false. Certain foods like high amounts of sugar, release pleasure hormones in your brain. "Food" in general isn't an addiction but there are certain combinations of fat, sugar, and salt (conveniently found in almost every fast food item) that absolutely has a narcotic effect on the brain. And one of the reasons dieting is so hard is precisely because of the withdrawl symptoms. The first few days or weeks of your diet are MISERABLE because your brain is literally releasing fewer happy hormones.

One of the reasons it's so easy for skinny people to stay skinny or just lose a couple of pounds and it's so hard for fat people to get skinny is because of those symptoms. There is an element of discipline that can't be ignored but I'm shocked at how many people in this thread have such strong opinions without knowing any of the medical science that went into this decision.

On June 22 2013 03:57 Klondikebar wrote:
[quote]

That's incredibly false. Certain foods like high amounts of sugar, release pleasure hormones in your brain. "Food" in general isn't an addiction but there are certain combinations of fat, sugar, and salt (conveniently found in almost every fast food item) that absolutely has a narcotic effect on the brain. And one of the reasons dieting is so hard is precisely because of the withdrawl symptoms. The first few days or weeks of your diet are MISERABLE because your brain is literally releasing fewer happy hormones.

One of the reasons it's so easy for skinny people to stay skinny or just lose a couple of pounds and it's so hard for fat people to get skinny is because of those symptoms. There is an element of discipline that can't be ignored but I'm shocked at how many people in this thread have such strong opinions without knowing any of the medical science that went into this decision.

On June 21 2013 03:56 Fruscainte wrote:
[quote]

I'm going to have to agree here. It's a mental condition if anything. I had experience with this, and it really is nothing more than that. You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times.

I don't know how they got to the conclusion that this is a disease, but anything to provide more awareness is good in my book as far as I'm concerned though.

On June 21 2013 04:06 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

Your logic kind of breaks down when you get to sexually transmitted diseases. Aside from rape, a person who contracts an STD did so due to their own carelessness or complacency, but STD's are still very real diseases.

It really comes down to how you define the word disease, and whether or not victims act like victims or act like survivors. People are right in that too many people use "I'm sick! Alcoholism/Obesity/Drug Addiction is a disease!" as an excuse to be apathetic in their recovery, like it's out of their control. That's wrong, and the AMA would do well to clarify and say that just because obesity is a disease, it does not mean you have an excuse to stay obese.

But if you look at the condition medically, I have a hard time calling it a "disease." Alcoholism has very specific, well-researched effects on the mind and body, especially when the person is deprived of alcohol. In that way you can suffer from the disease of alcoholism. It doesn't mean that person should be pitied or excuses should be made for them because of their condition, it just is what it is.

If this designation of obesity as a disease puts more money into the hands of people that can actually reduce the percentage of Americans who are obese, I have no qualms with the promotion. If all this does is cause more people to be excessively overweight, stressing out our medical infrastructure and explaining away their self-abuse by saying they have a disease, then we have a problem.

It all comes from the preconception that we have, for whatever reason, that a person who suffers from a disease should be pitied, no matter the disease or circumstances behind it. A child with Leukemia or a young woman with breast cancer should be pitied. The 60-year old chain smoker with lung cancer and the 350 lb man who needs a quadruple bypass should not. But they all have diseases that require treatment, whether we like it or not.

On June 21 2013 03:56 Fruscainte wrote:
[quote]

I'm going to have to agree here. It's a mental condition if anything. I had experience with this, and it really is nothing more than that. You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times.

I don't know how they got to the conclusion that this is a disease, but anything to provide more awareness is good in my book as far as I'm concerned though.

On June 21 2013 04:06 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

Your logic kind of breaks down when you get to sexually transmitted diseases. Aside from rape, a person who contracts an STD did so due to their own carelessness or complacency, but STD's are still very real diseases.

It really comes down to how you define the word disease, and whether or not victims act like victims or act like survivors. People are right in that too many people use "I'm sick! Alcoholism/Obesity/Drug Addiction is a disease!" as an excuse to be apathetic in their recovery, like it's out of their control. That's wrong, and the AMA would do well to clarify and say that just because obesity is a disease, it does not mean you have an excuse to stay obese.

But if you look at the condition medically, I have a hard time calling it a "disease." Alcoholism has very specific, well-researched effects on the mind and body, especially when the person is deprived of alcohol. In that way you can suffer from the disease of alcoholism. It doesn't mean that person should be pitied or excuses should be made for them because of their condition, it just is what it is.

If this designation of obesity as a disease puts more money into the hands of people that can actually reduce the percentage of Americans who are obese, I have no qualms with the promotion. If all this does is cause more people to be excessively overweight, stressing out our medical infrastructure and explaining away their self-abuse by saying they have a disease, then we have a problem.

It all comes from the preconception that we have, for whatever reason, that a person who suffers from a disease should be pitied, no matter the disease or circumstances behind it. A child with Leukemia or a young woman with breast cancer should be pitied. The 60-year old chain smoker with lung cancer and the 350 lb man who needs a quadruple bypass should not. But they all have diseases that require treatment, whether we like it or not.

On June 22 2013 04:19 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

If you're seriously comparing the "narcotic" effect that certain foods can have on the brain to the real narcotic effect of narcotics on the brain AND comparing dieting to what people addicted to narcotics go through when they are detoxing, I don't really know what to tell you. I get it that it hurts, physically and mentally, to change your diet severely. It's not just about being hungry, but can manifest itself in other physical symptoms. But it is not detoxing and you can't die from reducing your daily caloric intake from 6,000 calories to 3,000. In fact, if you have the time and the commitment, you can slowly change your diet and exercise habits to lose the weight over time, a luxury that drug addicts rarely have access to if they want to get clean.

And I never said it was as easy for fat people to get in shape than it is for thin people to stay in shape, I'm not sure why you're putting those words into my mouth. I know it's harder. Tough shit. They got themselves in that hole, and they have to get themselves out if they want to be healthy. And since their poor health, when aggregated at the scale that obesity is at in this country, affects all of us, it's our business too.

On June 22 2013 04:19 ZasZ. wrote:
[quote]

If you're seriously comparing the "narcotic" effect that certain foods can have on the brain to the real narcotic effect of narcotics on the brain AND comparing dieting to what people addicted to narcotics go through when they are detoxing, I don't really know what to tell you. I get it that it hurts, physically and mentally, to change your diet severely. It's not just about being hungry, but can manifest itself in other physical symptoms. But it is not detoxing and you can't die from reducing your daily caloric intake from 6,000 calories to 3,000. In fact, if you have the time and the commitment, you can slowly change your diet and exercise habits to lose the weight over time, a luxury that drug addicts rarely have access to if they want to get clean.

And I never said it was as easy for fat people to get in shape than it is for thin people to stay in shape, I'm not sure why you're putting those words into my mouth. I know it's harder. Tough shit. They got themselves in that hole, and they have to get themselves out if they want to be healthy. And since their poor health, when aggregated at the scale that obesity is at in this country, affects all of us, it's our business too.