Are You Going to Eat the Rest of that Cheeseburger?
A study of 17,643 patients over 30 years found that “being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later in life - even in people who began the study with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.”
NO! Say is isn’t so! I’m shocked, shocked to find that obesity is associated with medical illness! Next thing you know we’ll all be told that gambling is associated with having less money, that alcohol ingestion is linked to intoxication, and (heaven forbid) cigarette smoking has been found to be a possible cause of yellow fingers and brown tongues! How do we cope with this latest attack on our brazen love affair with sultry vices?
A guilt-wracked thoughtful soul, especially one who has just ordered a hearty slice of peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake, might respond to the above news by eschewing the tempting plate of joy and declaring to his compatriots that he is “going on a diet.” The vast majority of the accused, however, will likely tut-tut over this new revelation and, vowing to watch what they eat, continue to shovel it in like a human garbage disposal. Is this a mistake, as the article suggests, or do we all have the right to smear as much fat on our bones as earth’s gravity will allow?
When I counsel overweight patients I like to ask them, “What do you like to eat?” The most common answer I get is a chuckle followed by “Everything!” It seems that many of us rationalize our addiction to fattening foods by indulging in a little self-centered teasing, as if having a sense of humor about our excessive calorie consumption legitimizes the habit. Hey, it’s great that you can laugh at yourself - in fact, if you listen carefully you can hear drug companies, cardiologists and funeral directors guffawing, too.
Again I ask- is this an abomination? Should we all feel guilty about our eating habits, and report to the monastery for a room and a small salad - with no dressing?
Hey, I’m not the guy with the answers, just the questions! I will say though that the first scientist to uncover the secret of why some of us eat until we waddle around like a walrus deserves the Nobel prize, if not a patent more valuable than King Midas’ warehouse. Until then the two debate teams will continue to scream at each other, one arguing that the government needs to arrest overeaters and shut down fast-food restaurants, and the other advocating our right to do whatever nasty things we want to do to our formerly pristine bodies, all in the spirit of truth, justice and the American way, or as their tee shirts say: Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu!*
*How well you live is important, not how long. -Seneca
