Part One. Lexicon:
One. The Nanny State, paragraphs 1 and 2: people are
dumbed-down troglodytes who are so helpless to fend themselves it is necessary
for the government to be a Big Nanny that cares for the infantile, incontinent
appetites of the people by imposing stringent laws and regulations.
Two. Paternalistic; when someone takes on a parental role.
This word often has a negative meaning, for it often suggests someone being
presumptuous enough to be an authority over another.
Three. Obesity burden; tax payers have to absorb half the
medical costs incurred by obesity-related ailments. Is that fair?
Four. Fat Tax dilemma. If taxing fat people and putting a
“fat tax” on “fatty” items were to be effective, people would live longer and
old age increase would put a NEW tax burden on tax payer.
Five. Stigma vs. the Nanny State; see page 198: the sense
of shame, which is more powerful than any government regulations.
Six. Gluttony: the sin of overeating as a form of
self-indulgence
Seven. The moral case against obesity: Gluttony shows a disrespect for the
body and an excessive pandering to one’s ego.
Eight. Latent hostility against obese people: See page 198
at bottom: We claim to be compassionate towards the obese but in reality we are
not when obesity inconveniences us. Airplane seats, for example.
Nine: The sin of the obese: To impose a burden on others
by taking up an unfair amount of space. See 199 top.
Ten. Oversimplification: Attributing complex problem to
simple cause: to blame obesity on sin or indulgence or ego is absurd. Obesity
may be partly these things, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Eleven. Ubiquity of cheap, calorie-dense food: Ubiquity
means “everywhere.”
Twelve. Either/Or Fallacy: to reduce an argument to two
possibilities, either/or. For example to address the obesity crisis as either a
sin or an illness is absurd. The problem is more complex.
Thirteen. Set Point: The weight your metabolism always seeks no matter how hard you diet or exercise.
Part Two. New Essay Option: Write a research paper that argues that the obesity
crisis is neither a sin or an illness, but a complex problem that cannot be
explained by a simple diagnosis. Your 6 mapping statements will explore 6 major
causes of obesity. No doubt, a 5 or 6-page essay can’t address all 15 causes.
That would require a book.
Part Three: The Two Best Books about Food I’ve Ever
Read That Will Change Your Life:
- Mindless
Eating by Brian Wansink
- In
Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Both writers discourage going on a diet. Instead, they
encourage eating real foods that we like in moderation. Their information is
priceless. Read their books and you will never get “punk-fed” again. Don’t let
The Man poison your body or manipulate your eating habits.
Part Four. The 15 Causes of Obesity:
- There
is an abundance of convenient, cheap, calorie-rich food everywhere we go.
- We
move less than we did generations ago. Do we chase the animals we eat? No.
- Mindless
eating; not even knowing the quantity of what we consume every day, much
of it done while talking, watching TV, or surfing the Internet, all forms
of Mindless Eating. See book of same title by Brian Wansink.
- Poverty;
there is a relationship between poverty and obesity. This is due to a lack
of education combined with reliance on cheap fast food.
- Parents.
Children eat what their parents eat. If the parents eat a “fat lifestyle,”
so will their children.
- Friends.
We eat and look similar to our friends. We often call this “social
eating.”
- Eating
processed foods instead of real foods and not knowing the difference.
Please see In Defense of Eating: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan.
In short, only shop at the far left and right of supermarkets; avoid the
middle; or shop at the Farmer’s Market.
- Super-sized
portions are marketed as a “good deal.” See the film Super Size Me and
read the book Fast Food Nation by Erich Schlosser
- Boredom;
stay at home with nothing to do and you’ll overeat
- Emotional
eating; eating to feel “love” or “self-esteem” or because you feel lonely.
- Lack
of sleep. The more tired you are, the more you feed your blood sugar to
compensate.
- Education;
knowing how to enjoy good healthy food should be very practical but too
few people know how to prepare food for themselves that they both crave
and that is good for them.
- Learned
helplessness
- Dieting;
it leads to weight gain, splurging, neuroses, and messes up the metabolism
which rebels and goes on “shut down.”
- Fast
food is marketed to children in an aggressive way; see Fast Food Nation.
Part Five. Sample Thesis Statements (all of these are
pretty good and take note they contradict each other as they go back and
forth):
One: It’s morally wrong to be fat, for even though many
are obese because of biological and environmental reasons, the majority of
people submit to their fatness because of major character flaws, including
__________________________, _______________________, ________________________,
and ____________________.
Two: To condemn fat people as immoral is an outrageous
oversimplification that ignores the many complex causes behind obesity. These
so-called “character flaws” are really a reaction to deeper factors, which
include ________________________, _______________________,
_______________________, and ____________________________.
Three: To justify obesity as a “complex issue” is to
enable fat people to go on with their immoral lives. In other words, justifying
fatness is as immoral as fatness itself.
Four: To condemn defenders of the obese by calling these
defenders enablers evidences a gross blindness to the deeper root causes of
obesity, which these morally unrighteous prigs are determined to ignore. These
causes include _______________________, ___________________________,
_________________________, and _________________________.
Five: Calling me a “prig” for my stance against fat people
does not change the fact that the obese population would be well served to
embrace my moral prescription, which will not only alleviate their obesity but
make them better, happier, responsible citizens. Thus, I am doing fat people a
service, sir, while you, taking the role as paternalistic sympathizer, are
actually helping to perpetuate their obese, moribund, morally bankrupt
condition. Let us therefore
proceed with my salubrious prescription, which entails ________________________,
_______________________, __________________________, and
___________________________.
Research Links
Comments