Japanese "Fat Fine"

[kedwyn]

Hurting employers is wrong IMO.

That said if you want to stay fat, smoke or do other things that are pretty much guaranteed to increase health costs when you are on the government tit (medicare) then you can pay more in taxes now to help cover the costs.

[Scientologist]

I love how people are so all about personal liberties and all that jazz until limiting some can(theoretically) help their wallet or only hinders a group they aren't a part of or don't give a fuck about.

Classy stuff.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Scientologist

I love how people are so all about personal liberties and all that jazz until limiting some can(theoretically) help their wallet or only hinders a group they aren't a part of or don't give a fuck about.

Classy stuff.

I am for civil liberties for anyone but fat people. I was a fat person, I made the choice to fix my life.

[Regime]

Originally Posted by dak

Persecution of people based on genetic predisposition, great...

What's next? People with light skin and freckles because the insurance companies think they pose a higher risk of melanoma?

Yeah because being fat is genetic and just like having light skin.

Originally Posted by Vinen

I am for civil liberties for anyone but fat people. I was a fat person, I made the choice to fix my life.

Exactly, you can fucking diet. Do not use genetics as a fucking excuse.

[Scientologist]

Yeah except genetics plays a large part in weight, size, and shape of a person.

[Tenks]

Anyone that leeches more money out of the government probably should be taxed more. Smokers have to pay a hell of a lot of taxes on their cigs. Same with booze.

I have not met any "genetically disposed" fat people at the gym on a routine basis. Sometimes after Jan 01 and maybe the first month of summer I'll see a larger (PUN) population there, but after a few weeks it will thin (PUN) out. Being fat is a choice, plain and simple.

And in regards to the $3 dinner at McD. I'm pretty sure you can buy a pack of lunch meat, tortilla shells and shredded low-fat cheese for about $8. I would know since this is my dinner for a good part of the week. 1400 calories is not an "average" dinner. Its a pretty hefty sized dinner.

I grant you, it is "easier" to eat unhealthy. On the same token whomever brought up the Applebee's / TGI Fridays reference they have a pretty good selection of low-fat / low-cal / low-carb food choices. You just have to have the self control not to order the family sized portion of riblets and fries. If you don't have said self control, well I guess you'll be genetically disposed to be a blimp.

-edit-

I didn't read the whole article but from what I gather it only is a punishment on the obese. I'm not sure if they use a BMI or what but ~10% of America is clinically obese so I assume a smaller population of Japanese are. I agree some people's genetics do not allow for sub 10% body fat with a cut stomach and all that but very, very few people are clinically obese due to a gene.

[Snugglebear]

Originally Posted by Vinen

I am for civil liberties for anyone but fat people. I was a fat person, I made the choice to fix my life.

Shut up fatass, gawd.

I have to agree with Vinen though. The trend should be toward enforcing healthy choices on our nation, but for Americans, the more palatable choice is to legislate at the source. Eliminate trans fats. Tax fast food. Subsidize healthy food.

I still do not understand the high fructose corn syrup deal, though. Table sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose bonded in disaccharides called sucrose. HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose. Is it really that bad?

[dak]

Yeah because being fat is genetic and just like having light skin.

For seven years of college (B.S./M.S.) I was 6'5, 31 waist and 165 pounds. I didn't work out past doing free weight curls when I was really horny and and ran a mile like once a week. I was a rampant stoner and pretty much lived off of large quantities of munchie fast food 3x a day. The majority of my days were spent sitting on my ass studying/reading/gaming/getting fucked up.

I had friends who spent exorbitant amounts of money and time making sure to eat healthy, worked out every day waking up every morning to run a couple miles then hitting to school gym for years and they were still fat asses no where near a 34 waistline.

If genetics wasn't an major factor based on lifestyle alone I would have been 300 pounds with a 40 waist and they would have looked like Olympic triathletes.

Short of surgically cutting chunks of tissue off their bodies a lot of people are going to be genetically locked into being "large" while living a lifestyle considered healthy by traditional medical standards.

[Darus Grey]

I still do not understand the high fructose corn syrup deal, though. Table sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose bonded in disaccharides called sucrose. HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose. Is it really that bad?

It's not huge. But that 5% difference makes HFCS convert to fat much easier than sucrose will. Though processed white sugar isn't all that much better for you.

Raw Cane Sugar is considered the "best" of them for you, though again thats minimal. Only reason the stuff is even expensive is because of US trade policies that make HFCS so much cheaper in the U.S.

HFCS is practically non-existent in countries outside the US/Canada. Even as close as Mexico they make sodas and such with cane sugar as the "norm".

Edit: Speaking from personal experience...I decided to try going HFCS free a month ago(it's almost as bad as being vegan...FFS I'm constantly amazed at what I can't eat), the claims that HFCS has addictive qualities is true. There's various what I'd consider "Dubious" quality research on this subject(that HFCS suppresses the receptors that tell you you're full, thus allowing you to eat more). Then again it could simply be I have to put so much mental effort to constantly watch what I eat that I can simply control portions better. But for the first week I sure as hell was craving an old soda...despite the fact I actually like the taste of cane colas much better.

[joeintokyo]

Originally Posted by Tripamang

How will they enforce it though? Go through every working person in Japan and start handing out fines (Because why would an employer report a fat employee for a fine)? What about sumo wrestlers? There are a fair number of immigrants in Japans from other nations are far larger then your average Japanese person.. do they punish employers for hiring them?

This just sounds stupid, I call bullshit on the whole thing.

Being in Japan I have heard of this law before today and basically what happens here is that every year you get a health check through your company. For larger companies the doctors and stuff may actually come there and do everyone. Every couple of years you get a big health check that is more in depth.

Part of this is because even though we have socialized health care it is not 100% and if you are full time you pay less because your company pays more insurance for you. So they want you to be healthy of course to work more but there may be some kind of extra fees involved when your employee goes to the hospital (but this part I am not sure on)

So any way people who are not full time employess would never get caught up in this law because they don't get the health care/ health checks and so on. Of course companies would lie but since health checks are being done by outside sources each year they really can't.

[Zerai]

Eating food that is bad for you is cheaper because *NEWS FLASH* It is mostly fake with preservatives and such. So it lasts longer. Thats why those fruits and vegetables cost you more money. Fresh food costs more because it's harder to keep fresh. Those frozen dinners last for years so np on that.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Desx

im skinny as fuck and i usually wear 34ish jeans and 36ish dress pants.. how does this work?

I have about a 44 inch waist. No fat adding to that number. I wear a size 40 pants.

Sizes in america are scaled back to make fat people feel better or something.


Being fat is genetic, it has to do with insulin secretion. Same thing with muscularity, which insulin also controls how much nutrients actually make it to the muscle for constructive purposes.

Skinny people secret less insulin no matter what sugar(carb) conditions exist. This is genetic.

Fat people secret tons of insulin over the smallest amount of carbs. This law is unusual for Japan because that ethnicity on average under-secretes insulin. Id expect this law in China.

[Lithose]

Originally Posted by Tenks

I have not met any "genetically disposed" fat people at the gym on a routine basis. Sometimes after Jan 01 and maybe the first month of summer I'll see a larger (PUN) population there, but after a few weeks it will thin (PUN) out. Being fat is a choice, plain and simple.

No one except for people with thyroid conditions are "have to be" fat. However stating that obesity doesn't involve genetics is false. Granted, genetics is a crutch far too many obese people use as an excuse, but that doesn't take away the fact that some people simply gain weight faster.

I'm not overweight, but thats mostly due to a strict diet and a daily work out routine. If I eat the wrong foods long enough I will immediately gain weight. My old roommate, on the other hand, would eat fairly massive meals of probably the worst stuff you could find and slam down a quart of ice cream almost daily (He was a Coffee ice cream nut, yeah, you know, those people..)

He was actually so thin, despite his constant eating, that his lung collapsed (Supposedly its a an ailment of people who are extremely underweight.). He actually had to go on a higher calorie diet, along with his normal junk food and he still barely put on weight.

Now, as someone who has to work hard to maintain a good weight/size, I have to say, I was always jelous..But thats life, yes, being fat is a "choice" but its not like many fat people are super-lazy, some people may be very active but a "normal" diet/Activity level simply isn't enough, they actually need to work hard at it. Should they have to go to the gym in a mandatory fashion due to this?

If you said yes then...Should people with heart disease in the family have to do cardio? Should people who have histories of cancers be limited in diet to special low preservative "organic food"? Should people with arthritis or other bone spurs be forced not to be active to cut down on pain medicine ect?

You see, there are *a lot* of "manageable" ailments, why restrict your target to just one? Lets nail them all, right? Hell, lets make women with an extreme risk of breast cancer get mastectomies to curtail costs, or else they just won't get health care. Or men who are pre-disposed to testicular cancer can lose their balls if they are over 65, because, statistically, they don't need them and its a "superfluous" cost on the "system".

edit: Now, this is mostly about mildly obese people to obese. Obviously those who have trouble walking either have an extreme medical condition or are putting themselves at risk the same way smokers are.

[Azrayne]

Originally Posted by Lithose

If you said yes then...Should people with heart disease in the family have to do cardio? Should people who have histories of cancers be limited in diet to special low preservative "organic food"? Should people with arthritis or other bone spurs be forced not to be active to cut down on pain medicine ect?

You see, there are *a lot* of "manageable" ailments, why restrict your target to just one? Lets nail them all, right? Hell, lets make women with an extreme risk of breast cancer get mastectomies to curtail costs, or else they just won't get health care. Or men who are pre-disposed to testicular cancer can lose their balls if they are over 65, because, statistically, they don't need them and its a "superfluous" cost on the "system".

Works for me.

[Quineloe]

What about Sumos?