Thursday, August 25, 2005

Obesity Scam Once Again In The News

Once every couple of years some crackpot private organization (happy to use public funds) attempts to promote sluggish book or fitness-related material sales, and if such nonsense fosters the idea of a nanny-state then the liberal media is quite happy to hop aboard to help fleece the public and promote the liberal code that avows that none of us can take care of ourselves without government intervention.

Now we have another "study", this one founded in large part by the Atkins people that shows just how fat we all really are. No one is saying that we're a nation of stick figures, but the data and testing methods used in virtually ALL of these ludicrous studies is questionable at best and downright misleading at worst. The methods used to determine obesity do take take into consideration anything BUT body weight to height, and thusly label such notably fit persons as Arnold Schwarzeneger just too darned fat.

There ARE methods to accurately measure such things, but for the most part they remain relatively expensive and can't be done on the cheap with a mere scale and tape measure. Hydrostatic weighing for example, separates fat from muscle tissue and is an excellent manner to determine the level of obesity, but such a method doesn't make the-sky-is-falling folks any cash and certainly doesn't please the liberal loonies who'd dress us in suits of armor and regulate how we look, how we feel, and ban everything from french fries to milkshakes.

Here's the tale of the tape as seen by the Times:

Obesity Rate Is Nearly 25 Percent, Group Says - New York Times

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