Or, Dismantle Western Civilization. Only, the actual history and science do NOT support the Body Positivity narrative. Obesity was a privilege of Imperial power, not a punishment.
I intend to read your essay here to my 21 year old nephew who recently passed 375 pounds. It will not be received well by his mother, to be sure, but perhaps it will save his life.
Family is always tough. My own included. Your nephew is young enough that changes will come much easier if he desires to make them. Wishing you and yours all the best. Being healthy in the USA is a struggle, but without health a person has little in the way of practical freedom and control over their own life. We all live out our values, one way or the other. So what's truly important? Our actions decide.
Thank you for stopping by. That is the message. I'm sure you know all this well. But just to clarify: yes, some people are more genetically pre-disposed to certain lifestyle diseases. But a greater risk does NOT mean you will or must suffer the disease. In contrast, Huntington's disease is genetically determined. Nothing you can do to change that.
Substance abuse is not genetically determined, for example; but fetal alcohol syndrome is real. (So are "crack babiess", etc -- which might not be as long-term damaging as once thought: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126478643 ). The womb is the first environment, so to speak, so if the mother is "normal-toxic" the newborn can be off to a bad start when it comes to developing lifestyle diseases. But even that is not determined: although the child might have some developmental issues, physiologically and cognitively. And on it goes. But all this could have been avoided.
We could blame our social environments. I do in the above post. But adults do have some freedom of agency. We can make good small choices on a daily basis; or "normal" bad ones. I am old enough that I know a number of dead people, too many dead people: peers from high school, cousins who were around my age, former co-workers. All of whom had lifestyle diseases as the contributing or primary cause of mortality: none of whom practiced self-maintenance. Regular -- even moderate -- exercise; sitting less and moving more; eating real foods and not processed crap from a box or a fast restaurant.
They didn't "have the time" -- well, right now they have eternity. They didn't "have the money." Well, in the immortal words of Flannery O' Connor: "You can't be any poorer than Dead."
Anyone who tells you to not take responsibility for your own health, to delegate it to the state or Big Pharma, has one of two agendas or both: (1) they want your money; (2) they want you to live a life of servile dependency on their institutions and then die before you can collect the entitlements they promised you -- Social Security, etc.
Thank you. I did assume irony on your part, but "It’s genetics, stupid" is exactly what we hear time and time again. I did not directly address that earlier. So I replied in detail to your comment to clarify for any other visitors. Thank you for the follow-up!
I intend to read your essay here to my 21 year old nephew who recently passed 375 pounds. It will not be received well by his mother, to be sure, but perhaps it will save his life.
Family is always tough. My own included. Your nephew is young enough that changes will come much easier if he desires to make them. Wishing you and yours all the best. Being healthy in the USA is a struggle, but without health a person has little in the way of practical freedom and control over their own life. We all live out our values, one way or the other. So what's truly important? Our actions decide.
Thank you for stopping by. That is the message. I'm sure you know all this well. But just to clarify: yes, some people are more genetically pre-disposed to certain lifestyle diseases. But a greater risk does NOT mean you will or must suffer the disease. In contrast, Huntington's disease is genetically determined. Nothing you can do to change that.
Substance abuse is not genetically determined, for example; but fetal alcohol syndrome is real. (So are "crack babiess", etc -- which might not be as long-term damaging as once thought: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126478643 ). The womb is the first environment, so to speak, so if the mother is "normal-toxic" the newborn can be off to a bad start when it comes to developing lifestyle diseases. But even that is not determined: although the child might have some developmental issues, physiologically and cognitively. And on it goes. But all this could have been avoided.
We could blame our social environments. I do in the above post. But adults do have some freedom of agency. We can make good small choices on a daily basis; or "normal" bad ones. I am old enough that I know a number of dead people, too many dead people: peers from high school, cousins who were around my age, former co-workers. All of whom had lifestyle diseases as the contributing or primary cause of mortality: none of whom practiced self-maintenance. Regular -- even moderate -- exercise; sitting less and moving more; eating real foods and not processed crap from a box or a fast restaurant.
They didn't "have the time" -- well, right now they have eternity. They didn't "have the money." Well, in the immortal words of Flannery O' Connor: "You can't be any poorer than Dead."
Anyone who tells you to not take responsibility for your own health, to delegate it to the state or Big Pharma, has one of two agendas or both: (1) they want your money; (2) they want you to live a life of servile dependency on their institutions and then die before you can collect the entitlements they promised you -- Social Security, etc.
Thank you. I did assume irony on your part, but "It’s genetics, stupid" is exactly what we hear time and time again. I did not directly address that earlier. So I replied in detail to your comment to clarify for any other visitors. Thank you for the follow-up!