The innertubes being what they are, most of us choose to live in comfy bubbles of like-mindedness. Since those of us who actually hang out here (vice mostly live and interact in meatspace, like normal people) we tend to be... combative and snarky. Probably why we're not all that welcome in the real world... As I've found while trying to build a place that can be the overlap zone in a venn diagram, that's damn hard to do on the internet.
But! If you embrace it, you can live a life of happy-happy-joy-joy, by picking and choosing your infostreams, and just reinforce your preferred world-view all ya want! Latest case in point.
As a Man of Large Shadow, this story was not happy-happy-joy-joy making, and did not fit my preferred world-view.
Study: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults.
Just what I need. Breast cancer wrecking these magnificent man-boobs I've spent a decade building. To hell with that. I want a second opinion. After all, that's just a prudent thing to do before you toss your whole life over because some fat-loathing sunken-chested pencil-necked geek with no personal gravity well wants to be a hater, right? So, I looked to alternate medical traditions to find my answer. I found my bubble-reinforcer in China:
A venerable Chinese Doctor responds to my forwarded belly fat article.
See? It's the damned sit-ups that did it!
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets and exercise.
And remember Bill Tuttle said, oh, back in the 14th Century, after he invented Chardonnay and stole chocolate from the Aztecs (contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the Spaniards, it was Bill, he just bogarted it all until the Spanish brought it back themselves):
Yanno, like Ted Kennedy did.
AND.....
For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans...
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
But! If you embrace it, you can live a life of happy-happy-joy-joy, by picking and choosing your infostreams, and just reinforce your preferred world-view all ya want! Latest case in point.
As a Man of Large Shadow, this story was not happy-happy-joy-joy making, and did not fit my preferred world-view.
Study: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults.
If your pants are feeling a bit tight around the waistline, take note: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults, even those who aren't overweight or obese by other measures.
One of the largest studies to examine the dangers of abdominal fat suggests men and women with the biggest waistlines have twice the risk of dying over a decade compared to those with the smallest tummies.
Surprisingly, bigger waists carry a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is "normal" by the body mass index, or BMI, a standard measure based on weight and height.
"Even if you haven't had a noticeable weight gain, if you notice your waist size increasing that's an important sign," said lead author Eric Jacobs of the American Cancer Society, which funded the study. "It's time to eat better and start exercising more."
Other research has linked waist size to dementia, heart disease, asthma and breast cancer.
Just what I need. Breast cancer wrecking these magnificent man-boobs I've spent a decade building. To hell with that. I want a second opinion. After all, that's just a prudent thing to do before you toss your whole life over because some fat-loathing sunken-chested pencil-necked geek with no personal gravity well wants to be a hater, right? So, I looked to alternate medical traditions to find my answer. I found my bubble-reinforcer in China:
A venerable Chinese Doctor responds to my forwarded belly fat article.
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it...don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanismof delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program? A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain...good!
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, they permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me..
Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' a shape!
See? It's the damned sit-ups that did it!
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets and exercise.
And remember Bill Tuttle said, oh, back in the 14th Century, after he invented Chardonnay and stole chocolate from the Aztecs (contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the Spaniards, it was Bill, he just bogarted it all until the Spanish brought it back themselves):
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO, what a ride!!"
Yanno, like Ted Kennedy did.
AND.....
For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans...
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
Almost
The one thing I have regretted thus far is the lack of dark beer. For that I am ready to maim people
1. American chardonnay is awful. It's wine for people who need an excuse to keep holding a half-full glass at a post-modern novelist's book-signing party.
2. According to the official Body Mass Index sites, I -- older-than-rock-chips, six-foot-even, 187 pounds, with a 34-inch waist and still capable of hoisting a 225-pound rock chest high and staggering off with it -- am "morbidly obese"...
As a firm believer that every meal should contain items from the five major food groups (salt, sugar, fat, alcohol, caffeine), I would really like to get the name and address of the honorable Chinese Doctor.
Also, as my dear departed father used to say, "A meal without meat is like a day without sunshine."
It is maintained and popularized by that demographic that wishes all males to keep an appearance of prepubescent boys.
As to your comfy bubbles of like mindednessness, I haven't found one yet since I tend to disagree with most everyone on most everything.
Especially with all y'all weirdos that think women belong in the infantry.
And yeah, you can be, er, um, well, obstreperous, Grimmy.
Life's for enjoying the doing of good. I do feel much better (at 284# and losing very slowly this time) than I did when I was much larger. Tuna and salmon are as good as steak. Vegetables are good for me, and some of them I even like (who knew?!). Desert should be savored while talking with friends, not gulped in giant portions.
I haven't gotten yet to the "there are only three bites of ice cream" stage, where I can push it away then ... but one scoop is enough.
I think it's all the use of chairs, myself. Humankind was not to spend so much time sitting on stumps (and have you noticed how few natural stumps are sit-able?) Humans should be able to sit on their haunches.
(The old "your waist should be less than half your height", here, gets "healthy-normal". and the old "pounds don't matter" is confirmed.)
BillT -- by this standard, you're "healthy-normal weight".
(Waist/Height)*100
WOMEN
• Ratio less than 35: Abnormally Slim to Underweight
• Ratio 35 to 42: Extremely Slim
• Ratio 42 to 46: Healthy
• Ratio 46 to 49: Healthy
• Ratio 49 to 54: Overweight
• Ratio 54 to 58: Seriously Overweight
• Ratio over 58: Highly Obese
MEN
• Ratio less than 35: Abnormally Slim to Underweight
• Ratio 35 to 43: Extremely slim
• Ratio 43 to 46: Healthy
• Ratio 46 to 53: Healthy, Normal Weight
• Ratio 53 to 58: Overweight
• Ratio 58 to 63: Extremely Overweight/Obese
• Ratio over 63: Highly Obese
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/93638-whtr-the-new-determinant-health-risk/#ixzz0wHTf56Yj
I remember, back when, when you made a distinction between professional soldiers and "normals." There were a bunch of folks who weighed in, among them myself, who protested that we were neither Professional Soldiers, nor "normal", whatever that means.
There was also a professional soldier who insisted that he was perfectly normal.
I think it was about that time that you quit using the word "normal" to describe people.
That's a bad word to describe people, IMHO. One would do better to use words like "bad' or "good", or virtuous or evil, or, smart, or dumb, or sociable, or misanthropic.
Ya catch my drift here?
I will generalize, and take my oath on it before the Throne of God:
Mean People Suck.
I have big shoulders and bones, and thick muscles. It's common to my family, whether you exercise or not; just genetic. When I had to apply the BMI standard to myself, I did finally manage to get three pounds under the maximum weight by eating SlimFast for two meals a day and running five miles a day. Never got further down than that, though.
But your standard says I'm "healthy and normal."
That said, I sympathize with John's point about preferred worldviews. I would prefer one in which doctors would raise their standard for acceptable amounts of beer. The current standard of 'not more than one to two beers a day' is depressingly low.
When I was in the VA Hospital, they put me in a semi-private room, with a guy who was mad at the whole World. He was going to take it out on all of the nurses. I'm just figuring, it won't be long before The Head Nurse is going to open 'The Kennels of the Hounds of the Baskervilles'. I turn over and say to him, "Look, I'm not happy being here either, but did you ever think of this one question? How many ways are there for a nurse to get even, do you want to find out?" I rolled over and went to sleep and he was a model patient. After my time in the hospital and Doc said I could go home, he sent to the Office of the Head Nurse on that floor. I walk over to her office, there's a med tech, who calls the Head Nurse, the Tech was instructed to take me back to her Personal Office. I go in and sit down, there's a plaque on the wall, "OLD IRON PANTS", I lose it and break out laughing. She then told me, "I was about 1 or 2 steps from your doorway and heard you two talking. It was good enough for me." I then tell her about the Baskerville comment. She replied, "Oh, I have my kennels, they're locked." It was just a good time.
"Mean People Suck." If it were not for mean people, you, JTG, would be *SOL* or Sh*t Outta Luck.
And yeah, you can be, er, um, well, obstreperous, Grimmy.
I am not obstetrics any more. I done modified my ways, thank you very much. I haven't gotten loudmouthed at anyone around here in so long I think I've forgotten how... and that women in the infantry issue doesn't count.
Anyone with at least the sense the good lord gave a rock would know that it's just not right, nor functional, nor doable, nor desirable. Some issues a body's meant to get hot over.
Oh, and them of us what are "fat"? Well, it's because we can afford to eat, sillies. That's what separates us from the skinny soccer playing EUnix.
No offense meant to skinny soccer playing EUnix. But come on, you call yourselves healthy when the elbow joint or wrist joint are the largest part of an arm? Knees are larger than thighs?