Seriously?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080110/hl_afp/lifestyleushealthobesity_080110170913

Even if private industry and government take steps to protect society against the costs of obesity, many Americans "will likely continue to choose a diet and exercise regimen that leads to excess weight," because losing weight requires too many lifestyle sacrifices, his book warns.

Seriously?!!!

What if we had taken the same attitude towards smoking?  "Ah, it's just too difficult to quit so let's just all do it...there are great treatments for emphysema..." 

This is such a load of shit.  I love the fact that my health insurance premiums are no subsidizing people with attitudes like this.

"But you can't say if you quit going to the drive-through, exercise more and eat more vegetables, you'll lose weight. There are so many more factors involved."

Sure...and you can't say if you quit smoking you'll have less of chance of getting lung cancer...there are just soooo many more factors involved.

Gotthelf also disagreed that people choose to be obese.

WTF?!  Seriously?  Of course people *want* to be less obese but if wanting something and actually getting your butt on a treadmill or skipping the super-size-me meal at Mickey D's are two very different things.  The latter can actually require these little things called willpower, self-discipline and common sense.

The only logical direction I can see us heading in is different layers of health insurance premiums for obese people.  The fact of the matter is that these people are externalizing the true cost of their lifestyle choices on the rest of society.  In other words, people who make smart decisions about diet and exercise are forced to pick up at least a portion of the cost of those who don't. 

No one's perfect of course but it just seems like this whole issue has approached a level of absurdity that we'll look back on one day and laugh about...assuming we as a species live long enough to do so. :)

Saw Xavier Rudd last night at House of Blues.  Went from a big fan to a huge fan.  If you haven't seen this video yet + want goosebumps then click play.

Someone I went to high school with (and whose sister and father I know pretty well) was killed by a Taser yesterday.  It's really shocking and sad (especially considering the circumstances).  If you have a minute and could Digg the following article I'd really appreciate it.  I'd love to see more awareness of this incident and the issue at large.  Thanks!

http://digg.com/world_news/29_year_old_dies_of_taser_jolt_by_Minnesota_Troopers

Thought this was interesting and wanted to share:

The evidence overwhelmingly points to going vegan as the single best thing I can do to minimize my individual environmental impact, and I made that switch 11 years ago. Pretty much nothing else I can do in my lifetime will come close to that. I can stop driving a car, stop using all water, and stop eating completely, and it won’t make nearly as much difference in terms of resource savings as when I stopped consuming animal products. We expend an enormous amount of resources in the production of animal products. If you ever take the time to look into it, you’ll find it’s pretty insane. On the other hand, if we ever want to free up vast resources and massively curtail pollution, we always have the option of scaling back the billions of feed animals at any time.

Are you aware that nearly half of all the water usage, 1/3 of all fossil fuels, and 80% of all agricultural land in the USA goes to the production of animal products? It’s an incredibly wasteful industry, especially considering that we have to grow most of our crops just to feed those animals. You actually save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for an entire year, not to mention all the other resources consumed and the pollution and waste production. Consequently, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a non-vegan environmentalist is an oxymoron. (If you want to peruse a good source for such stats and details, The Food Revolution is a great place to start.)

More here...

I've been vegan (save a piece of wild salmon last night) for the last 8 days and can't say that it's been hard at all.  I've been making some amazing smoothies, eating some really good salads and going to Real Food Daily a fair amount.

My plan is to continue to eat vegan (with the exception of fish) through the end of the month.  I don't think it's going to be very hard.

Maybe *you* should give it a shot? :)

This stat will be one I'll reference a bunch in the future. :)

Producing 1kg of beef results in more CO2 emissions than going for a three-hour drive while leaving all the lights on at home, scientists said today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/19/climatechange.climatechange

Awesome.

Shell is expected to announce earnings of £13.4billion today - the biggest-ever profit by a British company.

Shell's 'obscene' £13.4billion profit breaks British record

Makes a person wanna scrap it all and go help out Shai Agassi.