A Rhetorical Question: Does a Modern, Service Oriented Society Imply Weight Gain Natu

[amicus]

As our society progressed from Agricultural to Manufacturing and now into a Service economy, and machines/robots, increasingly do the physical labor once done by human power, is weight gain and muscle loss inevitable?

WALL E, a children’s film concerning a large population confined to a space vessel and served entirely by robots, they all became obese and unable to move under their own power.

Approximately a third of all American’s are considered ‘overweight’ at the present time.

We are no longer creatures of the Jungle, Forests or Grasslands from which we evolved and physical exertion was a normal function of living.

If, as trends indicate, and excluding a possible apocalyptic event that returns us to a pre-industrial state, more and more will work at mental occupations and even less involving actual physical movement aside from walking, riding and driving, what does that bode for the future?

There has been a veritable explosion of ‘health centers’, gym’s, clubs all providing an ‘artificial’ means of physical exercise to maintain body weight at a preferred level and muscle tone that promotes better health and the ability to function physically.

Schools are investing in calorie counting lunches and snacks, low fat foods are advertised and increasingly consumed by weight conscious customers, yet still the percentage of the overweight continues to climb.

If, as many predict, the transition to a ‘service society’, will lead to decreased hours of work per week with much being done at the home location with computers and networks, avoiding even the physical exertion of coming and going to the work place…then what, again, does the future hold for human health and, by implication, longevity?

Excluding a governmental mandate for forced exercise, how, theoretically would a free society discover a voluntary and preferred form of exercise that would attract a majority?

In the natural environment man evolved in, the weak and overweight would be genetically weeded out, and the proclivities or tendencies to over eat or fail to exercise would solve itself.

Please don't go down the Michael Moore road of Supersize Me, and criticize the fast food restaurants and the fact that many if not most meals are out of the home or home delivery. A naturally fast paced society with both parents working is served by eating establishments outside the home and is not likely to change anytime soon.

???

Amicus

 

[Liar]

Well...

The odd disease and genetic mishhap aside, what makes people overweight are two simple things. How many calories you eat and how many you burn moving around.

And the problem for most people is not how much they burn moving around. Live a normal life, get out of bed, walk the dog, drive to work, walk one flight of stairs, stoll over to the water cooler, go out for lunch, walk to the car and drive home, take out the trash and do the dishes, and you have burned some 2000 calories. A daily half hour run adds only 300-500 calories more.

It's great to excersisie for other health reasons, but an active lifestyle is not a desicive factor for weight gain or weight loss.

Controlling the intake of energy is. The size of the plates and the amount of sugar, starch and fat (cheap, high calory, low usefullness ingredients) on them, is a much bigger factor to obesity than whether you have a sit-down job or not.

I lost 55 lb of overweight last year by laying off the fries and coke, and opting for the salad and club soda instead. I didn't change a single other thing about my lifestyle.

So in that sense, there IS a little blame on the fast food and processed food industries. Not because they super-size (It's nobody's responsibility but your own if you choose the triple burger with cheese and the king size lard fried onion rings. Just say no, people.) but because they consistently choose the cheap, high calory, low usefullness ingredients to make their food.

 

[Scotsman69]

We all have simple choices. Nobody forces us to drive everywhere.

If I have to go shopping a mile away, unless it is a really heavy shopping, I CHOOSE to walk.

I choose not to eat fast food. I choose to swim and cycle regularly.

I have a desk job.

I'm not overweight.

Are these things that can only be done in Scotland?

 

[Songcatcher]

Eugenists designed and turned people into lazy ass (TV programs, e.g.). That's all.

Some people, like me, like to move around.

Human nature.

 

[Huckleman2000]

[...]If, as many predict, the transition to a ‘service society’, will lead to decreased hours of work per week with much being done at the home location with computers and networks, avoiding even the physical exertion of coming and going to the work place…then what, again, does the future hold for human health and, by implication, longevity?[...]
Amicus

If you think that anything with IT will actually lead to a decrease in the work week, you haven't been paying attention for the last 30 years.

 

[TE999]

Healthy eating and regular exercise is a lifestyle choice, period. Given the choices of sedentary entertainments and calorie laden foods, it is not surprising obesity continues to be rampant.

It would take a heretofore unattempted propaganda campaign on a massive scale to convince people to change their habits, possibly enlisting the assistance of entertainers and sports figures to sing it's praises since so many people relate to them. This however, is highly unlikely.

Much as there are varying levels of intelligence, so there are differentiating body types and social attitudes toward what is considered a desireable appearance.

Short version: The overweight, as the poor, shall always be with us.

 

[xssve]

Your premise is only valid if you frame it within a certain period of time - liek a couple of million years.

You aren't going to undo millions of years of biological evolution in a couple of generations, only modern industry can do that.

 

[amicus]

]If you think that anything with IT will actually lead to a decrease in the work week, you haven't been paying attention for the last 30 years[/I].

~~~

Part of why this thread came about was a news item concerning the US, in that because of unemployment figures, the average work week is now 33 hours and not the usual 38 to 40 when employment is low.

Just sayin'

ami

 

[amicus]

Your premise is only valid if you frame it within a certain period of time - liek a couple of million years.

You aren't going to undo millions of years of biological evolution in a couple of generations, only modern industry can do that.

~~~

I suggest perhaps you are in error, xssve. Japanese citizens in the 30's were small in stature with weak eyes and teeth. This, so a University of Hawaii study and professor said, all change when the Rice diet was supplimented by other proteins. In the short span of a generation there were 6' tall Japanese kids with perfect vision and teeth.

Thus the phenomena is not a matter of millions of years at all.

Other than your hatred of modern industry, what and how does the modern world undo millions of years of biological evolution?

Perhaps the affordability and availability of huge amounts of food produced by the marlet economy?

Amicus

 

[amicus]

Hello, Tom...I really was posing a query, not necessarily carving out a position, I really don't know why the huge increase in the percentage of overweight people has occured. It is like one out of three, I understand, like Autism used to be one out of 10,000, it is now something like one out of sixty eight, if I recall the numbers correctly from a recent study.

It is also that people are living longer and with age, mobility declines and even walking becomes a physical chore.

It just seemed to me with the improved diet and supermarkets full of nutritious foods, but the more sedentary employment, sitting in a chair before a computer screen 40 hours a week, might have a connection.

Amicus

 

[penandpaper]

Hello, Tom...I really was posing a query, not necessarily carving out a position, I really don't know why the huge increase in the percentage of overweight people has occured. It is like one out of three, I understand, like Autism used to be one out of 10,000, it is now something like one out of sixty eight, if I recall the numbers correctly from a recent study.

It is also that people are living longer and with age, mobility declines and even walking becomes a physical chore.

It just seemed to me with the improved diet and supermarkets full of nutritious foods, but the more sedentary employment, sitting in a chair before a computer screen 40 hours a week, might have a connection.

Amicus

I would suggest it occurred because the amount of intake grew. Period. Anyone can lose weight. Watch one season of Survivor to understand that. I'm not sure we're more docile now, which is why I talk about intake. I love looking at old pictures of people in the 30's and 40's and there's rarely ever a fat person among them. It didn't mean they didn't have their midnight snacks, they did, it just wasn't through the Taco Bell drive through.

 

[TE999]

Your premise is only valid if you frame it within a certain period of time - liek a couple of million years.

You aren't going to undo millions of years of biological evolution in a couple of generations, only modern industry can do that.

Point taken. In much of human history, being overweight was a sign of prosperity, eg: you had enough to eat and quite often someone to gather and prepare food for you. That, of course, was a social convention and runs counter to our evolved physiological makeup.

Our bodies were never intended to carry the extra weight many of us pile on. The level of incidence in such things as lack of mobility, heart attacks, muscle and joint injuries, diabetes,et al among the overweight bear witness to this fact.

Modern industry has created a multitude of entertainments and foodstuffs, much in response to perceived or actual public demand, that contribute to being overweight. In the main, people partake of these things because they enjoy it or in order to be part of their social circle. Advertising aside, it's still a matter of free will. People are aware of the dangers and choose to ignore them. Much as drugs.

 

[TE999]

Hello, Tom...I really was posing a query, not necessarily carving out a position, I really don't know why the huge increase in the percentage of overweight people has occurred. It is like one out of three, I understand, like Autism used to be one out of 10,000, it is now something like one out of sixty eight, if I recall the numbers correctly from a recent study.

It is also that people are living longer and with age, mobility declines and even walking becomes a physical chore.

It just seemed to me with the improved diet and supermarkets full of nutritious foods, but the more sedentary employment, sitting in a chair before a computer screen 40 hours a week, might have a connection.

Amicus

Hey Ami.

It's also a manifestation of reverse prosperity. Rich, fattening foods were at one time only available to the wealthy (bloated capitalists...hehehe), now everyone has access to them. It's a wonder the incidences of gout haven't increased.

Overall, blame it on the Industrial Revolution. If it weren't for all those confounded machines making life easier we'd still be walking behind a plow eking out a living from the soil...but we'd all be thin. *snerk*