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Posted

Monkey hit the nail on the head. Theres no excuse for pure nutrition outside of the person stuffing food into his face and not burning it off. Hunters in the days of way back when ran there *** off to eat whatever animal they could spot, and people generally kept that attitude of working for your food until it the drive thru came around. Nowadays, we have the option to expend a 20th of the energy we receive from what we pick up to eat. I doubt it takes more then 100 calories to walk to your car and hit a McDonalds drive thru. People are fat and lazy cause we have the option to be.

Posted

Yes a low calorie diet and exercise helps for a lot; but not all people.

Some fat people put in hospital on these diets PUT ON weight and complain that they are being fed too much!

 

What I have been trying to present in these posts is the SCIENCE behind the obesity epidemic.

Please look at some of the scientific facts. The Times articles are a good starting point.

As long as we cling to our prejudices and outdated social memes about obesity we will never come to grips with the problem. W hich may soon, if ithasen't already become the PLANET'S greatest helth problem. Certainly the most expensive

 

I'll just keep plugging away putting the science here in the hope that someone will read it and the see that obesity is a complex multi-faceted problem. a simple low calorie diet and exercise is not the simple solution.

 

At the risk of repeating my self here is some research and articles from the last 8 weeks.

 

An $8.3-million federal grant to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Science Park - Research Division addresses the complex interplay between such varied factors as genetics, diet, and environmental exposure to toxins that cause cancer, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular and other diseases.
M. D. Anderson wins $8.3-million to research environmental causes of major diseases

 

 

 

Oi, you're fat and lazy

Apr 23 2007

By Chloe Griffiths, The Journal

Childhood obesity is increasing among the general population in Canada, but the statistics are even more alarming among First Nations, Inuit and Métis children.

In a study published recently in the American Journal of Public Health, University of Alberta researchers found that up to 65 per cent of Cree preschoolers in northern Quebec communities were overweight or obese.

65 per cent of Cree preschoolers in northern Quebec overweight or obese

 

Bisphenol A On Trial – "Bisphenol A (BPA), a weak synthetic estrogen used in a variety of consumer products ranging from baby bottles to resins that line food and beverage containers, has been linked in some studies to adverse health effects in rodents, including obesity, cancer and insulin resistance. There is growing concern that the chemical may cause similar adverse effects in humans, particularly in babies and young children."

Speedlinking 4/23/07

Common genes causes obesity

by Sadaf Afzal - April 13, 2007 -

 

A genetic deviation inclining people to obesity has been discovered by a group of researchers at Boston University. This gene may be one of the many others found which cause obesity, but its discovery has raised hopes for people that the others will be soon discovered too.

Common genes causes obesity - The Money Times

 

One in six people have the most vulnerable genetic makeup and weigh an average of 3kg more than those with the lowest risk. They also have 15 per cent more body fat.

 

The findings provide the first robust link between any common gene and obesity, and could eventually lead to new ways of tackling one of the most significant causes of ill health in developed countries such as the UK. One in four British adults is now classified as obese, and half of men and a third of women are overweight

Scientists find 'genetic cause' of obesity-News-UK-Science-TimesOnline

 

 

A book by academics at the University of Hertfordshire which makes direct links between obesity and underlying emotional issues in women will be published this week.
Obesity linked to emotional issues in new book

 

researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California had published a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they are making progress in developing a vaccine that will combat obesity.

 

The vaccine will purportedly stimulate the immune system to recognise a hormone called ghrelin, and deactivate it. Experiments with rats have shown that the animals who were vaccinated ate normally, but lost up to 30% of their weight.

 

What is ghrelin?

Ghrelin is the name that has been given to a peptide released by the stomach, which stimulates growth hormone release and appetite, as well as deposition of fat in the human body.

Health 24 - Diet, DietDoc's articles

120 million urban Indians are seriously obese: Docs

 

 

Express News Service

Ludhiana, March 25: Satguru Pratap Singh Apollo Hospital is organizing a three-day camp for obese people from March 26 where a team of doctors will analyse individual cases and underlying causes of weight gain.

 

In a press statement issued today, endocrinologist Dr Gurpreet Singh stated that there may be more myths and misunderstandings about obesity than about any other major health epidemic. People are constantly besieged with faulty or incomplete weight-loss information, he said.

120 million urban Indians are seriously obese: Docs

 

Obesity causes breakdown in brain system which regulates appetite and weight

 

New research led by scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center demonstrates how obesity causes the breakdown of a brain system that regulates appetite. The research provides a clear picture of some factors involved in obesity More than 60 percent of American adults are overweight and more than 30 percent are obese The study results may have also identified possible targets for new drug therapies aimed at assisting individuals in weight loss. The research is published in the March issue of Cell Metabolism.

Obesity causes breakdown in brain system which regulates appetite and weight

 

OUR SWEET ENDING: HEALTH CONSEQUENCES WITH HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP CONSUMPTION

By Gary Yang

Obesity in our world

 

The prevalence of obesity has increased in epidemic proportions in the last 30 years (1). The World Heath Organization estimates that there are at least 1.6 billion overweight adults globally, of which 400 million are obese (2). An overweight adult is roughly defined as one who exceeds the maximum desired weight for his/her height for normal physiological functions.

 

Obesity is when the individual weighs 20% or more above this desired weight (3). Being overweight can negatively affect an individual's energy and mood, and more dreadfully, make the individual more prone to various diseases such as cardiovascular complications, kidney and liver failure and diabetes (2). Though the detrimental effect of being overweight is indisputable, the exact causes of the rapid increase in incidents remain uncertain. More studies are now beginning to investigate the effects of the various new dietary components introduced in the last three decades in light of advances in biotechnology. One of these is the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)

 

HFCS in our lives Fructose exists naturally in small amounts in honey, root plants and various fruits. When taken at this low amount in a regular diet, fructose has beneficial effects on health (8). However, the detrimental effects of a high fructose diet, as a result of eating HFCS sweetened foods, are becoming more and more evident. HFCS are now used to sweeten the majority of processed food products found on the kitchen shelves of everyday homes as well as being extensively used in fast food restaurants. Most of these food products target the young adolescents; therefore, it is no surprise that the younger generations are facing greater issues with becoming overweight and obese

The Science Creative Quarterly » OUR SWEET ENDING: HEALTH CONSEQUENCES WITH HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP CONSUMPTION

 

Childhood obesity brings early puberty for girls

12:41 05 March 2007

NewScientist.com news service

 

Increasing rates of childhood obesity may be responsible for a dramatic increase in early-onset puberty in girls, new research suggests. Obese girls, defined as at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) overweight, had an 80% chance of developing breasts before their ninth birthday

Childhood obesity brings early puberty for girls - health - 05 March 2007 - New Scientist

New Data On Fructose-Sweetened Beverages And Hepatic Metabolism

Article Date: 18 Mar 2007 - 0:00 PDT

According to figures published by the World Health Organitzation (WHO), in the year 2015 some 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will suffer from obesity, a pathology which is increasingly being seen in children. In addition, for some time now the high incidence of obesity in developed countries has coincided with an increase in the consumption of beverages sweetened with fructose, a powerful sweetene.]

A team from the University of Barcelona (UB) has recently published a study in the journal Hepatology which provides clues to the molecular mechanism through which the fructose in beverages may alter lipid energy metabolism and cause fatty liver and metabolic syndrome.

 

The study was led by Dr Juan Carlos Laguna of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutic Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, who is also the director of the research group "Nuclear receptors regulating energy metabolism as pharmacological targets", with the participation of Núria Roglans, Laia Vilà, Mireia Farré, Marta Alegret, Rosa M. Sánchez and Manuel Vázquez-Carrera.

. . .

The fructose used to sweeten beverages alters the lipid metabolism in the liver and, according to the authors, represents a calorie overload to which the body's metabolism is unable to adapt. Specifically, fructose increases fat synthesis in the liver and reduces its degradation through action on a specific nuclear receptor (PPARa), which controls fatty acid B-oxidation. "The most novel finding," says Laguna, "is that this molecular mechanism is related to an impairment in the leptin signal. Leptin is a hormone that plays a key role in the body's energy control; among its peripheral actions, it accelerates fat oxidation in the liver and reduces its synthesis."

New Data On Fructose-Sweetened Beverages And Hepatic Metabolism

Posted

Obesity? I found through many years of travel abroad that most people in the world are NOT fat. The ones who are obese are those in the developed countries, the Western world. It is "the white man's burden!"

 

Yes, some are genetically prone to add weight. Myself and my two brothers are genetically incapable of adding fat. It works both way.

 

The current issue of ECONOMIST magazine has an article about biological research done on chickens. They found that chickens put under prolonged stress add a lot of weight. A large percentage of our medical problems are caused and aggrivated by stress. Animals that feel crowded also suffer stress and often die. A good number of the social problems attributed to our society also result from stress.

 

I submit that there is a lot wrong with a society in which the people are all stressed out over a few little people carrying bombs and who make such a dismal failure of their foreign policy as to leave other countries in the failed state we have left them now.

 

charles,

Posted

Hi Charles, no obesity is a problem in the developing world too.

See above, the UN figures and the Indian figures.

 

Interesting point about stress.

I came across this site, which I at first thought very funny http://homeland.gov.safenow.org - what to do in an emergency

but then thought

"Do the Yanks seriously have these real signs around"?

If they do, they must exist in a state of terror!

 

Do you have the link for the article on stress in chickens?

 

This is a funny? sad? satirical? realistic? take on the fast food issue

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Posted
Obesity? I found through many years of travel abroad that most people in the world are NOT fat. The ones who are obese are those in the developed countries, the Western world. It is "the white man's burden!"

 

Yes, some are genetically prone to add weight. Myself and my two brothers are genetically incapable of adding fat. It works both way.

 

I think most people are capable of adding fat; it's more a matter of with what ease, what foods, where in the body, and under what circumstances. These are under the control of genes, but genes express themselves at varying levels in response to signals and environmental cues or circumstances. A dynamic interplay of factors determines the outcome.

 

I have a hunch that weight gain is tied to genes that control cell growth and division, because there's evidence that the genes for insulin and IGF-1, which promote tissue growth and cell division, also increase the risk for obesity, cancer, and heart disease.

 

Insulin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Insulin-like growth factor 1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Foods that raise insulin and IGF-1 are often energy-dense, sweet foods. This includes a lot of junk food, candy, and liquid candy (soda). Worse that fructose doesn't seem to trigger feelings of satiety and may flip on genetic programs to store fat.

 

The current issue of ECONOMIST magazine has an article about biological research done on chickens. They found that chickens put under prolonged stress add a lot of weight. A large percentage of our medical problems are caused and aggrivated by stress. Animals that feel crowded also suffer stress and often die. A good number of the social problems attributed to our society also result from stress.

 

Cortisol for all your worries:

 

Cortisol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I submit that there is a lot wrong with a society in which the people are all stressed out over a few little people carrying bombs and who make such a dismal failure of their foreign policy as to leave other countries in the failed state we have left them now.

 

charles,

 

Hmm, maybe.

Posted
Yes a low calorie diet and exercise helps for a lot; but not all people.

Some fat people put in hospital on these diets PUT ON weight and complain that they are being fed too much!

 

What I have been trying to present in these posts is the SCIENCE behind the obesity epidemic.

Please look at some of the scientific facts. The Times articles are a good starting point.

As long as we cling to our prejudices and outdated social memes about obesity we will never come to grips with the problem. W hich may soon, if ithasen't already become the PLANET'S greatest helth problem. Certainly the most expensive

 

I'll just keep plugging away putting the science here in the hope that someone will read it and the see that obesity is a complex multi-faceted problem. a simple low calorie diet and exercise is not the simple solution.

 

At the risk of repeating my self here is some research and articles from the last 8 weeks.

 

M. D. Anderson wins $8.3-million to research environmental causes of major diseases

 

They're pretty common, unfortunately, and increasingly in everything we eat and drink because of pollution.

 

DDT is known to mimic estrogen and is an endocrine blocker, and it has been used widely all over the world. Messing up hormones isn't good.

 

DDT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It also mentions that DDT and other organochlorines are stored in fat and are concentrated up the food chain. :winknudge:

 

 

This seems to be a genetic tendency. Perhaps natural selection selected for an increased tendency toward energy storage and conservation when Native Peoples came to the Americas in the Ice Ages? A striking example is the Pima Indians of Arizona (just south of my state).

 

Obesity Associated with High Rates of Diabetes in the Pima Indians

 

Arizona Pima Indians are usually obese and have a high incidence of diabetes. Mexican Pima Indians are not overweight and have a very low incidence of diabetes. They're believed to be genetically the same. The differences? Diet and nutrition, habits, and physical activity.

 

 

Extra tissue growth is also related to energy intake and insulin, IGF-1, etc. Fat produces estrogens such as estradiol, which encourage reproductive maturity.

 

Adipose tissue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Estradiol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Women must have a certain amount of body fat at the right ages to start toward reproductive maturity. Too much or too little can disrupt this. I've heard that some female athletes have problems with menstruation because of low body fat and irregular eating:

 

Female Athletes Who Stop Menstruating May Face Heart Disease Risk

Posted

Maikeru,

 

I for one recognize your contribution here to the various immediate causes that may well in at least part explain the growing prevelance of obesity.

 

My concern is not medical investigation but finding out how society is indirectly causing the causes. After all, it is not normal. Has it ever occurred before in human history? If so, why? If it did, is its appearance characteristic of the stage of development of the society?

 

Perhaps, from your medical framework, you are uninterested in the earlier or possible more ultimate causation involved, but do you recognize our society has become loaded with many OTHER social problems as well? There is a growth of dysfuntional families and crime is much higher than a half century ago. The list is long.

 

It seems logical that stress is an ultimate cause of much of all this. There is reason to take a look at the source of the stress. Could it be that we are instinctively evolved as hunting gathering groups and can only adjust to living in such huge social masses by having common beliefs? Could it then be that as this belief system shatters and divides into hundreds and even thousands of odd and different belief systems both religious and secular that people can no longer easily bear the resulting stress?

 

charles, HOME PAGE

Posted
Maikeru,

 

I for one recognize your contribution here to the various immediate causes that may well in at least part explain the growing prevelance of obesity.

 

Thanks Maikeru and Charles finally some discussion of the science rather than our meme-prejudices-urban folklore.

Do you know anything about this hormone?

Thursday, November 02, 2006

DHEA and Weight Loss

 

 

Testosterone and estrogen are not the only hormones implicated in weight gain. Low levels of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), a steroid hormone, have also been linked to increased weight gain. Virtually everyone over age 35 experiences a significant reduction in DHEA. Studies suggest that supplementing with DHEA produces beneficial body composition changes (Villareal et al 2000; Villareal et al 2004).

 

For example, a 6-month trial in aging men and women with low DHEA levels demonstrated that 50 mg of DHEA per day reversed age-related changes in fat mass (Villareal et al 2000).

 

Another study showed that DHEA decreased abdominal obesity and improved insulin action.

Dr. Banas' Blog

This is an interesting blog that lamblasts surgical weight loss solutions,

MSG and fraudulent weight loss pills.

Stress

Is another multi-factorial problem, money stress, social-prestige stress, chemical stress (due to the 40,000+ chemicals floating around in our environment), politically motivated stress (terrorism will kill you, other races will overwhelm you), media induced stress, even science stress (GW will destroy civilization ).

Is there more now than before?

Who knows? How do you test it?

Is it less stressful hunting for your dinner or hoping the crop won't fail this year?

I know many nations of Australian Aboriginals could historically (200 years ago)provide for themselves with about 4 hours work a day. Sounds good to me.

Nowadays they would be about the most stressed-out racial group in Australia; with much social, political and family, disintegration; and that's where now the welfare system will/can provide your food without any work if you so 'choose'.

Posted

There seem to be some correlations between the introduction and use of high-fructose corn syrup in the 1970s up to now, trends in work resulting in less physical activity (and more work-saving devices/technology), increasing urbanization, increase of nutritionally poor fast foods, and a widening gap between the rich and poor, especially with the increase of the poor and the inner-city poor. The poor are those who usually suffer the most health problems (and cannot afford to fix or may not know how to avoid those problems), including being overweight or obese.

 

Socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood and insulin resistance: cross sectional survey using data from British women's heart and health study

 

From the article:

 

"Several studies, mainly conducted in men, have found that poorer childhood socioeconomic position is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, and dyslipidaemia."

 

"Compared with women who were in non-manual social classes in both childhood and adulthood, those in manual social classes at both l stages were 58% more likely to be insulin resistant, 99% more likely to have low high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, 59% more likely to have high triglyceride concentrations, and 2.4 times more likely to be obese; they also had a 75% higher odds of being current smokers."

 

And I don't say this with any bias or prejudice that I know of toward the poor. It is something that we see in everyday life and the news.

 

I don't have enough time to comment on the other trends I brought up, but some Googling will provide clues.

 

Maikeru,

 

I for one recognize your contribution here to the various immediate causes that may well in at least part explain the growing prevelance of obesity.

 

My concern is not medical investigation but finding out how society is indirectly causing the causes. After all, it is not normal. Has it ever occurred before in human history? If so, why? If it did, is its appearance characteristic of the stage of development of the society?

 

Being overweight can be seen as a sign of health, fertility, well-being, or riches. Not in all societies, but in quite a few, probably because it shows that one can afford to be fed well or has the means and excess to spare.

 

Take the Middle Ages in Europe or ancient China (where plump men and women were considered attractive and desirable.) E.g., Yang Kuefei, one of the "Four Beauties" of ancient China, was overweight. Wiki: "Yang Guifei is believed to have had an unpleasant odor...and is also said to have been rather plump (though plump women were considered desirable during the Tang dynasty)."

 

Four Beauties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

And I've heard that Polynesia for a long time has regarded weight as a sign of wealth and status:

 

"In non-Western cultures, fatness often was associated with high status. Polynesian kings were frequently quite fat, while the girls of Banyankole in East Africa were fattened in preparation for marriage like so many Christmas geese. Dr. Watson of Harvard said that when he began doing field work in Hong Kong in the 1960's, women who were slender would not have been marriageable. Neither would highly muscular young men."

 

Who Is Fat? It Depends on Culture NATALIE ANGIER / New York Times 7nov00

 

The problems of weight and obesity now seem the opposite of historical trends. No longer are the rich usually the ones who suffer from being overweight or obese, it is the rest of society, from the poor to the middle class. And the overall trend is toward obesity, obesity in every ethnic group of peoples, of every background, of every nation.

 

Perhaps, from your medical framework, you are uninterested in the earlier or possible more ultimate causation involved, but do you recognize our society has become loaded with many OTHER social problems as well? There is a growth of dysfuntional families and crime is much higher than a half century ago. The list is long.

 

One only needs to look at the disintegration of other cultures and nations throughout history such as Rome, Byzantium, and China. From what I remember, even during the height of the Roman Empire, Caesar Augustus lamented the lack of upright, traditional, nuclear Roman families who bore numerous children and worshipped the state. Despite this fear, the Romans persisted another 400 years. We need to be careful about labeling, thinking about, and analyzing social problems.

 

The reasons for dysfunctional families and crimes are complex and varied, and perhaps some of them tie into factors for obesity (such as low income or lack of education and therefore possible knowledge or interest in health and fitness). I don't know exactly, and I don't comment on them much, as those aren't my areas of study or experience.

 

It seems logical that stress is an ultimate cause of much of all this. There is reason to take a look at the source of the stress. Could it be that we are instinctively evolved as hunting gathering groups and can only adjust to living in such huge social masses by having common beliefs? Could it then be that as this belief system shatters and divides into hundreds and even thousands of odd and different belief systems both religious and secular that people can no longer easily bear the resulting stress?

 

charles, HOME PAGE

 

I think most people find a way to cope with stress (and not necessarily the best methods), and there are increasing stressors and overall stress in life. I'd like to comment more on this, but I need to go to bed (it being dreadfully late now). I'll come back to this after I've mulled over it more.

Posted
Maikeru,

Stress

Is another multi-factorial problem, money stress, social-prestige stress, chemical stress (due to the 40,000+ chemicals floating around in our environment), politically motivated stress (terrorism will kill you, other races will overwhelm you), media induced stress, even science stress (GW will destroy civilization ).

Is there more now than before?

Who knows? How do you test it?

Is it less stressful hunting for your dinner or hoping the crop won't fail this year?

I know many nations of Australian Aboriginals could historically (200 years ago)provide for themselves with about 4 hours work a day. Sounds good to me.

Nowadays they would be about the most stressed-out racial group in Australia; with much social, political and family, disintegration; and that's where now the welfare system will/can provide your food without any work if you so 'choose'.

 

Perhaps stress levels are high in our modern civilization not because there are problems but because people have an increasingly well justified impression that they are not being solved, that it is necessary to exhort and get excited just to make even the most cursory progress on them. This leaves us feeling the job is hopeless, that it is all futile. We feel helpless. We are all so brutally divided by our multitude of different beliefs that we cannot keep alive any feeling of community, brotherliness and "oneness". We feel we are essentially alone and that "society" is a nameless, empty, and in some ways hostile entity, an entity we feel resentment towards because it is failing us. This failure is emotional one because we have evolved as small group social beings and can be happy only when we feel that small group's tight sense of community.

 

charles, HOME PAGE

Posted
It seems that Dads are to blame...

 

 

 

Dads to blame for fat kids | The Daily Telegraph

I can't find that research

I am always a bit wary of Telegraph reports.

Mmaybe it will come out after it is presented at Toronto.

 

I did find this strange research report

Dwyer, T., Hosmer, D., Hosmer, T., Venn, A. J., Blizzard, C. L., Granger, R. H., Cochrane, J. A., Blair, S. N., Shaw, J. E., Zimmet, P. Z. and Dunstan, D., 2007, [1Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.], 'The inverse relationship between number of steps per day and obesity in a population-based sample - the AusDiab study', International Journal of Obesity, vol.31(5), pp.797-804
Posted

I know exactly why people are getting so fat.

Here in Florida, everyone is so comfortable in their own cars and their own houses. Why would they ever want to walk?

There's fast food on every corner...you don't even need to leave the Air Conditioned automobile.

Yum Yum eat 'em up.

Get so full you just want to go home, sit on the couch, and watch TV.

*click* (Que high frequency tv noise)

 

And just about everyone I've observed here drinks alcohol every day.

 

Very few people here are smart enough to be healthy.

Once they're drunk they just ramble on about other people.

People people people. Work work work.

 

I can and will not lump everyone into catagories and stereotypes. I know every human being is different. But....

in a nutshell...

 

Most people in my area are dumb, out of shape, and if I could look at their insides I'd probably vomit.

Posted

If you're ever in Melbourne, perhaps it would be best to avoid the Bogan Burger at the Napier Hotel in Fitzroy...

 

The Bogan Burger has a clearly defined target audience, the bogan... A Bogan is a person who is, or is perceived to be, unsophisticated or of a lower class background. According to the stereotype, the speech and mannerisms of "bogans" indicate poor education and uncultured upbringing. The term is mainly applied to white, working-class people. I think they're just a class of person who likes a good feed every now and then, and this certainly is a good feed! The $15.50 burger's big turkish bread roll is topped with a steak, a chicken schnitzel, a potato cake, bacon, egg, cheese, onion, pineapple and beetroot. Enough to satisfy any bogan, or anyone!

 

Deakin University nutritionist Dr Tim Crowe estimates it would weigh in at 7000 kilojoules...He estimates it would also contain about 94g of fat.

 

SupersizedMeals.com - The Bogan Burger, Napier Hotel, Fitzroy, VIC, AU

Posted

 

Perhaps stress levels are high in our modern civilization not because there are problems but because people have an increasingly well justified impression that they are not being solved, that it is necessary to exhort and get excited just to make even the most cursory progress on them. This leaves us feeling the job is hopeless, that it is all futile. We feel helpless. We are all so brutally divided by our multitude of different beliefs that we cannot keep alive any feeling of community, brotherliness and "oneness". We feel we are essentially alone and that "society" is a nameless, empty, and in some ways hostile entity, an entity we feel resentment towards because it is failing us. This failure is emotional one because we have evolved as small group social beings and can be happy only when we feel that small group's tight sense of community.

 

charles, HOME PAGE

 

I think that stress levels have been high in every society, in every age. The stressors may be different (war, famine, natural disasters, etc.), but people have never had an easy life, never had an ideal life. People have always wanted or dreamed of a "golden age" that never was.

 

While it is true that stress increases cortisol levels, other factors that increase cortisol are a lack of sleep, hormonal disturbances, and a lack of exercise. It simply cannot be pinned upon one culprit--that is, mental stress or psychological distress, whether in an individual or a society as a whole.

Posted
If you're ever in Melbourne, perhaps it would be best to avoid the Bogan Burger at the Napier Hotel in Fitzroy...

 

 

 

 

 

SupersizedMeals.com - The Bogan Burger, Napier Hotel, Fitzroy, VIC, AU

 

7000 kJ? :eek:

 

Hardee's unveils the biggest burger ever - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com

 

Hardees' Monster Thickburger!

 

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! (Dante never seemed more appropriate than now. :))

Posted
7000 kJ? :cup:

 

Hardee's unveils the biggest burger ever - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com

 

Hardees' Monster Thickburger!

 

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! (Dante never seemed more appropriate than now. :))

 

 

Oh my goodness I would so eat that! :doh: BRING ON THE FATTY, HIGH-CALORIE, HEART ATTACK ON A BUN!!! BRING IT ON!!!

:eek::yay_jump::):yay_jump::turtle::yay_jump::cup::yay_jump::cup::yay_jump::hyper::yay_jump::eek::yay_jump:

 

 

I love Fast food... :cup: (It's just my luck I have a super-fast metabolism):D

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