A word or two on the guffaw-worthy
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2502431.stm">McDonalds obesity suit. The photo in this
article is not of the obese teens that are suing. Few newspapers want to publish pictures of these kids.
However, People Magazine (sorry, can't find the
photo) published a photo of at least one of them, and she was black. Now, I suspect that if one of these
litigants is a poor black kid, it is quite likely that at least some of the others are as well.
The typical conservative answer to this reluctance to publish photos is media bias that protects black
people. However, I think that the motivation is simply the chuckles that these lawsuits produce. The
cultural elite don't want to think of themselves as laughing at fat black people.
On a more evolutionary note, consider the self-defense of one of the mothers involved in this.
Personally, I think you'd have to be an idiot to think that McDonalds is healthy. But historically the
healthiest food was the cheapest. Sugar, fat and salt were quite expensive, while vegetables and whole
grains were the foods of the masses (if they had any food). Only the wealthy could afford to be fat, which
is why most premodern cultures admired fat people.
Now, with sweet corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, fatty salty foods are the cheapest. Fresh vegetables
aren't (generally) very expensive, but the time it takes to prepare them, plus the taste difference can steer
people who aren't thinking about their long term health into living on french fries. Razib has suggested,
regarding high rates of AIDS and teen pregnancy, that American blacks might be more prone to impulsive
behavior than whites. This alleged impulsivity could easily carry into eating disorders. And anyone
who's been on a diet knows, unhealthy food is MUCH harder to avoid than unsafe sex,
so we can hardly be surprised if the same people who have unprotected sex in the age of AIDS also gobble
Big Macs.
Maybe the American obesity rates, for all races, will stabilize soon. But to me the true moral of this
story is that in the 21st century stupid people will have an inexhaustible supply of cheap, easy ways to
screw up their lives. Society will suffer of course, and even very smart people can be lured by the
empty promises of debauchery, be it carnal or culinary.
black women also metabolize carbs in a different way from what i read-so are more prone to fatty
desposits.
First of all, obesity does follow Rushton's, always reliable, rule, but there are also some interesting
qualifacations (aren't there always?). I think this chart best illustrates what I am talking about:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/weightloss/schlundt/sld005.htm
Did you see that!? While it should be noted that black men and white men are actually very similar in
rates of obesity, black women are the ones really throwing off the curve- they have the highest rate in
America at 33%. That's almost twice as much as white female obesity at 17%, and an amazing 5 times the
rate of Asian female obesity-a mere 6% (the lowest rate)! Excellent source material here:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/3and4/overweight.htm
Also it might be of interest to point out an interesting complicating factor in the dramatically low rates of
asian obesity. While asians often appear much slimmer in frame to non-asians, they many times expeience
all the health symptoms of obesity without 'looking fat'. The reason Asians are stereotypically described as
looking 'yellow', is because they have an extra layer of fat, which makes them more vulnerable to fat-
related illnesses, such as heart disease, than would be a caucasion of the same weight and height.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/16/health/main525887.shtml
Posted by: Jason Malloy at January 7, 2003 01:30 PMthough 5% of south asians in the US are doctors, we have among the higher rates of cardiovascular
disease (the rate of doctors is important, because MANY taxi-cab drivers have siblings or cousins in the
medical profession, or has a sibling or cousin who's close friend is a doctor, so many south asians of even
low means get good consultations on ailments).
correction: 5% of DOCTORS ARE South Asian. not the other way around-though my general point is
still correct.
I personaly don't think it matters if your black,white or any other race everyone knows that fast-food is
NOT good for you and will NOT help you shed any pounds now as for as getting money for being
overweight because you eat MCDONALD'S or any other fast-food place is the stupidest thing I ever heard
in my life if thats the case I want some money to I mean if everyone sued fast-food places for putting on
some extra pounds they would go out of business and then all these people would have to COOK and eat
healther food but I guess then they would want to sue the cows cause beef is fating to don't that sound
stupid suing cows well so does suing MCDONALD'S for being overweight!