Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Heelys shoes!

The other day, I was shopping with my wife at Sam's club when a mom and her son passed us pushing a shopping cart. Actually, the mom was doing all the pushing, while the son was just skating on his Heelys shoes. This got me thinking. In a land that already has 12 million obese children, and more sitting on the fence, is it really a good idea to introduce wheels into regular sneakers? For most kids, walking is the only exercise they get all day. Infact, walking around in stores and shopping malls picking up high-fat food articles is probably the only time they get to lose some or any calories at all. But now, kids don't even get to do that because some genius found out a way to cut out their only physical activity for the day.

And that's not the only issue I have with the heelys. These shoes are basically physical hazards. If you see someone with roller skates or roller blades, then you are mentally prepared to let them zoom past and are careful not to get in their way. But when you see these kids in regular looking sneakers suddenly taking off at around 15 miles per hour and zig zagging around, it totally puts you off. It is an accident waiting to happen. The other day, one kid went over my wife's foot and didn't even bother to apologize. Needless to say, she'll be the first one to sign this petition. I've become extremely wary and suspicious of all kids around me. I propose that these kids be treated the same as automobile drivers, and be forced to take written and practical tests before they obtain their heelys shoes license. If anything, some kids will atleast find the process cumbersome and so not worth it!

Talking of obesity, I happend to read an article on the NY times the other day, about common (mis)conceptions about dieting and exercise on weight loss. The industry catchline so far has been that if you eat fewer calories than you expend, the net negative calories will eventually and gradually end in weight loss. And that the best way to approach this is through a combination of good diet and exercise. Well, this article brought a completely different spin on this - what seems like a - reasonable approach. After extensive tests on healthy and obese people, a few scientists have discovered an extensive link between your genes and your weight. So if you are obese, but manage to lose weight through dieting and exercise, it would be very hard to maintain it since your body will have the tendency to come back to your "normal" - which in this case is probably a size XXXL - body weight. And if you are thin and want to gain weight, this can be difficult as well.

A brief excerpt from this excellent study:

The researchers concluded that 70 percent of the variation in peoples’ weights may be accounted for by inheritance, a figure that means that weight is more strongly inherited than nearly any other condition, including mental illness, breast cancer or heart disease.

The results did not mean that people are completely helpless to control their weight, Dr. Stunkard said. But, he said, it did mean that those who tend to be fat will have to constantly battle their genetic inheritance if they want to reach and maintain a significantly lower weight.

The findings also provided evidence for a phenomenon that scientists like Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Leibel were certain was true — each person has a comfortable weight range to which the body gravitates. The range might span 10 or 20 pounds: someone might be able to weigh 120 to 140 pounds without too much effort. Going much above or much below the natural weight range is difficult, however; the body resists by increasing or decreasing the appetite and changing the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks.

The message is so at odds with the popular conception of weight loss — the mantra that all a person has to do is eat less and exercise more — that Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at the Rockefeller University, tried to come up with an analogy that would convey what science has found about the powerful biological controls over body weight.

He published it in the journal Science in 2003 and still cites it:

“Those who doubt the power of basic drives, however, might note that although one can hold one’s breath, this conscious act is soon overcome by the compulsion to breathe,” Dr. Friedman wrote. “The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.”

So not only are we born poor and stupid, now we are born fat as well. And even if you turn the poor around and somehow talk your way through college, you will still be a rich, smart, but fat slob. So moral of the story is - next time you can't fit in your jeans, blame your genes...

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Milli,

Abt part 1:
I have a better idea...why dont you write to the Hindu ;)

5/17/07, 12:48 PM  
Blogger c2c said...

Goks - Considering you are one of the 12 million (fat kids) I mentioned, it is understandable that you'll take offense :-D

5/17/07, 3:54 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

haha...point noted...still remember the "h1 mama" i met

5/17/07, 9:53 PM  

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