recent study about Obesity and Weight Loss revealed that some Americans Would Choose Divorce
adidas superstar cheap , Depression and Alcoholism Over Obesity.* * Yale University Rudd Center for Food
Policy and Obesity Further more, participants were asked, "What would you be
willing to sacrifice if it ensured you would never be fat?" Would you give up a
year of your life? Or 10 years? Would you rather be divorced, unable to have
children, depressed, alcoholic? A disturbing new study out of Yale University's
Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that nearly half -- 46 percent --
of 4,283 participants would rather give up a year of their life than be obese.
Fifteen percent were willing to give up 10 years. In fact, a surprisingly large
number of participants were willing to make extreme sacrifices if they could be
sure they would never be obese. These are hypothetical questions, of course, and
the answers are not set in stone. Obesity is a killer, so some participants
probably figured that they were going to die earlier anyway if they were obese,
but what surprised the researchers was the number of people who were willing to
make extreme sacrifices. "The percentages of people willing to make extreme
sacrifices were much lower," said psychologist Marlene Schwartz, associate
director of the center and lead author in a report in the journal Obesity. "But
what struck me was given how big our sample size was, there's still a
significant number of people who would give up a lot in order not to be obese."
More than 600 persons, for example
adidas superstar sale , were willing to give up 10 years of their life. And, 342 said they would rather have
a learning-disabled child than an obese child. The findings show the enormous
stigma placed on being fat, and that, Schwartz says, is one of the major reasons
why some people just can't take it off. One part of the online study examined
subconscious attitudes toward obesity and found that across the board,
regardless of age or body weight of the participants, "individuals more strongly
associated fat people with bad and thin people with good," the report said. Fat
people are seen as lazy and unwilling to try hard enough to lose weight. That,
Schwartz says, is a big part of the problem. Even overweight participants in the
study thought poorly of themselves, and once that level of self-condemnation is
reached, it becomes nearly impossible to lose weight. "Children are constantly
given the message, 'You're fat because you're lazy,' " Schwartz said, 'and
you're not trying hard enough.' That child is going to internalize that message.
And once somebody believes that about themselves, it's going to get harder
rather than easier for them to do the hard work that it takes to really fight
obesity and be healthy." It's not that all those fat people out there aren't
trying. "I think people do try
nike free tr 5.0 flyknit womens , but it's extremely difficult to lose weight and keep it off," she said. Obesity, of course, can have many causes.
Medical conditions, genetics and lifestyle all play a part, but researchers
contend that in many cases the remedy may be beyond the victim's reach. "Part of
the problem is we view obesity as something that's under the person's control,
and we blame the individual for having the problem," she said. "But I think
people overestimate how much control we have over our body's shape and weight.
Therefore when someone is fat, we immediately assume they don't care enough to
try to lose weight. They are to blame for being overweight." Of course,
sometimes that's true, and sometimes it's not. In our current environment, she
notes, it's particularly difficult to keep those extra pounds off. Junk food is
everywhere, urban sprawl forces us to drive instead of walk, diets fail, and we
get discouraged. So we settle down to watch a ball game on television
nike free 4.0 flyknit mens sale , surrounded by comfort food. It's enough to make a body give up, and that, Schwartz says, is exactly what is
happening. That doesn't mean there's nothing that can help. Lifestyle changes
make a difference, she says, and if people can take steps to become more
physically active, and more careful about what they eat, then some of those
pounds can probably come off. First, she insists, we've got to change our
attitudes about obesity. "For there to be a change, we have to stop blaming the
individual," Schwartz said. "We've been blaming people for a long time and it's
not working. So we need to do something else, and what I would suggest is focus
on the environment, clean up the environment and make it so that every time you
turn around there's a healthy food option and it's hard to find junk food.
Change our environment so that it's easy to walk and it's easy to get physical
activity in your everyday life." "I just don't think yelling more at people is
going to get us anywhere," she said. Given prevailing attitudes about being
overweight, though
nike free 3.0 flyknit sale , change is not likely to come quickly or easily. The study, also by Lenny R. Vartanian and Kelly D. Brownell of Yale and
Brian A. Nosek of the University of Virginia, reveals strong bias against people
who are fat, and that occurs across all ages and body shapes. Of the 4,283
participants, 30 percent (1,285) said they would rather be divorced than obese,
25 percent (1,070) said they would rather be unable to have children, 15 percent
(642) said they would rather be severely depressed, and 14 percent (600) said
they would rather be alcoholic. Most drew the line at some sacrifices, but 10
percent (428) said they would rather have an anorexic child than an obese child,
and 8 percent (342) said they would rather have a learning-disabled child than
an obese child. That level of stigmatism drives some toward depression, which
can lead to eating disorders, which only worsens the problem. The good news is
there is a better way to not be obese or fat. The answer is weight management.
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