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defrogIn my capacty as an editor for a magazine that covers the telephones industry, I end up on the goddamnedest mailing lists sometimes. Like Commercial Fitness Today, the e-newsletter for a blog covering the fitness industry – which, of course, has nothing to do with telephones.
Technically it’s spam, but I haven’t blocked it yet, because it occasionally veers into entertainingly paranoid directions. For example, it recently linked to a couple of stories having to do with obesity:
Things like this, apparently, make the commercial fitness industry very nervous. Or at least Marc Onigman (the guy who edits the blog), who says that only about 8% of the US pop is enrolled in fitness centers. If scientists and surgeons keep discovering ways to keep people from getting fat, then that’s it for the fitness business – fitness centers will collapse and fitness equipment makers will have to file for Chapter 11.
Then, on his nutrition blog, Onigman complains that the Corporate Chocolate Industry is conspiring to keep the obesity epidemic rolling by pushing chocolate bars that supposedly lower yr cholesterol level. You know it’s a conspiracy, see, because (1) the scientific study backing up this claim was funded by Mars Inc (which makes the chocolate in question), and (2) the mainstream media refuses to report it.
To be fair, he’s right on one point – you shouldn’t take any study seriously when it’s funded by the company that stands to gain from positive results (see: the tobacco industry).
Also, gastric banding sounded like a hideous idea the first time – it doesn’t sound any more appealing now that it’s becoming big business. Still, from a sci-fi/cyborg POV, I do find it morbidly fascinating that we’re resorting to biomedical technology to deal with obesity instead of, say, eating less and exercising more.
DISCLAIMER: For the new readers, I am 50 pounds over my ideal weight, so I’m in no position to criticize obese people. That said, I used to be 110 pounds over my ideal weight and I feel a hell of a lot better for it.
Which is why I’m going to spend this afternoon starting physiotherapy to get my spine readjusted. Again.
Corporate chocolate sucks,
This is dF
Technically it’s spam, but I haven’t blocked it yet, because it occasionally veers into entertainingly paranoid directions. For example, it recently linked to a couple of stories having to do with obesity:
Researchers Examine a Possible Link Between Bacteria
Found in the Human Digestive System and Obesity
Found in the Human Digestive System and Obesity
In the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers from Mayo Clinic Arizona and Arizona State University examine the role that bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract play in regulating weight and the development of obesity ... Several animal studies suggest that gut microbiota are involved in regulating weight and that modifying these bacteria could one day be a treatment option for obesity.
Medical-device makers, venture capitalists and surgeons are racing to turn gastric banding – a weight-loss procedure in which a silicone band is wrapped around the upper stomach to restrict food intake – into the next big thing in elective surgery. Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, VC-backed outpatient centers and surgeons see a vast market in a country where diet and exercise programs have failed to slow an obesity epidemic.
Things like this, apparently, make the commercial fitness industry very nervous. Or at least Marc Onigman (the guy who edits the blog), who says that only about 8% of the US pop is enrolled in fitness centers. If scientists and surgeons keep discovering ways to keep people from getting fat, then that’s it for the fitness business – fitness centers will collapse and fitness equipment makers will have to file for Chapter 11.
Then, on his nutrition blog, Onigman complains that the Corporate Chocolate Industry is conspiring to keep the obesity epidemic rolling by pushing chocolate bars that supposedly lower yr cholesterol level. You know it’s a conspiracy, see, because (1) the scientific study backing up this claim was funded by Mars Inc (which makes the chocolate in question), and (2) the mainstream media refuses to report it.
To be fair, he’s right on one point – you shouldn’t take any study seriously when it’s funded by the company that stands to gain from positive results (see: the tobacco industry).
Also, gastric banding sounded like a hideous idea the first time – it doesn’t sound any more appealing now that it’s becoming big business. Still, from a sci-fi/cyborg POV, I do find it morbidly fascinating that we’re resorting to biomedical technology to deal with obesity instead of, say, eating less and exercising more.
DISCLAIMER: For the new readers, I am 50 pounds over my ideal weight, so I’m in no position to criticize obese people. That said, I used to be 110 pounds over my ideal weight and I feel a hell of a lot better for it.
Which is why I’m going to spend this afternoon starting physiotherapy to get my spine readjusted. Again.
Corporate chocolate sucks,
This is dF
