Tag Archive for epidemic

Weekly Dump

March 3, 2010 Science, Site News One comment

Okay, so, just a bit of site news first: I finally got the keyboard navigation working on the site. Wasn’t that hard, I just kept forgetting to do it. So, now you can navigate the comic with the left and right arrows on your keyboard, as well as shift clicking left or right to get to the first comic or the last comic, respectively.

Next up, there was this study done about slowing down the obesity epidemic in America. What was their solution? Subsidize starvation. I shit you not.

…Okay,… so what they were really saying is that by making junk food more expensive, less people will buy it, so therefore, it must be helping them to make healthy food choices!! Yay!! Well, no. The entire study was this giant, epic fail, a full hellameter across. First off, their sampling was women only. Yes, women only. So, even if their findings weren’t bubkis, it would only apply to women. Sorry guys, but having a test group of only one distinction is FAIL. Second, there wasn’t a control group. Third, everybody was given about 20.00 to feed each member of their family for a week. When junk food prices went up, the number of calories in their selections went down… but, would they have been able to feed the family for the week?

Basically, it comes down to this: Make the food more expensive, and yes, people will consume less. Duh. The problem isn’t how much people are consuming, it’s what, and honestly here’s the shitty truth:
1. Until carrots start tasting like doritos, people are going to buy the doritos.
2. A large part of the incentive of junk food is that it’s cheaper than “real food”.
3. Making junk food more expensive just means people will have less ways to actually stretch their money.
4. That means you’re encouraging poor people to starve, unless you find a way to make the healthy food as cheap as the junk food used to be. You can’t remove the cheap options without basically giving 70% of the country the finger.
5. The other big part of junk food’s hold on the country is time. It’s convenient and quick.
6. I dunno about you, but I really don’t have an extra 4-5 hours a day to dedicate to cleaning, preparing, and cooking food, and then cleaning dishes.
7. The time argument can be fixed though, as long as we can get a bill passed that says that all women must be housewives, like it was in the 30′s before all the junk food.
8. Oh wait, that’s right. That’s WHY junk food was made. Go figure.

University at Buffalo, I am disappointed in you.

Okay, well, not really. Didn’t really have many high expectations anyways…

And last, in this giant spew off the top of my head: Adelaide huh…? Hey Berga, by any chance, you figure you’re related…?

Actually that’s not too surprising

January 4, 2010 Politiks, Science 2 comments

So here ya go: In, America, there’s this thing, called the Healthy People plan, that outlines goals for the country for “Healthiness” and whatnot. The current plan was just reviewed, and… well, it wasn’t too pretty.

is-not-fat-is-just-fluffy

I tried to tell my doctor that, but she didn't believe me.

Did Americans get any healthier over past decade?. [link to PhysOrg.com]

Am I writing about this because of the raging obesity epidemic in America?

…no, of course not.

I’m writing this to say: “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK. AMERICA IS A GODDAMNED CAPITALIST COUNTRY AND FOOD IS A ECONOMIC LINCHPIN. THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER THIS CRAP.”

Logically speaking, of course.

I mean, think about it. Capitalist country, run by it’s economy, and the government tries to step in all lovey dovey, all outline a plan of “helpful” things to encourage people to live better.

News flash for that one, boyo: The Almighty Dollar runs capitalist nations, not the Almighty Bureaucrat. If letting people remain unhealthy is profitable, it will happen. If not giving a shit is profitable, it will happen. If crime is profitable, it will happen. If Death and Decay is profitable, it will happen.

Hopefully you have the glyph for it.

Until making people healthy becomes profitable, it won’t happen. But to do so from a legislative standpoint would be to overstep the boundaries of government. Hell, just deciding that this is what you think is best for the American public, and then actually making laws to support your own agenda is overstepping the boundaries.

fat-car-1

Premium Fue, then staying the garage all the time? Bad mix, brah.

So what’s the better plan? Well, weight is gained when calories consumed is greater than calories burned. Keep that in mind.

Right now, we live in a society where we are expected to work very long hours with little purpose. People put in 9 hour days, but they really only have enough work for maybe half that time. But if you were to do all of your work in that amount of time, and then say, go home (if the boss was cool) they would only pay you half the amount, since you only worked half the hours.

Translation: You’re not getting paid for the work you accomplish, or the job you do. You’re getting paid based on how many hours of your life are spent on location. In a sort of hopeful spin, I assume part of the reason you have to stick around even though your workload doesn’t justify it, is because of expectation that something might happen, and the company doesn’t want to be shorthanded. Okay.

Right right. Easy stuff.

Well, that’s a number of hours off your day. Now toss in commute time and logistics. Pretty much everything in America requires a car to get to. So now we have car related things to add to the time sink… And I’m sure you can see where I’m going with that. Point is, from my experience, working a 9 hour daily job, usually ends up taking around 11-12 hours a day.

But… The thing is, even though I’m running around a lot, and I’m stressed, and so much of my life is just ticking down…

...And as you sit it traffic, it all catches up with you.

...And as you sit it traffic, it all catches up with you.

…I’m not actually doing that much. I’m sitting in traffic, or I’m walking around a store, or I’m sitting at a desk for god knows how many hours. Not enough calories are getting burned to justify my diet.

My diet that is based on the cornerstone of Capitalism. Cheaper foods are worse for you. They’re highly processed, with crap tons of things that the average person can’t pronounce. The have no real content, just filler, because the filler that makes the food is itself cheap: See also Corn Meal. And I, like most people, have other things I need to buy, so I cut corners here and there. And as long as I’m sitting on my ass for most of the day to get the paycheck that can only pay for the cheapest food, I’m going to be unhealthy, because IT’S ALL I CAN AFFORD.

In terms of money, and in terms of time.

You want to encourage people to get healthy, you need to change the system so that people actually have the ability to do so. If I can finish my workload for the week in two days, then let me do so, then pay me for a full week. That way I can spend time doing other more enjoyable things, or get another job so I can finally afford fruits and vegetables.

Otherwise, you’re just making all of us feel like crap by telling us that we need to get healthy when we have no money or time or opportunity to actually do anything about it.

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[As a side note to this: When I was in high school, I lost 180 lbs in a year, by biking every day and eating a good diet. I was also homeschooled at the time. I'm completely capable of doing that sort of thing again, but I can't, and that's why I realize that it comes down to a time and money issue. I lost weight back then because I didn't have any time obligations, and my mom bought all my food. Now, I have to work, and I have to buy my food, and I understand why my mom is overweight.]