OT - Grr NHS weight flyer

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Steve
Hodgson ('[email protected]') wrote:

> On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 12:55:36 +0000, David Hansen wrote
> (in article <[email protected]>):
>
>>> Well, according to the latest NHS Tayside door-to-door leaflet I am
>>> now obese.
>>
>> When you took part in the uk.rec.cycling gathering in Edinburgh last
>> year you looked anything but obese.
>
> What is this gathering you speak of?

The First Edinburgh International Human Power Festival,
<URL:http://www.jasmine.org.uk/album/index.cgi/feihpf>

> Did it involve high calorie alcohol beverages or exercise?

Yes.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; All in all you're just another hick in the mall
-- Drink C'lloid

 

[Peter Clinch]

Helen C Simmons wrote:

> What I don't like about that sort of approach is that there are a load of
> people who are unhealthily underweight who see themselves as fat & must lose
> weight - a lot of them women, young & old alike. There is huge social
> pressure on women, in particular, to be *thin*. Anything over a size 10 and
> you are a waste of space with no worth - apparently.

Another example of not relating overall size into a such a measurement.
I think if you took Roos down to the /skeleton/ she'd fail to fit a 10.

Though more folk are over than under I do worry that the "war on
obesity" may have an unfortunate side effect of emphasizing the social
pressure to be /too/ thin in those that are actually a healthy weight.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Arthur Clune]

Peter Clinch <[email protected]> wrote:

: Though more folk are over than under I do worry that the "war on
: obesity" may have an unfortunate side effect of emphasizing the social
: pressure to be /too/ thin in those that are actually a healthy weight.

This is a very real danger. Though of course the pressure to be thin
and beautiful from wall-to-wall adverts of size 6-8 models probably
outweighs anything the government does here.

One of my close friends has become severely anorexic this last year.
It's been a depressing experience.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness

 

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 08:45:51 +0000 someone who may be Peter Clinch
<[email protected]> wrote this:-

>The central UoD server that lives on is currently down, I don't know
>why, but nothing much I can do about it...

Still the same at the moment. However, I can still picture Roos in
my mind.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

 

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 11:39:20 -0000 someone who may be "Helen C
Simmons" <[email protected]> wrote this:-

>What I don't like about that sort of approach is that there are a load of
>people who are unhealthily underweight who see themselves as fat & must lose
>weight - a lot of them women, young & old alike. There is huge social
>pressure on women, in particular, to be *thin*. Anything over a size 10 and
>you are a waste of space with no worth - apparently.

There is a lot of pressure, but I am not sure where it comes from.
Presumably the mass media, perhaps competition for an "ideal" body
image.

Certainly when I discuss such things with other persons of the male
persuasion we tend not to find "stick insects" attractive. Apart
from anything else, we are hardly slim either

>Indeed, quite a few of these superior beings are
>gobsmacked that I turn up to meetings on my bike - as they think it's far
>too strenuous a thing for them to be able to do ;-)

They are thin because they have no muscles and need to be
transported everywhere by car.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.