Our fears confirmed!
 

Can this be true? Are we really this bad?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/26072006/35...at-x-rays.html

<font color="blue"><i>click to enlarge photo</i></font>

Do I have to? :-o

please speak for yourself when you use the royal &quot;we&quot;.

By the way, at the Paris Opera House a couple weeks ago, I was just fine in my tiny seat until this woman came in and sat behind me. We were in the top level so each row is about a foot or more higher than the row in front of it. This woman was so huge she literally couldn't fit back into the seat between the two arms. I'm talking 300 pounds or more easily. As a result she had to sort of perch on the edge of her seat meaning her knees extended over the back of my seat by a good 6 to 8 inches. I could not sit back in my seat. By the way, no she wasn't American. She was French, but of course many here will think I'm making this up because they KNOW that only the US has obese people.

what do they do on airplanes? Buy two seats?

Neo
I believe you :D
I have seen many an obese European. Heck, I know a couple of obese Asians as well!

As an American I find it embrassing! When the phrase &quot;a land of plenty&quot; was coined I don't think this is what they had in mind!

Just so our European friends don't feel left out:

http://www.iotf.org/media/euobesity.pdf

This is a tyical &quot;Tabloidisation&quot; of a serious story. It is the same in the UK - the rise in the number of obese people over the last 10-20 years is significant.
Instead of reporting that, the media choose to go looking for stereotypes.

Now I'm off to see if I can find a story about &quot;Bad teeth in America&quot; to try and balance up Neo's survey.

Actually, this was a serious study presented at the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) and was available in the online edition of Radiology well before today's media frenzy. The reason it only talks about American patients is because it was a retrospective American study. It certainly doesn't even begin to suggest there aren't obese patients in other countries.
Anyway, the story isn't remotely new. For years, manufacturers of MR and CT scanning systems have worked on how to increase the scanner openings to handle obese or just plain big patients (for example, some wide-shouldered American football players didn't fit older scanners either and they weren't overweight, simply too big). A lot of the industry research (that is, not published in the journals) came from Germany, working on chunkified German patients. I heard similar discussions at the 2006 European radiology meeting (ECR).

Oh, my goodness. They're not only picking up our bad habits, they're picking up our excuses, as well.

&quot;It is no longer acceptable to blame the individual for their obesity: the causes are clearly societal.&quot;

Gotta love it.

there are just too many fatties.

And too many intolerant people, too.

Now, can I start in on all MY pet peeves?

go right ahead underhill.

underhill - sure I'll start.
I hate it when fat people act like they are handicapped by driving around on those carts. In Florida the buses were delayed and delayed waiting for fat people to park their scooters.

Read the study's abstract without all the hype of color commentary:
http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/co...t/2402051110v1

I am blessed to be very slim but honestly, I'd prefer to be extremely large rather than be capable of participating in such deplorable name calling and judgementalism as is showing up on this thread. We all have our challenges whether they be body size, mannerisms, or perhaps just manners in general.

I actually have a friend who's a radiologist.
I was at her practice one evening when she was trying to decide how best to treat a very obese patient. Eventually they had to send the patient back to the hospital without doing the scan. She just couldn't fit in there.

It is a very real and very serious problem indeed.

As a former fatty....I've seen the view from both sides. My observation is that the last &quot;acceptable&quot; bigotry in the American society (I can't speak to other countries) is obesity.

I found it fascinating that as I lost weight (from 300 lbs to 150) that I somehow became visible for the first time to people! I especially noticed this in stores...I could be the only one at a counter and I would be totally ignored when I was at my highest weight.

Now that I'm on the &quot;other side&quot;, I have great empathy for those struggling with this situation.

As a travel related side note.....it's SO much more pleasant to travel 150 lbs lighter.

This can be a very &quot;hot button&quot; topic.

Margy

What an insipid premise. And what a vacuous discussion it precipitated.

The 1989 frequency of too-fat-to-scan is <b>one</b> person in a thousand, and the 2003 number is a little less than <b>two</b> in a thousand. Not exactly epidemic proportions.

Yes, too many Americans are overweight. Yes, too many people from many other countries are increasingly overweight.

But this article, and the ridiculous interpretation of it by a British news writer drooling over another opportunity to bash Americans, have nothing to say about that.

The article concerns a tiny fraction of the population - fewer than 20 people in a thousand - who are grossly, morbidly, obese. Describing a change in that population, which is more than three standard deviations out on one tail of the normal curve, tells us nothing about what's going on with the rest of the distribution. The authors, who need to know statistics to interpret the results of their research, of course know that. The press, who need to know only how to sell advertising, of course don't.

I'm with TexasAggie on this one: the intolerance shown here is amazing. Substitute a racial group or, god forbid, negative comments about Paris, and the poster would be immediately reviled. Yet kicking fat folks is ok.

I don't have a weight problem and I often held similar views--until someone I cared about contracted a condition requiring medication that gave way to immediate and large weight gains. Nothing she could do, and she tried everything, resulted in weight loss. As I understand it, many people are in a similar situation. Frankly, even if they aren't, who am I to spew mean-spirited bile their way? It seems to me that both in general, and when we don't know a person's situation, we'd be a better place if we held our negative stereotypes and spiteful comments to ourselves.

1 percent = 1/100
.1 percent = 1/1000
.19 percent = 19/10,000

Robes - you are absolutely correct. Does that make my argument 10 times better?

Just curious, margy, and not meaning to hijack the thread -- how did you lose the weight, and how long have you kept it off, if you don't mind me asking? That's how much I weigh and need to weigh - 300 to 150!

FlyFish:

When did Yahoo get bought by a British company?

The story you're getting so excited about comes from a US-owned site. I've no idea what nationality the editor is: you're coming out with the racist stereotyping.

Hi GreenDragon,

I'm not margyb, but my DH's aunt recently went from 321 pounds to about 175 pounds via gastric bypass surgery. Since then her diabetes symptoms have completely disappeared. It is pretty serious surgery though.

By the way, I am a huge fan of your website. Your beadwork is exquisite!

Fine. I hate smokers. I hate people who run red lights. I hate people who don't look both ways before crossing the street while holding a child's hand. I hate people for the evil things they do, but not for the way they are.

OMG, I didn't give them permission to use that photo of me??!!! #-O

GreenDragon - I know we aren't suppose to advertise on Fodors but what is your website, I would love to look at it.

Also, it's true the most discriminated people in the US are those with a weight problem. I have never known anyone to get down on their knees and pray and say &quot;Thank you God for making me fat.&quot; No one wants to be that way. There are other issues involved. It can stem from being unhappy, feelings of being unloved, feeling unworthy, etc. I have been down that road myself. I have battled weight for as long as I can remember. Some years back I lost a lot of weight and have kept it off, but it's a constant battle. We all have something we have to deal with on a daily basis.

If an overweight person eats a piece of cake it isn't going to jeopardize anyone else's health. If a person lights up a cigarette they certainly are jeopardizing other people's lives.

Hi Madison,

www.greendragonartist.com

Check out the beaded halter top... just amazing!

Thanks Texas -- both for the info and the website plug (my fans!) :)

And it has a travel portion too, so it's on topic :P

I can't own a scale because I was severely anorexic to the point that my earlobes even got too thin to have clip-on earrings stay on. (Yes, you actually can lose weight in your earlobes.)

I could stand to lose about 15 lbs now but I have to be careful. I must say though, that I would much rather be around a decent obese person than any who make nasty cracks about anyone's weight or physical appearance.

Everyone's got something with which they're dealing but cruelty has never helped anyone. And it's never a synonym for wit or irony.

Obese and overweight people wear their problems on the outside...their problem is more obvious to the casual observer than the alcoholic, pedofile, adulterer, bipolar, depressed, etc. If I had not had a friend who was always feeling &quot;less than&quot; because of her size, I would probably not have known what it feels like to go through life discriminated against because of the way you look. Think, before you point the finger at someone. Is there something negative about yourself that you hide? An obese person does not have that luxury. Their problems are much deeper than overeating.

I am American and overweight and manage to fit in the enclosed MRI (better resolution) for an annual picture of my brain tumor. I walk, exercise, work, travel and do not consider myself handicapped. Other than a brain tumor and Mysthenia Gravis, I am healthy. Care to walk a mile in my shoes? Probably not. Would I like to be thinner? Yes. Do I appreciate the intolerant people who show such prejudice against the chubby to obese? No.

I guess, to some, I'm a Florida fattie - though I have never used a scooter to get around.

I'm sure that a lot of people who are so rude to the overweight insist that they are not prejudiced. &quot;Oh no, not me.&quot;

I'll probably regret posting this, but I can't help myself (my apologies in advance). I usually do not reply to this kind of thread, but there's always a first time.

During my long-ago schooldays fat children were ridiculed, tormented, invariably nicknamed &quot;Fatty&quot; and never picked to join any sporting team, not even cricket. This treatment was cruel and no doubt scarred the fat kids for life, but it provided an admirable and effective incentive for the rest of us to avoid becoming little porkers ourselves (not that there was much likelihood of that, given that walking and biking were almost universal modes of transport and few parents could afford what junk food there was. There seems to be a disturbing trend towards treating obese people as just another minority group, almost as though they've made a valid life choice. I feel for them (and I confess to now being overweight myself), but I doubt that these tender expressions of support are sending the right message.

I'm so sick and tired of this weight bashing of Americans. I've been traveling/vacationing around the world, annually, for over three decades and there are a lot of overweight/obese people in a LOT of countries.. I hear this weight bashing a lot, especially in Europe...as I lived in a certain country...of which I won't name...part of the year for over 20 years of whole summer stays...All of this talk...talk...talk...about the overweight/unhealthy Americans as they puff away on their cigarettes...even in hospitals. I couldn't even get away from it...the smoke... while visiting a very sick friend in the hospital. So,I guess excessive cigarette smoking is healthy? Please...give me a break....Happy Travels!

Greendragon,your work is gorgeous!