Monday, September 27, 2010

Stupid = Fat + Sick?

Just a quickie to point you to a great "tell it like it is" article at the Huffington post. Link below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-stoneman/post_868_b_720398.html

The short version: before taking "expert" advice, check their shoes . . . and their motivations. I'll repeat it again: the only person who truly has your best interests at heart is YOU. Everyone else has some other axe to grind. Once in awhile you might luck out and find an "expert" whose goals are aligned with yours, but don't hold your breath.

6 comments:

praguestepchild said...

Not too bad, some to nitpick with of course: I'm not into blaming corporations, and I don't need to read some Welsh woman's upcoming book because I already read Good Calories, Bad Calories, among others.

Still, seems to show the idea that SFAs are not bad is getting more mainstream.

Dave said...

@praguestepchild,

I didn't get the impression Stoneman was blaming the corporations, rather the people that blindly follow their "advice". At any rate, I agree with you - ultimate blame generally lies with the consumer, whether you're talking about government or corporations.

praguestepchild said...

Well, this strikes me as bit too conspiracist:

"... industries (with a combined net worth and power exceeding many actual countries), need a vital supply chain to survive, we can safely say that they will probably work out how to get it.

They need fat people. So what do they do?

People in America like to think that they eat with freedom. Ultimately, however, they can only pick what is presented to them, and what they can afford."


They need fat people? People can only pick what is presented to them? Last time I was in the States it was damn easy to buy healthy food, grass-fed beef, pastured ghee, etc. Way easier than it is here. This and similar statements seem to shift responsibility away from the individual. People in America eat with plenty of freedom, probably more than anywhere else on earth, at least in my experience.

"Why are these gargantuan companies -- whose only intention is to make money, not make you healthy -- allowed to fund the ADA?"

Their only intention is to make money? Oh noes! What should their intention be? To do our thinking for us because we can't be bothered to pay attention to what we put into our bodies? Should they be allowed to fund the ADA? Not in my opinion, because I don't believe there should be an ADA.

praguestepchild said...

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to shoot the messenger or anything, just pointing out some problems I have with the tone of the article even if I agree with the general message.

I haven't seen Stoneman's shoes but I have some doubts about them ;)

Gina said...

Stoneman....I have my doubts. Everybody has a part of the blame.

Dana Seilhan said...

Um, I had to find out about grass-fed beef by wandering around the Internet and happening across some links and going, "Oh, this is interesting, let me see what this is about." What about all the people who haven't had that luck? Luck is what it was.

People can only pursue something they know about. If they don't even know about it, how will they choose it?

It's not the end consumer who sets food policy. End consumers were quite happy obtaining grass-finished beef back when that's all you could get. They're not the ones who changed that. End consumers were happy eating lard and tallow until they became labeled unhealthy and therefore difficult to find. (Yes, it's easy to find lard in a grocery store. Now try finding unhydrogenated lard. This is the one reason I don't keep it on hand. I don't have time to shop five grocery stores in one day.) The end consumers were not the ones who removed those foods from the store shelves. If the end consumers demanded that removal it was only after their opinion was manufactured for them by the health and agribusiness "experts."

You all need to learn a little more about social privilege (what about people who can't even afford a computer or the time in a library at *their* computers to sit around surfing going "oh, what's that about? *click*"?) and about the ways public opinion is manipulated and manufactured.

If there's one single solitary item in your home that is not necessary to sustain your life and isn't even particularly useful for your daily living or entertaining when you're bored, you've been suckered too.