Just to throw it out there.
I'm about 5'7" or so and last time I weighed myself I was 260 pounds. I have never had severe health problems. Never had high blood pressure, and can keep up with my 5'8" 140 pound husband with no real problem. Well, I probably couldn't today, because I have pneumonia. On that point I had it for at least two weeks before it effected me enough to keep me from work. Even then the doctor never would have known if he hadn't taken a chest x-ray there were none of the symptoms shown. My lungs sounded just fine. They and my heart have always been exceptionally healthy. I was diagnosed Wed. If it hadn't been for doctor's orders I probably would have been back at work on Thurs. after the antibiotics had time to set in and I would have been able to handle it. I'm a healthy person.
I work a labor job. I have a lot of muscle on my body. There is a layer of fat there, so you can't always see it, but I'm pretty solid and not in the all your fat under the muscle layer way that's really nasty for your health. I generally eat healthy, and according to my husband usually not nearly enough. Still, I don't lose weight. My blood sugar is on the low side. I'm in a size category accord to my weight that would place me as morbidly obese but I'm healthy, and I don't look it.
The problem is that there are people out there who are cashing in on the fact that people aren't tiny and think that they have to be to be healthy. In that mindset the majority of things out there to help people weigh less will ultimately make you gain weight. That's the way American marketing works. We've put money as more important than a person's health and so of course the nation in general is going to suffer. Am I trying to say that there aren't plenty of people out there who could make different better choices? Hells no. What I am saying is what's been said before and my own piece as well. Everyone is different you don't know anything about them usually, and even if you do, butt out.
The fact that this topic seems to come up in many places, and often gets discussed by at least one or two people that can't remember where to put capital letters, really makes me feel a little sick. If you're not overweight or obese yourself you have no real right to go on and on about it. Yes, everyone has the right to their opinions, but it's a personal issue. The only ones that really need to be discussing it are the people that have the issue, and their doctors or other health care professionals.
Now some of you will undoubted try to say that I'm getting defensive. I'm not. I just don't see the relevance to anything that this sort of topic has. It doesn't even get you to understand anyone better really. There have been a few people that have used it to more or less attack the morbidly obese, even if they are phrasing it in sugar coated terms. It's not your place. Now, if anyone has a goodly amount of scientific or medical training in this respect I would like to hear what they have to say about it all though. Otherwise, it's all just conjecture. Not the fact that the US is trending toward fat, that's a proven fact. The rest of it though.
That I said, I do agree that there have been good points made on both sides. I do think that the initial point may have lost though, because after the first few posts, no one even mentioned the video clip. It wouldn't load for me, but I do think that the idea of exploiting that people are overweight for money is sick. Then again that goes out to the "diet" companies too.