Obesity Pandemic - Infectious, or Personal Responsibility?

Originally posted by DevolutionEvolvd
reply to post by soficrow

 

Arguing logical points vs fallacious reasoning tends to drag on...

Oh yeah. The evidence linking chronic disease and environmental pollutants is far too great to be ignored. The only reason to focus on diet and make chronic disease a "personal responsibility" is to protect industry's "right to profit." And kill the regulations in the pike.

…chronic diseases and interrelated contributory factors are far more complex than is implied in, or amenable to response strategies focused solely on individual behavioural changes.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are some of the most toxic chemicals on the planet.

While POPs are not used in every country, they can show up anywhere. Through what is known as the "grasshopper effect," these toxic compounds can travel great distances through a repeated cycle of evaporation and precipitation. These substances may also be stored for decades in fatty tissue, allowing them to be spread by migratory animals that ingest them. As a result, "no region is exempt from POPs," …."Everybody has some amount of these chemicals in their bloodstream."

High levels of exposure to POPs have been linked to a wide range of health problems, including allergies, immune system disruption, nerve damage, reproductive disorders, birth defects, and cancer. Fetuses and infants are particularly susceptible since the POPs that have accumulated over decades in their mothers" bodies may be passed to them during pregnancy and nursing. Prenatal exposure has been linked to reduced fetal and postnatal growth, neurological deficits, delayed development of motor functions, and impaired short-term memory.

The tendency of these chemicals to build up in fatty tissue means that they become increasingly concentrated at higher levels in the food chain, making fish, mammals, and predatory birds especially vulnerable to their toxic effects. Human communities that consume high levels of meat are thus particularly at risk.

A chemical can be listed in the Stockholm Convention as a persistent organic pollutant when it shows that it persists in the environment, bioaccumulates in organisms (increases in concentration up the food chain), travels through the environment over long distances from the region of its release to other regions of the globe, and is toxic to the environment and human health.

Currently, there are twenty-two chemicals listed in the convention including DDT, lindane, PCBs and dioxins and furans and some brominated flame retardants. The objective of the convention, which has 175 Parties as of 19 September 2011, is to restrict and eliminate these chemicals from production and use in order to protect human health and the environment.

I am waiting for this program to air tonight. Will make notes, report back.

Show asks if we are programmed to be fat?

The obesity epidemic is nothing new, but controversial new science is looking beyond the obvious reason of increased caloric consumption.

Next week, in a show entitled “Programmed to be Fat?” the CBC’s Nature of Things with David Suzuki examines the link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and obesity.

The endocrine system is a complex network of glands and hormones that regulates many of the body’s functions, including growth, development and maturation, as well as the way various organs operate. Endocrine disruptors are synthetic chemicals that when absorbed into the body either mimic or blocks hormones and disrupt the body’s normal functions.

Endocrine disruptors are all around us—in plastic, in cans, in the water we drink, in the food we eat.

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by daryllyn

 

Would you please, please read my post?

Obesity is part of the NCD Pandemic - and all the evidence indicates obesity results when prions take over cells to create cholesterol and other lipids to propagate. ...Heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other pandemic diseases are part of disease progression.

....Blaming the victims does NOT solve the problem - or stop the pandemic.

edit on 27/11/11 by soficrow because: (no reason given)

I guess the question would be...where do the prions come from? I know many people who eat a LOT who are not only not-obese, they're at a healthy weight (myself included.) I don't eat processed foods though (or at least, I hardly eat any processed foods.) I think the blame lies more with the GMOs (pun, Govern-Mental Organizations) who allow things like HFCS, Aspartame, GMO corn, etc., into the food supply, and the corporations who propogate them throughout our food supply.

Sure, parents share part of the blame for not having enough information, and/or not caring enough to prioritize good food above other things, but this really is something where government SHOULD step in to protect the populace from the corporations. If nothing else, require real science and labeling behind their toxic franken-foods.

reply to post by dogstar23


Good questions. ...Endocrine disruptors look like a major factor. ....Endocrine disruptors are synthetic chemicals that mimic or block hormones and disrupt the body’s normal functions when they're absorbed into the body. And there's all around - in plastic, cans, drinking water and the food we eat.

The obesity epidemic is nothing new, but controversial new science is looking beyond the obvious reason of increased caloric consumption.

Next week, in a show entitled “Programmed to be Fat?” the CBC’s Nature of Things with David Suzuki examines the link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and obesity.