Cubans are no strangers to the battle of the bulge. Waistlines have expanded since the economic crisis of the early 1990s eased on the communist-run island - so much so that 30 percent of adults are now overweight, a newly released government study reveals.
Some people outside Cuba hold on to a stereotype of malnourished Cubans waiting in lines for a few potatoes, but there's ample evidence to the contrary in Havana, where bulging waistlines are stuffed into snug skirts or peek through too-tight guayabera shirts.
"People eat lots of things like pizza and bread that fill you up, but put on a lot of weight," said Lucia, a plump housewife who didn't want her last name used, saying she was embarrassed about her weight and uncomfortable talking publicly about something as political as food. "If you want to go on a diet it's hard because vegetables and fruits cost a lot," she said. I can afford fruits and vegetables, Lucia, and it's still tough!
In Cuba, as elsewhere, "obesity and excess weight represent a serious public health problem," causing conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart troubles, said the study by Cuba's Nutrition and Food Safety Institute.
Released by state media this month, the 2004 study focused on urban areas, where three-quarters of Cubans live. The study said 30 percent of Cuba's men and 31 percent of its women are overweight, and that about a fourth of the island's 11.2 million people have a tendency toward obesity. Those most likely to be overweight are in their 50s, it added.
An estimated two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, according to U.S. federal statistics. So we're winning the battle of the bulge.
More at link.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2007 06:30 ||
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#1
We adopted a stray dog off the street. Slim, sleek and handsome, he was. Now, even on a strict diet and exercise program, he's fat. He'll practically inhale anything (even possibly) edible placed before him. Our other dog, aquired as a puppy slightly earlier, is slim and eats more food, more fattening food, and more slowly.
Perhaps some behavioral and metabolic 'switches' were set early in their lives, one for a life of hardship and scarcity, and the other for a life of ease and plenty? Is there a similar 'switch' in humans? It makes sense that there should be - fat is unhealthy in 'fat' times, but essential to survival in lean times.
#2
There's definitely something going on. It has reached "raging epidemic" proportions, and I don't buy the "just exercise more" line of bullshit that the CDC spews whenever anyone asks the question. There has to be more to it than that.
#3
Bigjim - I suspect the weight problem has its roots in youth:
1) too little physical activity (even recess has been taken out of many schools). When we were kids we were always outside, running around in the woods, DOING stuff, but now it's not 'safe', so the most kids get is a supervised hour a week at the neighborhood playground on rubber-cushioned swings and a 4' slide. Instead they sit home watching tv or playing video games.
2) too much junk food. When I was a teen I would go to McDonald's (or equivalent) as often as I could - which came to about once a week; today's teens seem to go at least once a DAY. Same applies at home - my Mom would bring home maybe a dozen cans of soda a week, for all of us to share, and that only during the summer - seems like a lot of kids drink that much EACH, year-round.
3) hormones and other additives in food. Growth hormones and antibiotics in chicken feed etc. has to get through to our highly hormone-sensitive kids; I have no clue what effect that might have, but would be surprised if there was not one.
#4
Uh, guys, it's diet and exercise. The CDC isn't spouting bullshit; they're telling us something we don't want to hear.
I lost 100 lbs purely by watching my diet. I'm adding exercise to knock down the last 16. It really is that simple.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/18/2007 9:40 Comments ||
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#5
It's diet, exercize AND THE GOV'T NANNY STATE complex.
Hey if I get to redefine the standard I can make most anyone fat, or thin or have high blood pressure or, or, or.
The latest "index" is as much a fraud as the old charts, and they keep saying you're too fat!!!!!
As in so much of Nanny Statism there is no room for individuality or flexibility in the results or measurements...this keeps the bureaucrats in business and the lobbyists & hucksters in the black.
#6
Hey, thats what rice, beans, rum and cigars will do to you.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/18/2007 9:58 Comments ||
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#7
It's simple: calories in less calories out equals net weight change. Several other variables influence calories out, metabolism, exercise, etc. But it is simple.
#8
I just want a pill to make the problem go away. Is it too much to ask? The drug companies have one but are holding out on us so they can reap the benefits of everyone being overweight, I'm sure! /sarc
Anyway, the fact that even cubans are overweight suggests that it will be a good thing when grain prices skyrocket when methanol production goes into full swing. Help from an unlikely quarter! :-)
#10
According to the way they judge obesity most of the NBA and NFL are obese. That tells me the numbers are questionable and they need to judge body fat index or something similar and not whatever they are doing.
Another problem I have noticed personally is soda. I drink Diet Coke which is fine, but it makes me crave something salty so fighting off the chip or fries cravings that follow becomes extra difficult. Salty food then makes you want a soda so it becomes a cycle of violence.
#12
Glenmore is on to something in #1. We have 'set points' where the body tries to maintain its' weight. When I was 19, it was 145 pounds. You can stuff yourself on Thanksgiving, and it'll come back off in a few weeks. If you keep stuffing yourself, or start sluffing off the exercise, your 'set point' eventually goes up.
But NS and Rob are correct, too, except as noted above. Since I quit smoking 3 times - at 25 pounds a pop - it's really hard to take it off, because my 'set point' has been raised. Aside from the 'stop smoking' part, I've only gained 25 pounds in (almost) 40 years. The problem is, the 25 is on top of the 75!
That's also why if you try yo lose weight with diet alone, it's so hard - your fighting your evolution driven, Darwin-given "set point'. Your metabolism slows down to keep a little fat for the upcoming poor harvest. Those that could store fat better lived longer - thousands of years ago, anyway.
I haven't seen a poor harvest in 40 years - tell that to my metabolism!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2007 13:22 Comments ||
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#13
Mikey Moore (Sicko) told us Cuba was a commie medical paradise. Probably no friggin Santa Claus either.
#15
Congratulations, Rob, on that first 100 lb! I know how hard you've worked for that achievement, as your occasional little comment here over the months revealed. You are an example to us all.
It's simple: calories in less calories out equals net weight change. Several other variables influence calories out, metabolism, exercise, etc. But it is simple.
That's true for those with close to normal biochemistry and physiology, Nimble Spemble dear. In my case, however, my weight went up over the course of four years from 120 lb to somewhat over 140 lb, a bit much for my almost 5' (152 cm) frame, even as my consumption went down to a bowl of cereal with 1% milk for breakfast followed by a bowl of Campbell's Soup for lunch and two Hot Pockets or the equivalent for dinner, plus 20-90 min. on the exercise bicycle, holding my pulse rate between 130 and 150/min... daily. However, it turned out that the weight gain resulted from decreasing production of growth hormone by my pituitary gland; when that was supplemented, I dropped five pounds within days, a significant percentage for me. When a diuretic was added to offset the water retention caused by the growth hormone (side effects can be so amusing), I dropped another five pounds overnight, even though by this point I'd had to significantly cut back on the exercise. So clearly set point wasn't my issue. Supplementation of other too-low hormones resulted in the loss of a bit more... once medical science develops the ability to clone me a new pituitary all of those problems will evaporate.
Mr. Wife's offered to give me a tummy tuck or whatever for my birthday, but it seem rather pointless when my condition wants a heavy fat layer, regardless of my efforts. Besides, surgery hurts, and I've no pain threshold so speak of. ;-)
#18
And the kids don't get out anymore. There's a road near me, less than 1000 feet long, where maybe a dozen cars come up the road to pick them up when the bus drops them off. The parents won't even walk to fetch them, much less let them walk home with their friends. They go from being lined up at the computers at school to being lined up at the computers at home.
#19
That's also why if you try yo lose weight with diet alone, it's so hard - your fighting your evolution driven, Darwin-given "set point'. Your metabolism slows down to keep a little fat for the upcoming poor harvest.
True, but there's a "magic point" where you don't trip into starvation mode. Weight Watchers changed their program this year; the net result is that men get 300-400 extra calories a day. I was slowing down, even gaining a little, and changed what I was eating to fit the new program. I'm still losing, maybe slow, but it's a lot easier.
It also matters WHAT you eat. Fiber helps you feel full longer; protein helps you feel full longer; water helps you feel full longer.
It also helps to take the occasional break. I don't diet when I'm on vacation. I may put on some weight, but it lets me enjoy some of the foods I've avoided the rest of the year.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/18/2007 19:32 Comments ||
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Just a calibration test. Pay no attention.
TEHRAN, Iran A 5.6-magnitude earthquake shook Iran's central desert on Monday, residents and state television said.
The quake was felt in the capital, Tehran and in several other cities for about seven seconds starting at nearly 6 p.m. local time, residents said. Its center was near the central Iran town of Qom, in a sparsely populated area, and state television had no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake's epicenter was 18.64 miles below the earth's crust, state TV said. Life appeared to have returned to normal by late afternoon in the capital.
Magnitude-5 quakes have been known to topple buildings in densely populated Islamic areas, but the quake on Monday seemed to have hit hardest in a largely desertic zone.
Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake everyday on average. In March 2006, three earthquakes and nine aftershocks hit western Iran, in quick succession, killing at least 70 people and injuring about 1,200.
#3
You did invent those telephone numbers, Anonymoose? I'd hate for some innocent bystander to start getting hate-filled calls in Persian accents each time his mother's house quivers, back home in the village.
#8
The funny thing is, Halliburton could most likely take out Iran by itself with the mercenaries on the payroll. Phear our multi-national corporations, Iran!
#10
If it's the real Halliburton, I s'pose they can handle a few deranged phone calls. They do have the appropriate staff for such things, as DarthVader mentioned. ;-)
#12
Dear god, Moose, the staff who have to answer the phones over the next couple of days will be cursing you, in a most professional and under-the-breath manner!
Still, very funny, very apt. It's just that the sense of humor in certain circles is not all that robust...And like TW, I am afraid that someone will reveal this peculiar lack; I worked in an Air Force PA office, and I know they are out there!
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Angel Cabrera marked it yesterday as well:)
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/18/2007 9:59 Comments ||
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#2
Not sure if today's Great Britain could pull the same victory, or even if it would. Good for the brits though, it sure was a nice accomplishment (and scr*w those argentinians and whatever claim of ownershop they have).
#1
In contrast with the presidential elections which inspired a record-breaking turn-out of close to 85 per cent, participation was poor in both rounds of the parliamentary vote, with abstention rates of around 40 per cent.
The no-shows gave the socialists the edge they needed, it appears.
More than a dozen armed men stormed into the house of relatives of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in Quetta and harassed them, the family said on Sunday. About 12 to 15 armed men broke into my house Saturday night after tying the guard with ropes and they asked my mother at gunpoint about me, Justice Chaudhrys nephew Rana Amir, who is also a lawyer, told AFP. He said they werent robbers as they took nothing away, and they left behind a Kalashnikov. I saved myself by hiding in a bathroom, Amir said, adding that he feared that had they found me, they would have killed me. Amir said they appeared to be intelligence agencies men who kept on harassing my family. Police are investigating the incident.
#1
They sound like real pros. Forgot to check the bathroom, right out of a cheap detective magazine. They they left an AK!? I hope they didn't have to sign for that gun.
PARIS Regime change for Iran may be a dead letter in the loftiest councils of world affairs, but as a prime goal, it is very much alive in the plans of some 200 exiled Iranian dissidents who gathered here in a basement conference hall these past three days to launch a movement they are calling "Solidarity Iran."
Inspired by the Polish Solidarity union movement that helped bring down communist rule in the 1980s, the aim of this new Solidarity is to give a more coherent shape and identity to the diverse and often fractious Iranian dissident diaspora. Brought together by about half a dozen organizers of various political stripes, the participants are seeking to devise more and better-coordinated ways of boosting efforts by people within Iran itself to replace the country's terrorist-sponsoring and brutal Islamic regime with secular, democratic rule.
The obstacles are enormous. But as diplomats in Europe and America maneuver to cut deals with the Iranian regime that focus on its nuclear program and dignify its officials, the single most important contribution of this new Solidarity movement may be the insistence of its participants that no such deal will suffice to stop the poisonous influence and terrorist activities of the Iranian theocracy.
They say the regime they refer to it as "the Islamic Republic" must go.
The organizing document for the conference declares: "We consider the system of Islamic Republic incorrigible and we think that the establishment of democracy in Iran is conditional upon the abolishment of that regime."
The Iranian regime has "created a wall of separation between the Iranian people and the international community," said one of the organizers, U.K.-based Hossein Bagherzadeh, who left Iran in 1981, two years after the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian people want to join the free world; the free world must respond," he said.
Following less diverse meetings in Berlin in 2005 and London in 2006, this conclave brought together, in some cases for the first time, Iranian-born exiles from a wide array of beliefs and affiliations some of whom have in past years been at each other's throats, and in some cases on each other's hit lists.
Participants came from places as far-flung as Canada, America, Europe and in a few cases from inside Iran itself. Some had tales of relatives murdered by the regime; some had been beaten and imprisoned before leaving the country. One man lifted his pants leg just enough to show the scars on his ankles from torture at the hands of the Islamic regime. The assembly included leftists, monarchists, ethnic minorities, former student leaders and former adherents of the Islamic regime. There were plenty of women; some wore skirts. There was not a veil in sight.
Unlike the leaders of the original Polish Solidarity, most of those launching Solidarity Iran are forced to operate from outside the country. But some of the participants pointed out that they hope to turn their diversity and distance to advantage looking for ways from their vantage in the free world to help protesters inside Iran coordinate both with the outside world and with each other.
"There are thousands of circles of protest inside Iran. The government of Iran does not allow them to connect to each other," said one of the conference organizers, Shahriyar Ahy, a spokesman for Reza Pahlavi, the American-based son of the former Shah ( Mr. Pahlavi did not attend the gathering).
Most of those at the Paris gathering are opposed to military action to remove the Islamic regime. But not all. One attendee, Faramarz Bakhtiar, who left Iran in 1998 and now lives in Germany, says "We cannot free Iran like Ukraine happened, or Poland." Mr. Bakhtiar, whose uncle (later assassinated) was prime minister under the Shah, says the "the only way that these mullahs will go away is by military," and suggests combining such non-violent activities as those proposed by Solidarity Iran with the bombing of such places inside Iran as terrorist training camps and the nuclear facilities at Natanz. In broken English he delivers a clear message: "When mullah is plus atom, the whole humanity is in danger."
A woman who came from inside Iran, attending under a false name to reduce the risk of retaliation from the regime upon her return, said that the United Nations sanctions to date have made no dent at all. She suggests that given the miserable economic conditions created by the regime itself, a complete embargo on Iranian oil sales however that might be achieved could topple the mullahs in a matter of months. Noting, like many here, that the only real solution to the Iranian regime's terrorist-wielding war-mongering ambitions is to get rid of theocratic rule, she asks: "Why is the problem of the atomic bomb more important than human rights?"
Much remains to be done before Solidarity Iran might make a serious mark. Simply arriving at an agreement to go forward entailed much debate among members of this gathering, at one point till 4:30 in the morning. As the meeting drew to a close, a 20-member council was elected, which will now choose a seven-member executive board tasked with coordinating genuine action.
One participant, an Iranian-born economist now living in Britain, compared the creation of this new Solidarity to the act of pressing down the accelerator of a car not yet in gear. But if nothing else, these dissidents came from near and far, and sidelined many deep differences, to agree on a call from Paris that the vital task is not to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, but to get rid of it.
#3
This delay is for several weeks, as opposed to several years by Airbus.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/18/2007 9:34 Comments ||
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#4
I heard that it is "the bathrooms" that are the problem. It seems the gay community wants bidets installed in all toliets.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/18/2007 10:03 Comments ||
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#5
It's the prayer room, they are having trouble keeping it oriented towards mecca.
Posted by: Sherebmanper Scourge of the Platypi1150 ||
06/18/2007 12:42 Comments ||
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#6
redesigning the foot washing stations?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
06/18/2007 12:44 Comments ||
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#7
Asked about Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois's call for Boeing to take part in an industry conference on protecting the environment, Carson said he shared his concerns.
#8
FWIW: one of Boeing's key partners in the aircraft; Vought, recently fired (resigned??) their VP in charge of 787 due to production 'issues.' Vought has a large part of the fuselage and without the tube it can't fly...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Cubans are no strangers to the battle of the bulge. Waistlines have expanded since the economic crisis of the early 1990s eased on the communist-run island - so much so that 30 percent of adults are now overweight, a newly released government study reveals.
More than a dozen armed men stormed into the house of relatives of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in Quetta and harassed them, the family said on Sunday. About 12 to 15 armed men broke into my house Saturday night after tying the guard with ropes and they asked my mother at gunpoint about me, Justice Chaudhrys nephew Rana Amir, who is also a lawyer, told AFP. He said they werent robbers as they took nothing away, and they left behind a Kalashnikov. I saved myself by hiding in a bathroom, Amir said, adding that he feared that had they found me, they would have killed me. Amir said they appeared to be intelligence agencies men who kept on harassing my family. Police are investigating the incident.
