The Hell?

[fabrisse]

I am obese. I am working on changing that, but, currently, I am obese. I've lost nearly forty pounds in the last two years, and my doctor doesn't recommend that I lose too quickly because I have a heart condition.

I love eating in restaurants. It gives me ideas for new recipes, and often, I try to figure out how to lower the fat content of a dish so that it's healthier. (I don't use fakes. I'll do without or balance the rest of the meal to avoid such hideousness as fat-free cream.)

The legislature of Mississippi has introduced a bill to "prohibit food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese." Really, it's here, if you want to have a look.

Now I'm pretty sure this is a state that still permits smoking in restaurants, so I'm not certain I buy the idea that this is about improving the health of the state. And as eanja pointed out when I mentioned it at work, what about health food or vegetarian or vegan restaurants. Surely those of us whose BMI is out of whack should be encouraged to eat at such establishments, not banned from them.

Comments

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

That is so incredibly wtf?????

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

yeah. I'm personally affronted by this one.

[tijmetje.livejournal.com]

The hell? Apart from the general what the fuckage, for which I currently have no words, isn't, like 2/3rds of the U.S. obese? Won't this make restaurants go out of business or something?

And aren't there a good many more factors relating to obesity.

It's not as if eating is optional.

My, do these people know anything? About anything? The hell?

Good job about the weight loss, though. Sounds like quite a lot to me.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

According to the CDC website, about 40% of all adult Americans are obese and another 25% is overweight. So your figures aren't as far off as I'd hoped.

The worst part is Southern cooking is heavy on fats in general. Chances are excellent that these people are getting more of their fat at home than at a restaurant. For example, the standard way to cook many vegetables in the rural south is with a piece of fatback (a type of salt pork) boiled in with them. Back in the day, most people had meat in the winter or had no meat at all, and the fatback gave them a few extra calories.

As far as my own weight loss goes, moving to DC will be a help. I'll be walking more just to get to and from work. I've already found a yoga studio that sounds good and I know where Curves is. So, if I can get on a schedule, my BMI, if not my weight, should be decreasing. I have to lose at least another 40 pounds (18.1 kilos according to an online calculator) to be at the very top end of the "healthy weight" category. Realistically, I should lose about twenty five kilos for optimum health.

Most of my weight issues have to do with injuries and lack of exercise, but I've been fat for over five years, so this isn't a new issue for me.

[tijmetje.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Though the U.S. clearly takes the lead, countries in Western Europe are catching up nicely.

That sounds really, really icky to me...

Weightloss sounds way more impressive if you go with pounds.

[breeamal.livejournal.com]

All three legislators behind this hideous measure are fat, if not obese.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

The line between fat and obese is thin. If they are recognizably fat, then they probably qualify as obese which makes this even more of a "The Hell?" than I thought.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

There are three of them?

What are thorbol going to do with all that Thanksgiving turkey?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe you can have one turkey for your anniversary and another one for Christmas? *G*

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

It's not only the number of turkeys we may have to roast, it's the size: to honor these folks in the way they deserve, we'd need birds that would be far too big for our oven.

And probably needless to say, it wouldn't mean a damn to me if I thought this really was an effort to promote health. As much as I hate breathing other people's tobacco, I don't even support prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants, especially since we non-smokers have quite enough market power to get ourselves some--well--breathing room.

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

Can we say fucking unconstitutional?

Also, changes are already being proposed. Under the proposed change, adults of any size would be welcome to eat anywhere they please, but children would be banned from eating in fast food establishments without an adult present and also be banned from ordering certain menu items.

My favorite part of the original version was the way we fatties were allowed to eat at places that had no seating, or weren't regulated under health codes...which are the places least likely to be serving healthy, low-fat meals.

But, as I suspected when I first heard of this a couple days ago, I think what the authors did was write up the most offensive possible version first, knowing it would be shot down quickly...so that when they came out with the Won't Anybody Think Of the CHILLLLDREN version, people would think it was reasonable by comparison.

I suspect the real idea all along was to restrict access to fast food for kids. I'm still pissed off.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I like the icon. It sums up my feelings well.

If they keep kids from eating at fast-food joints without adults, they may keep some kids from eating lunch at all. Idiots!

And, yeah, your suspicions are probably correct.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

*jaw drop*

That's some serious bigotry going on there. If you'd said Maryland, I'd have been even more shocked, but Mississippi isn't exactly known for intelligent thinking. I really hope they get inundated by a lot of negative reaction, forcing them to drop that bill in the toilet where it belongs.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Now, now Maryland has plenty of stupidity too. *G*

I hope gileswench is wrong, that they're not building up to a "who'll save our children" bill, but I fear she's probably correct.

And can't you imagine the poor maitre? "How many for dinner? Yes, seven will be fine. And their Body Mass Indices?"

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Everyone in my apartment is probably considered obese, including me. I mentioned this bit of news to them and they stood there shocked before they unanimously degreed, "That's illegal!" *snort* I said, no, it's bigoted, prejudiced behavior. Sean, the young roommate, used to live down south(I forget where), said that the only half-assed reasoning he could come up with to explain that shit was that the bigots need a new scapegoat because they can't hate as openly as they used to.