Fat Frogs and You

[Duper]

This Article in a local independent paper had this story about how trace elements of come chemicals fubar our metabolism.

It's a bit lengthy but a good read. The article is well balanced and not about fear mongering. I read this waiting for the bus this morning.

[Testiculese]

I don't buy it, fully. Every fat person I see has eight doughnuts in one hand, a supersize bucket of KFC in the other, and a wheelbarrow of Tastycakes strapped to their ass.

I'm not exaggerating either, where I play pool on Tuesdays, every single girl is fat. Staggeringly fat. Every one of them orders at least two full dinners, several beers and a pack of cigarettes. I weigh 180, and these girls have me by at least 20 pounds.

In the supermarket, all the fatties are lined up in the Hot Pockets isle fighting over them like a pack of rhinoceroses. Frozen pizza, dinners, buckets of lard, all the worst foods in the supermarket are overflowing out of these people's carts.

I know there are some weird things that these criminal corporations are putting in the food, but what the paper describes doesn't seem to be happening universally. I don't eat many of the crap items at the supermarket, but I have a fair share of packaged rice/noodles for when I'm lazy, and I don't look like a hot air balloon.

[CDN_Merlin]

I see the same thing Testi. Fat people buying frozen dinners, pizza pockets and always ordering the Heart Attack breakfast at work. Then they wonder why tehy can't lose weight.

Let me see, eat garbage and then never excersize. Take the elevator for 1 floor. yep, lazy SOB and eats like there's no tomorrow.

Some are overweight because of health conditions but not all of them.

[Duper]

Did you read the article?

They aren't blaming this finding on the whole of our societies weight problem. They found an evidence of endocrine disruptors. It's one issue that needs to be looked at.

[Testiculese]

Yep, read it, and they did seem to insinuate that everyone's fat ass is attributable to this. That's why I said I don't fully buy the story. I'm sure the chemical exists, just look at the garbage companies put into your body. You smoke? You're smoking Benzene, one of the most toxic substances to man besides Mercury, and Formaldehyde. Embalming fluid. On your cigarette. Legally.

[Duper]

one of 27 reasons I don't smoke.

[CDN_Merlin]

I smoked from 12-25. Half my life when I quit and I only gained 10lbs after quitting.

[TechPro]

The chemical they talk about (tributyl tin, or Tributyltin, or TBT) in that article is a real thing ... The article is talking about the fat inducing characteristic of that chemical that they seem to have simply stumbled across.

In defense of the article, they do make a big point that poor diet and lack of exercise are the primary reasons for people being over weight.

Since TBT is (or has been) used in the paint on the hull of ships, testing of marine creatures is warranted. Thus you'd expect that the newly \"stumbled across\" fat effect of the chemical would be applicable to populations where people consume higher amounts of food from marine animals.

... seems to me that while TBT may be contributing, it's only doing that. Contributing. Diet and exercise rules when it comes to controlling weight gain.

Since the presence of TBT is pollution related... Here is some global pollution reports (and a nice global map)
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM340NKPZD_index_0.html

Here is some global info regarding the general health of populations (with plenty of pretty maps)
http://www.theglobaleducationproject.or ... itions.php

If the population (number of people) determined the size of the country, what would the world map look like?
http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldm ... epng/2.png
More data on this: http://digg.com/odd_stuff/World_Map_wit ... lation_pic

Now ... if Americans are having such a weight problem, and TBT may be contributing, wouldn't places in the world where more marine life is consumed by people (and Americans do) tend to have a higher instance of fat people?

I don't recall fat being a big of a problem in the high pollution areas in the orient (where it is well known that they eat more marine life than Americans do). ... Or am I mistaken?

... end of me wander off topic ... for now.

[Wings]

Chemicals like this contribute a little to obesity, but I consider it an insignificant amount. Fat people don't need excuses to be fat, they need to learn to cook real food in the place of consuming saturated fat, monosodium glutemate, preservative induced cardboard, at the VERY least.

[Ferno]

this is kind of like blaming McDonalds for being fat.

They're the ones buying the foods.. why don't they just go somewhere else? or change up their diet?

it's not complicated.

[roid]

i wonder, could it be said that Mcdonalds has a monopoly on convenience? I mean, they ARE everywhere. Convenience and predictability (homogenization) is quite a powerful force when it comes to choosing food.

Subway's probabaly trying to fill this niche

[TechPro]

Subway's probabaly trying to fill this niche

That would work for me. Take a Subway meal over a tasteless McDonalds "meal" anyday. It may still not be the healthiest, but it's a whole lot better (and tastier).

[Kiran]

Interesting article, Duper. Let's say that pollution does have the potential to make our body fat. If that is the case, I think it would be a very small impact. For areas with higher pollution, I am not seeing very many overweight people, and maybe that's because all that walking wards off the fat.

In most cats and dogs, when they get fixed, they tend to get fat if the owners are not careful with what they feed and how often they exercise their pets. It could be the same with frogs. They got mutated sex organs. Does that impair their ability to reproduce? If so, would that maybe lead to the frogs not looking to mate and thus, get fat?

*edit* Also, not being able to reproduce would defeat their whole purpose at life. They can't reproduce. What do they do now, just eat?

In my opinion, the lack of information about the frogs' ability to reproduce and what their environment was discredits the article. So the frogs got fat when low levels of TBT was induced. What were the frogs doing? What were they eating? Were they able to mate? Did they try to mate? How does their behavior relate to human behavior?

In terms of the people who are overweight, I agree that most of these people need to learn how to eat better. Cook real food and learn which food is better for you. Be ready to spend some time in the grocery store comparing nutritional information between products.
Exercise is also good blah blah blah. One thing I'd like to point out is that they ought to see their doctor first to make sure that exercising won't be a problem (for those who has arthritis, asthma, etc).

McDonald's is evil.

[woodchip]

No matter the excuse a fat person has (ever go into a Ponderosa and see how they heap their plates?) I guarantee you if they stopped eating for a month they would lose weight.

[TIGERassault]

No matter the excuse a fat person has (ever go into a Ponderosa and see how they heap their plates?) I guarantee you if they stopped eating for a month they would lose weight.

Chances are, said fat people would also be very much dead then.

[Kiran]

No matter the excuse a fat person has (ever go into a Ponderosa and see how they heap their plates?) I guarantee you if they stopped eating for a month they would lose weight.

Why state the obvious? Of course they'll lose weight if they stopped eating. Their bodies will be consuming themselves.
And then they'll probably have a heart attack.