Re: Obesity In America was RE: Extropic Priorities

From: Christian Weisgerber (naddy@mips.inka.de)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 10:25:45 MST

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    Gary Miller <garymiller@starband.net> wrote:

    > I agree that deaths attributable to obesity will probably outnumber the
    > deaths attributable to war.

    Violent death (from murder to war) is greatly overrated in public
    perception. The mostly forgotten 1918/19 flu pandemic killed more
    people than the extraordinary slaughtering of WWI. I'm under the
    impression that the current AIDS rampage in sub-Saharan Africa
    dwarfs the number of victims from endemic (civil) war in that area.
    Terrorism, which is a frequent topic of discussion here and weighs
    heavily on the public mind, will have a hard time catching up even
    to traffic deaths. When the grim reaper comes, he most likely wears
    the cloak of disease.

    > But with all the psychological pressure this society places on people
    > who are obese today, anybody who hasn't got the message yet that being
    > overweight is hazardous to one's health doesn't want to get the message.

    Try reversing that observation. Even despite the large contrary
    pressure, many people can't help themselves and stay or turn
    overweight or even obese. This should tell us that there is a
    serious problem.

    -- 
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de
    


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