Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[Pemalite]

vivster said:

RolStoppable said:

It's not so bad. Instead of getting fully absorbed by the corona hysteria, people should be thinking of all the other things that are connected in the big picture; after all, right now there's more time for that than usual, with so many people either losing their jobs or working only short periods of time each week. Why do Americans get so fat on average? Because corn syrup is omnipresent in processed food. Why is corn syrup everywhere? Because it's sweet and very cheap, so it tastes good and allows manufacturers to pad food instead of having to use healthier and more expensive ingredients to reach the expected size for a meal. It's just one big example of a government putting economic interests of big corporations above the health of the population; tied into that is the pharma industry because it's in their best interest that people aren't healthy.

And yes, it's the government's job to make laws that protect its people, because people don't have the time to research everything all the time. What also ties into food is meat production. Lax laws mean more cheap meat, but it comes at the cost of the environment because of the tremendous amount of animals, both in the masses of food they need to be fed and the questions regarding where there poo should go and the perpetual burping of cows which accounts for quite a significant amount of CO² emissions on this plant. A lot of things are intertwined, so merely tackling the question of how to have less fat people would help with a bunch of other seemingly unrelated problems as well.

A few European countries have passed a tax on sugar and the response of the mighty Coca Cola company was that they notably reduced the amount of sugar in their soda pops. Capitalism is good because it rewards effort and therefore pushes people to work hard, but governments have to act as a responsible check to contain capitalism, because in its purest form capitalism is extremely dangerous. The biggest flaw in the current setup of industrialized nations is that people tend to be corrupt, so money can buy laws or the lack thereof; that allows corporations to get richer and repeat this cycle, and that's how the world got so much pollution and fat people.

So yes, we should have no more very fat people. But the responsibility for that lies in large part with the governments who have to make laws that discourage companies from producing very unhealthy food. If the population cannot buy such questionable food, then there aren't obese people in the first place. You see, fat shaming can have its benefits because it can get people to think about the big picture more critically; if it wasn't allowed to talk about fat due to "protecting the feelings of fat people" or some other form of political correctness, then the obesity problem will inevitably persist.

Obesity isn't a health issue, it's a lifestyle choice. In fact, obese people are actually healthier than fit people because they can fit a lot more health in them than those string bean fat shamers.

It's not always just a lifestyle choice, it's often a health issue.
A mental health issue brought on by the likes of depression, anxiety or more.

And fat shaming shouldn't be something to shy away against if done in an appropriate, constructive, supportive and positive manner... It's when it is used in a derogatory, hateful, spiteful manner where it can be damaging.

I fully support a sugar tax.

SvennoJ said:

Obesity is generally not healthy, obesity starts at a bmi of 30 and over. There are exceptions, sumo wrestlers have a BMI of 56, eat 5,000 calories a day and train all day, until they don't:

I am only going to say this once... BMI is total bullshit.

It is "Body-Mass-Index" - And it doesn't differentiate between muscle mass or fat mass... Thus someone like myself who is fit, healthy and has muscle definition with a low amount of body fat would be classed as "Obese" as I tread just slightly over the BMI recommendations.

John2290 said:

Covid 19 won't look at obese people any differently, not a time to put the head in the sand and imagine it as some social issue. Look at reality. Look at New Orleans...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21K1B0

It should negatively effect the extremely obese a little more than your average individual as they likely have additional mass that restricts breathing somewhat.
And from what I can tell... Many health institutions are getting COVID patients to lay on their stomachs... Which is not comfortable if you have a large gut.

AsGryffynn said:

Smokers can be fit people but they are the first who are going into a ventilator. That's kind of the point here. 

While correct that you can be fit and a smoker... Smoking will most certainly hold back your fitness levels.

I used to be a smoker 8 years ago... And my ability to exert myself and not run out of breath is a night and day difference.

Plus, I am more educated about the dangers of smoke and carcinogens and it's effect on the body now due to professional reasons.

Look at it this way... I wouldn't want a respiratory disease like COVID while being a smoker. Fuck... That.

Eagle367 said:

It's a lot more complicated. Bio-individuality is the biggest factor. Imagine you eating a lot more and working out a lot less but still not gaining weight as another person. And how weight rebounds. Losing weight seems simple to people but it becomes a curse that leads you down a path of unhappiness and stress, which itself causes you to gain more weight. I'm not saying no one should try or that it's not possible but to trivialize the situation isn't helping anyone. Plus if you're working all day, the stress and lack of time or energy to do things can lead to you not losing weight. Hell some people do excercize like hell and the body gives the opposite response. There's a lot of factors and work is definitely one of them. 

Diet is probably the single largest influences on weight gain/loss.
It's not just about exercise... It helps, no doubt.

But if you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight... And that is where diets come into play, things like Keto, Atkins and so forth are merely "tools" that restrict the type of foods you eat, which in turn might affect your caloric intake... As you tend to gravitate towards eating lots of food with low calories like Cauliflower, Broccoli, Zucchini etc'.

Last edited by Pemalite - on 02 April 2020