Big Fat Crisis: Why are we getting so fat?

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Richard D. Wolff (DemocracyAtWork.info, TruthOut.org, rddwolff.com, "Economic Update," 1-19-14, 9:00 am); Wash Post; LATimes.com

Go on. I'm listening.

Deborah Cohen wrote a book -- A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind the Obesity Epidemic — and How We Can End It. Our obesity can be treated as an economic matter, explains Professor Richard D. Wolff, if we are to overcome it.

• LISTEN: PLAY NOW (Prof. Wolff, UMass, Amherst, MP3)

A Big Fat Crisis

Matthew Hutson (WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 10, 2014)

The commercial says I'm lovin it

The causes of the obesity epidemic -- a plague afflicting 150 million Americans, plus the remaining 150 million who help shoulder $150 billion in annual medical costs and must suffer colleagues and loved ones succumbing to disability and early death -- can be crystalized in one telling statistic: 

 

Around one in two hardware stores sells food. They mostly offer candy bars and other treacherous snacks near the checkout line. Thanks to an aggressive food industry, we cannot go anywhere without the temptation to make bad dietary decisions.

Besides keeping us alive, food is a nexus of many deep concerns -- philosophical, spiritual, political, sensual. We have strong feelings... More

 

Rich get thinner, POOR get fatter

Melissa Healey (latimes.com, Jan. 13, 2014); PNAS (nasonline.org)

Ma, tell the other kids not to stare at my boobies!

As in so many matters of health, obesity more seriously affects [poor] adolescents in families with lower incomes and educational attainment and, researchers say, the trend is getting worse. 

From many corners of the United States -- Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Mississippi -- recent years have brought [a little good] news about the rise in obesity among American children: 

 

Several years into a campaign to get kids to eat better and exercise more, child obesity rates have appeared to stabilize and might be poised for a reversal.

 

But a study published Monday (1/13/14) in the journal PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] suggests that among adolescents, the hopeful signs are LIMITED to those from better-educated, more affluent families.

Among teens from poorer, less well-educated families, obesity has continued to rise. Nationally, rates of obesity among adolescents 12 to 19 did not rise between 2003-2004 and 2009-2010. But during that period, obesity rates among adolescents whose parents have no more than a high-school education rose from about 20% to 25%.

We're rich and thin.

At the same time, the teenage children of parents with a four-year college degree or more saw their obesity rates decline from 14% to about 7%.

 

"The overall trend in youth obesity rates masks a significant and growing class gap between youth from upper and lower socioeconomic status backgrounds," the authors of the latest research wrote. More

• HOW TO: More than modest proposals for fighting fat

The Bitter Buddha, comedian Eddie Pepitone

Wisdom Quarterly; John Rabe (Off-Ramp/SCPR.org), Eddie Pepitone

Budai AK-47 (Mr. Will Coles)

Most comics use the F-word in their live acts like it's an article. But when Eddie Pepitone [a regular on the Jimmy Dore Show] uses it, it comes from the heart, or maybe his ample gut [which is good luck to rub].

 

The 54-year old comedian and actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Beat, Now and Again), who lives in North Hollywood, California, is finally seeing a glimpse of the fame his friends and colleagues have wished for him for years.

• VIDEO: "The Bitter Buddha" (comedy)

He's a regular on the club circuit, gained fame through appearances on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, and is the star of the documentary "Eddie Pepitone: The Bitter Buddha," by Steven Feinartz, which is now out on DVD.

 

Ya gotta feed'em the right nuts for their teeth!

Host John Rabe sat on a blanket with him at his favorite park in North Hollywood where he meditates and feeds the squirrels with his wife Karen. "And we're a little pedantic to other people in the park," he says, "because we see them feeding squirrels things like bread and even peanuts, and we're like 'No, no, no! Walnuts are the best for them because the shell works their teeth.' So we've gotten this reputation for being the squirrel pains in the asses." More

• AUDIO: Listen to the episode now

Poor SLEEP makes us fat, demented (audio)

Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Allison Aubrey (Morning Edition, 10-17-13, NPR.org)

Americans aren't getting the recommended 7-9 hours (Franck Camhi/iStockphoto.com)

  

American men are fatter than other men

Is that 6:00 am workout getting in the way of good sleep? Don't think those fat cells won't notice.

 

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that inadequate shut-eye has a harmful response on our fat cells, reducing their ability to respond to insulin by about 30 percent. 

 

Over the long-term, this decreased response could set the stage for Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and weight gain.

BREAKING NEWS: Reason we sleep discovered!

The brain on final rinse cycle by end of a good night's sleep (Katherine Streeter/NPR.org)

(All Things Considered) While the brain sleeps, it clears out harmful toxins, a process that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, researchers now say. During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid to and from the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours, a study of mice found. "It's like a dishwasher," says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester and an author of the study in Science. The results appear to offer the best explanation yet of why animals and people need sleep. More (LISTEN)

 

Dr. Maiken Nedergaard (URMC)

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there's "an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight," says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

 

But Americans don't seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us, according to a from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is getting six or fewer hours of sleep per night, on average. LISTEN

• Mysteries of Sleep were Just Too Mysterious
• "Memory Pinball" and Other Reasons We Need a Nap
• Of Neurons and Memories: Inside "Secret World of Sleep"
• What happens in our brains while we're asleep? That's one question neuroscientist Penelope Lewis is trying to answer. She directs the Sleep... 
• How Sounds Undermine Sleep
• We're thinking about sleep. Do we really need it? How do we get more? And what happens inside our brains...
• Pulling Back the Covers on "Strange Science of Sleep"
• "He said, 'You know, I have to be honest; there's a lot we know about sleep, but there's a lot that we don't know. So just try to take it easy.'" 
• The Secret World of Sleep
• There is no need to say that we humans tend to feel pretty lousy if we don't get enough sleep. Perhaps the most extreme example of this... 
• Science of Slumber: How Sleep Affects Memory 
• So how much rest does your brain really need, and what does it do with that rest once it's getting it? We're talking about the science of sleep...
• How Much Sleep Do Kids Need? Not Such a Mystery After All
• Are doctors really clueless on how much sleep children need? That was the provocative premise of a study we reported on yesterday.
• PSYCHIC: (Coast to Coast) Saints and Sages
  World-class spell collector, psychic practitioner, scholar, and teacher Judika Illes offers encyclopedic knowledge of the sacred, helpful mystics, saints, and sages from a large variety of religious traditions. She'll share the various ways these beings and traditions can be used to help illness, unemployment and more. But in the first hour of tonight's show, retired professor of climatology Dr. Tim Ball discusses Arctic ice and climate projections.

What's wrong with American men?

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Huffington Post

I filled this veggie-fridge, Joe. If I want to empty it, I'll empty it! Get yourself to the gym!

 

Yeah, girl, yer FAT; go make me a sandwich.

The average American man is named Joe (or Jose), is fat, and lives at my house. Why won't he exercise and lose weight? His toe hurts.
 
Why does his toe hurt? Because he stubbed it on his way to the fridge for a late night snack. Hey, Jojo, put down the mooncake, get out of the kitchen, and onto the bathroom scale! (Too harsh? 10 Things to Say to Make Men Go Ballistic)
  
The fact is American men are pudgy, sloppy, and potato-couchy. They won't deny it. It's not as if men have ever had to live up to the standards of beauty, physical attractiveness, and shapeliness females are forced to deal with from. We give men a pass, but that was when they did a lot for us beyond being eye candy. Now, guys, at least have the decency to look good! And shower. And use a dab of natural (non-aluminum) baking soda under the armpits; it's a wonderful natural deodorizer. And work off that flab.

  

Hey, fatso, look to your left and stop stuffing carbs, flesh, and fast food (Big Deals/HuffPost)

 

(HP) America's expanding waistline may not be new news, but throwing the average American male's body into a line-up spotlights America's obesity epidemic. This is exactly what Pittsburgh-based artist Nickolay Lamm did when he created these visualizations (which obviously deal only with body size and not race, ethnicity, or skin color).  "I wanted to put a mirror in front of us," Lamm told The Huffington Post in an email. "Americans like to pride ourselves on being the best country in the world [WQ EDITORIAL: when everybody knows that's Switzerland]. However, it's clear that other countries have lifestyles and healthcare better than our own. More

Buddhist missionaries from India and Afghanistan were welcomed in ancient Greece.

  

More proof we're fat

 Here's What The Average American Man Looks Like Compared To Other...

 How do YOU measure up? Artist compares "average" shape of men from around...

 The Average American Male Body: How Does It Compare To Men In Other...

 Artist compares men's bodies by nation

 Meet Todd: The Average Man

 This Is the Average Man's Body - James Hamblin - The Atlantic

 Defining the new male ideal - CNN.com

Partying at the "Little Buddha" Club

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; HuddsFilm1/flickr.com (photography)

Waiting around to enter the Little Buddha club (Huddsfilm1/flickr.com)

  

Bar's namesake is NOT the Buddha but Hotei

What is there to do in Europe? Not much. Oh, I know! Let's go to the Little Buddha club. Bands play there, suds flow, and we can stand around looking pretty. Dirty Green Vinyl is playing. Maybe I'll meet someone, too.

Who would name a bar, a place explicitly existing to be out of it, after the most sober person in history? Enlightenment is the opposite of delusion, wisdom the opposite of intoxication, right view the opposite of hallucinations. But, hey, why so heavy? It's just a name.

Why is this place called "Little Buddha"?

And anyway it does not refer to the historical Shakyamuni, "Sage of the Shakyas," the warrior prince who abandoned the palace and the good life for a higher calling, the real high life (brahmacarya) that leads out of this misery-fraught wandering on through worlds, lives, torments, and doldrums.

It's like nirvana! I think that's why.

Still, people might think it does. We should protest. We should circulate a petition on Facebook. We should march in front of this hole in the wall. It's bad enough when this kind of thing happens in Thailand.

 

Now it's made it to the Continent and its economic environs. We can't stand for that. *Yawn* Or maybe we can.

Who?

Who is the "Little Buddha" after which the club is named anyhow? There was once a Mahayana monk in China, a Siberian St. Nick/Santa Claus character who carried around a cloth sack filled with candy instead of mushrooms to be handed out to children. He is jolly, jovial, and really chubby. He isn't the Buddha at all, just the good luck Bodhisattva Hotei (Budai, Bố Đại, Pu-Tai, "Cloth Sack").

Yeah, I hear Nirvana played here. What?

He is arguably the "face of Buddhism," obese and golden, full of good fortune, found at the entrance of many good restaurants and Asian businesses. He is more a patron saint of worldly success than any kind of spiritual icon. Nevertheless, one finds him in Pure Land temples and Theravada altars with lots of Chinese or Japanese influence. Hotei is everywhere in Asia. Who doesn't need a belly to rub for luck?

That's not "the Buddha"!

Bố Đại: the fat, happy Laughing Buddha

Hotei (Japanese), Budai or Pu-Tai (Chinese, 布袋; Bùdài), Bố Đại in Vietnamese, is a Chinese folkloric deity also popular with Taoists. His name means "Cloth Sack," and comes from the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying. He is usually identified with (or as a pre-incarnation of) Maitreya the future Buddha -- so much so that the Hotei image is one of the main forms in which Maitreya is depicted in East Asia. He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the Laughing Buddha (Chinese, 笑佛). Sadly, many Westerners confuse Budai with the historical Shakyamuni Buddha Gautama.

• Is there room for God in Jainism? (Huff Po) 
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