nd now for the inevitable end result of all this food.  Obesity.  This page collects items from various news posts that relate to food, in a "you can stop eating now, sir" sort of way.  Overweight airplane passengers requiring two seats, fat Atkins doctors dying of heart attacks, Wal-Mart shopping heifers who need two carts to fit all of the frozen hams in... yes, America is a nation of lard butts.

Despite that fact, you'll sometimes see news about fat people in other countries too.

More recent updates are added on top of this page.

October 13, 2002

Article about body image issues for heterosexual and homosexual teens is worth a look.  Basically it just reinforces stereotypes.  The survey concludes that gay boys are more worried about how they look (clothing, body size) than straight boys, and gay girls are less worried than straight girls.

The current findings are based on surveys completed by 10,136 girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 17. The surveys questioned teens about their sexual orientation, weight concerns, tendency to diet and how satisfied they were with their bodies. In addition, the respondents indicated if they had any symptoms of an eating disorder like eating while feeling out of control ("bingeing") or throwing up and using laxatives to rid their bodies of food ("purging").

The most interesting finding is that kids who aren't sure about their sexual preference tend to be the most worried about their appearance of all.  I guess if you are feeling insecure about what you want a partner to look like, you're probably insecure about how you look also.

March 13, 2002

A truly funny article, probably the hardest I've laughed at anything in weeks is here.  It's semi-gross, graphic descriptions of poo, but tastefully done, if that makes any sense.   "Tastefully" in a metaphoric sense, of course.  The premise is that a UK writer and his photographer (though there aren't any pictures with the story?) went on a week's retreat to a purification clinic in Thailand.  Where they endured the regimen of fasting for 7 days, consuming tons of roughage and supplements, and having dozens of enormous enemas.

The human digestive tract is not evolved to deal with the volumes of flesh most humans consume, our bodies can't digest it that quickly, and cubic feet of it back up over time.  Yes, literally feet.  It's a not-uncommon procedure for older people or fat people with intestinal problems to have pounds of crap and partially-digested flesh removed from their lower intestines.  Most anyone could lose 10 or 15 pounds in a few days, all of it just garbage in your intestines.

I've not done it myself, and I've not eaten much flesh for the last decade or so, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have a go.

Anyway, the article isn't exactly evangelistic about the process, but it's very funny.  Humorous and well-written, with some great lines.  Some of the guests dealt with the fasting better than others.

It was of little consolation to Mez, whose hunger had now assumed epic proportions. She was considering eating her apricot moisturiser, she told me.

The descriptions of what they evacuated must be read to be believed.

At least I could contribute to the increasingly competitive enema discussions. Someone had always passed something harder, brighter, more bizarre. Margaret's chopsticks had unearthed some gristle, about a foot long, and hard, black pellets. She was so impressed she took a photograph. A few chalets away, Mez had passed "rubbery brown, fat worms" with a strange purple glaze, which she insisted on showing to me in her bathroom. But the clear winner was Anthony's 22-year-old marble. Perhaps the most bizarre thing, which I didn't appreciate until days later, is that it all seemed perfectly normal at the time.

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.