SubscribeNews Roundup and Strange Links
The Worlds Thinnest Noodles
Chinese noodle king Li Enhai manages to thread 39 strands of noodles through the eye of a needle. The amazing feat has put him and his noodles in the Guinness Book of Records. Perhaps it's the start of a new diet - eat thinner noodles and lose weight.
Obese Weighed on Horse Equipment
Hospitals in Rio de Janeiro have been sending their obese patient to the racetrack - not to watch the horse races - but to be weighed using the horses scales. It's no surprise the patients find the practice humiliating.
India Ditches Skinny Models
"At the five-day show, skirts accentuated curvy hips and sensuous tops revealed plump bust lines, as the focus of designers and local fashionistas seemed to shift to fitness and health rather than the stick-thin look."
Fast Food Everywhere
For those of us obsessed with fast food, FastFoodMaps.com allows you to locate every major fast food outlet in your city of choice. Scary stuff.
Fat Counters Vitamin C Benefits
Some intriguing research has shown that a meal high in fat may counter any positive effects from anti-oxidants. When high levels of fat are in the stomach at the same time as ascorbic acid (Vit C) --"the ascorbic acid could no longer convert the hazardous compounds into safe ones."
Weighed on horse scales? Oh, man. There is already so much pain in being obese, I can not imagine how humiliating this has to be.
Brian
ReplyI think it is a small price to pay for having a government-financed weight loss surgery procedure, Brian. Now they want our government to foot the bill for special scales and tomographs so they don't feel bad? I'm Brazilian and I'm not comfortable with my taxes footing the bill for that, and yes, I have been obese myself. Being weighed in an empty facility like the Jockey Club, which is privately owned and graciously lets the hospitals use its equipment, is not as big of a deal as they are making it out to be.
ReplyI don't understand the problem with the weighing on horse scales to be honest. If you've let yourself get SO big that you can't be weighed on a normal scale (ie: >250 Lbs.) then bite the bullet, jump on the horse scale, find out how much you weigh, and start losing some of those LBs. Make it a goal... "By the end of 2007, I want to be able to be weighed on a human scale."
ReplyHere's a solution to the horse scale issue...Sit on a horse when on the scale..then subtract the weight of the horse. Tell 'em it's the too skinny model principle being applied to jockeys. Ok, just a joke guys.
ReplyHmm...now that link, "Fat Counters Vitamin C Benefits", is quite interesting. Thanks for the pointer to that story.
ReplyBecause they're people, and they're being treated like animals.
Replyyowza! i have a hard enough time cooking angelhair without getting a gummy mess! you could probably cook these noodles by holding them over a boiling pot of water.
in germany once, i had, i swear, the thickest noodle ever made. it was a lump the size of a baseball.
ReplyI'm with Brian 100% on the scale issue. I don't see any reason to humiliate someone like that. Surely, they can buy a scale and place it somewhere a little more humanizing. It sounds like there are enough people to use it and make it worth the cost.
I also thought the Vitamin C article was interesting. I posted something a long time ago that was the polar opposite. My research showed that you need fat in your diet to absorb certain vitamins and nutrients like beta carotene, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, lutein and others.
ReplyBeing teated like horses, is so much humiliating. How bad it is for the obese people where Rio de Janeiro hospital has been forcing obese patients to share the medical equipment with horse at local race track.
ReplyI am sorry ,but agree that if you let yourself so big that you can't use a regular scale,then bite the bullet.I am at 200lbs.at 5'3" and trying to loose and have no luck.
ReplyNic, the animals don't have free health care and free weight loss surgery, which is being provided in a developing country where it is a struggle to have money to provide vaccines and other more necessary items like that. If you want a free WLS procedure *with* free pannus (excess hanging skin) removal later, like they are having provided, then just get weighed on the damn horse scale. Alternatively, they can use private health care that has human scales that go over 250lb (although they are probably the same scales as the Jockey Club has anyway, just placed in a horse-free environment). I'm sorry but I don't have that much sympathy for the sensitivities of people who can afford that much food for starters, considering living here is being faced with starving people on a daily basis.
I don't think you people understand the reality of a developing country. It is not pretty. And they are not being *forced* to be weighed at horse scales, they want that so they can have free WLS. It is a choice. The US has lots more money than Brazil and not only does it not provide universal health care, but I'm sure even if it did it wouldn't be providing WLS and subsequent plastic surgeries. People need to stop complaining about their government handouts.
ReplyThank you Jan for reminding some of us that money does not grow on trees and not everyone can "just" go out and buy something or other, just like that.
ReplyIt's an interesting question whether weight loss should be part of universal health care policy. (eg, would doing so reduce the emergency room load?) But... if the only way a patient can be treated with respect is by paying their own money, then something is broken.
ReplyI guess I'm just not cool with dehumanizing people just because they're big. Whatever works for you, though.
ReplyI think it's pretty humiliating to the horses, actually. They're hard-working, not obese, but have to share the scales with these ungrateful assholes.
ReplyNeeding a special scale and being treated with lack of respect for me are not synonyms, I guess. No respect for me would be for these patients to be told "We are sorry, if you can't be weighed here you get no health care."
I'm not saying it is an ideal solution, but I'm sure that when people who are very obese have to be removed from their homes by the fire department, they feel dehumanized too. Should the US fire department buy some cranes that say "for human removal" so that they don't feel that they are being treated like crashed trucks, since the same tools are being used to move them? No, they just use the same tools they use for the crashed trucks and the people suck it up.
I think people have to realize that if you feel less than human because you used a scale that was also used for an animal or a tool also used for a car or truck, that the problem is within you, not caused by the tool. The same ladders used to rescue kitties from trees are used to rescue people from burning buildings, and the people don't feel they are being treated like animals, they are just glad to be rescued.
ReplyLOL! Thanks for the chuckle.
ReplyJan's views are objective and fair on this topic. Those that feel that emotional bias need to look within and re-evaluate where your feelngs are really coming from.
ReplyAren't the majority of obese people that go to these hospitals NOT having weight loss surgery? Large people get sick and injured, just like the rest of us do. Also, it's not that uncommon for a very tall, muscular person to have a normal weight of 250 lbs. or more.
I certainly do understand that developing nations cannot afford all of the luxuries --or even necessities-- that others take for granted. If I had to be weighed on a horse scale, I probably would feel quite humiliated; yet I would certainly acquiesce if it meant that I received the medical treatment I needed. And for free!
ReplyDr. J,
i'm not sure who you are referriing to, but in case it is me - I wasn't dissing Jan. (i've found her in my short time here the most valuable contributor - by far - to this board). I also found her reply well-reasoned.I do think that many here carry a bias against the obese. Sometimes it's because they are seen as weak, and the weak are always a target. it's human nature, and so something that needs to be pointed out again and again. In other cases, it's the passion of the converted, eg "I did it so why can't you?" I've taught enough people to know that we all face problems with a different set of constraints.
My other emotional factor is my family. my brother would need to be weighed on those scales. He would simply not go rather than face that procedure. One could argue that he should "suck it up", but that wouldn't solve the problem.
i have spent time in Brasil and know the health care and social system there. i don't think they should be putting weight control in the public health system - they have much bigger fish to fry. i've spent time in universities there and have seen the problems they have with infrastructure. if i were the administrative head of a hospital there, i would probably do the same that they're doing. But, i would be very embarassed and be lobbying for a way to do it better.
Okay, I'll sit back down :)
ReplyYes, but I think that for other reasons, like an injury, or even just a checkup, they wouldn't necessarily have to be weighed. I mean, if they can visually see the person is over the weight limit on the scale, they are going to get the "obesity kills" speech no matter what, and if they come in with a broken arm or whatever, they can be treated without being weighed.
Quito, that is exactly what I think too. If NAAFA wants to donate some scales - hey, that would be fantastic, but sometimes people have to make do. I think it is great the government is even offering the WLS and other obesity treatments (I am biased here cause I did vote for our president.. heck, I've been voting for him since the very first time I voted, but I digress). Like I pointed out in my example, the US is developed and they sometimes have to remove obese people in... what do you call them? The trolley-type thing that they use to transport wrecked cars. I'm sure they are not thrilled to ride in one of those, and yet it is done.
I even pointed out that I have been obese myself, so I'm not being biased against obese people, or feeling superior because I lost weight. I gained weight, and pretty much lost it too, apart from the last 15lb that were for vanity reasons only, for hormonal reasons beyond my control, so I more than anyone understand people are not necessarily obese because they eat junk all the time. There are tons of physical and emotional reasons behind that, and even if it were because they love pizza, it wouldn't make a difference to me. I don't think there is a moral superiority in what one chooses to eat.
Anyway, I called my cousin, who works in the public health system in my city (Curitiba, not Rio) and she informed me that there is a public hospital in our city that does have a very large tomograph and a very large scale, so that the people getting WLS can be weighed. They are not sent to the zoo or the jockey club or anything like that.
ReplyGetting weighed on a scale meant for horses is not "being treated like animals." The hospital is doing what it can to ensure that obese people are getting medical care -- somehow I'm sure that if said public hospital had a HUGE budget, it would buy scales that accommodate larger humans. But if the money isn't there, it just can't, so it is doing what it has to do to get people weighed.
Reply