What is BMI? Numerical Hocus Pocus

The first thing you need to understand is that in our twilight zone of fat hysteria, I am officially obese, okay overweight. That’s based on the Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement that separates us into government-approved, overweight, and obese categories by taking into consideration only our height and weight. A BMI of 30 or more makes you obese, and at 5-9, 184 pounds, I have a BMI of 27.2.

According to the BMI standard, 61% of America are fat or obese. You have probably heard that number. Along with the claim that obesity costs the United States $117 billion a year and kills 300,000 USA annually, it is one of the three most commonly cited figures associated with our so-called obesity epidemic.

But it’s more like an epidemic of bad statistics. All three of these numbers are seriously flawed.

Thanks to the absurdities of the BMI yardstick, Sylvester Stallone (5-9, 228 pounds, BMI of 34) and Mel Gibson (5-9, 214 pounds, BMI of 32) are “obese.” So was Mark McGwire (6-5, 250 pounds, BMI of 30) the year he hit 70 home runs. And if politics is your thing, you’ll be interested to know that the former Governator of California (6-2, 257 pounds, BMI of 33) is obese, too.

Here’s how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains these counterintuitive results: “Overweight may or may not be due to increases in body fat. It may also be due to an increase in lean muscle.”

It’s not just full-blown obesity that has been bungled by numerical hocus-pocus. 39 million Americans went to sleep one night in 1998 at a government-approved weight, and woke up “overweight” the next morning, thanks to a change in the government’s definition. That group includes presently “overweight” (BMI greater than or equal to 25) movie stars like Will Smith (6-2, 210 pounds, BMI of 27) and Pierce Brosnan (6-2, 211 pounds, BMI of 27). Michael Jordan (6-6, 216 pounds, BMI of 25) and Cal Ripken Jr. (6-4, 220 pounds, BMI of 27) were also “overweight” at the height of their athletic powers.  Moreover, the standard that we abandoned in 1998 had the virtue of distinguishing between men and women–something we now do not even attempt to do.

Is this insanity or just plain bad statistics. The regularly recycled factoid that excess weight causes 300,000 deaths a year bizarrely assumes that if you die while overweight, you die because of that excess weight. As insane as it sounds, if I were to kick the bucket for any reason, my death would count toward the mythical 300,000 total.

The respected New England Journal of Medicine knows this is bogus. It maintains that the 300,000 figure “is by no means well established. Not only is it derived from weak or incomplete data, but it is also called into question by the methodologic difficulties of determining which of the many factors contribute to premature death.”

Nevertheless, this statistic finds its way into nearly every discussion of obesity–as does the spurious claim that obesity costs Americans $117 billion per year. The source of this figure: a single study published by the journal Obesity Research in 1998.

This study had serious limitations, as the authors themselves admitted. They acknowledged that their methodology resulted in the “double-counting of costs” which “would inflate the cost estimate.” There’s also this stunning admission: “We are still uncertain about the actual amount of health utilization associated with overweight and obesity. Height and weight are not included in many of the primary data sources.”

But even if they had good data to work with and somehow controlled for the double (and even triple) counting of costs, these researchers still would have reached a unrealistic conclusion. Why? They used the wrong definition of obesity.

A BMI of 30 or more makes you obese, but the authors of this study for some reason decided to set the threshold at “BMI greater than or equal to 29.” Thus they erroneously included the economic cost of individuals with a BMI between 29 and 30. A small error? Not at all. That covers more than ten million Americans, including Bruce Willis (6-0, 211 pounds, BMI of 29), Brendan Fraser (6-3, 234 lbs, BMI of 29), and George Clooney (5-11, 211 pounds, BMI of 29).

$117 billion cost. 300,000 deaths. 61 percent overweight or obese. All wrong. Unfortunately, these bad statistics are the shaky ground on which a growing number of activist groups seek to build their nutritional utopias. Gotta trust the government, right? Makes one wonder if all those vaccine stories are true...

Want to Get Americans Off Junk Food? Pay Them a Living Wage

Healthy food is expensive and telling people to eat organic, local food is elitist. Have you heard that argument before?

It’s true. Healthy, organic, local food is expensive. Calorie for calorie, you get more for your money at a fast food drive-thru than at a farmer’s market. And the fast food will be cooked and ready to eat, whereas you might need to take your fresh, organic produce home to cook it.

Now, you might say, that’s only a short-term calculation. Today, a $5 burger, fries, and large soda looks like a better deal than a few ounces of spinach, a handful of dried beans, and a bunch of carrots for the same price. But that overlooks the health consequences of either meal. One of these meals, if eaten regularly, will land you in the hospital someday. The other won’t.


Read More...

Are We Being Poisoned? Me Thinks YES!

This really isn't a question... agreed? 

Good mornin'! It's snowing in Texas! Yayyy! But anyway, have you ever taken the time to actually read the ingredients in your products… I'm not referring to scanning across them, but actually checking every single word in a dictionary for example? Have you ever gone further and then taken some of these components to see how they are made or even by whom etc…

Once you start taking an in depth view of this and what exactly daily usage items like Teflon (PFOA and PTFE), PET (PETE) and Tin cans or common food additives such as aspartame, high-fructose syrup and fluoride, GM foods (GMO) in general or then common products such as air-fresheners, cleaners, disinfectants, insecticides, pesticides, shower gel and beauty products all the way to machines like Microwaves, X-Rays and mobile phones are made of, not to mention their origins stemming from the most anti-survival organisations that exist… It's no wonder you're fat, sick and tired! 

Poisoned! 

YOU MUST OBEY! Are You Getting This!

It’s nuts out here, any way you look at it. The shutdown of planet earth is under way. Deliberate and deviously calculated, someone’s closing shop on us while we watch them do it.
Drones…passport confiscations…ubiquitous surveillance…illicit raids and incarceration of private citizens…adulterated food, air and water and outlawing of health products…re-education camps…economic slavery…a micro-managed manipulative media.  You telling me it’s not shutting down like a huge gulag?
Sound fatalistic?  Were the prognosticators fatalists when they forecast the fall of empires, one after another? Let’s get real. Shit happens, empires fall. Period. And we’re in the end of one of them.

From Zen Gardner!

Government Explained!

Does Anyone Care That Babies and Young Children Are Dying?

Hey, it's Marco! More insanity! Or perhaps it's just me! Did you know that very soon, there will be a vaccine for "coke heads," and "cigarette smokers?" You think I'm making this crap up huh?? http://www.gaia-health.com/articles451/000478-vaccines-behavior.shtml
And I'm almost certain that if you can't stand your spouse, there will be a vaccine for that as well...(I'll post that a little later!) I'm kinda busy you know, with work and all. Please cry for me...Listen: Who cares about the babies that die? Our government certainly doesn’t! It is outrageous and tragic that our government and many of our doctors don’t care. Certainly we will never see medical officials caring about the deaths of infants caused by vaccines on a regular basis. The government’s identity has grown to such beastly proportions these days that everyone who is not “them” is an enemy, even the babies. Eff that!
The Babies and Young Children Are Dying :

BIG GOVERNMENT! TRUST THEM WITH YOUR LIFE!

Hey, it's Marco! Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for!! While many individuals and groups have waged a constant and frustrating battle against the coming total seizure and control of food production as practiced by family farmers and ranchers historically, several questions have gone unanswered.  The biggest of all of course is, why?
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/we-cant-trust-our-own-government/

How to Get Fat Without Really Trying! Oh yeah, and HoPpy EaSter!

Hey, it's Marco! Although several years old, the video above still speaks the truth because virtually nothing has changed. If anything, the situation has actually worsened. We are producing more of this atrocious food and there are tens of millions more overweight people. Clearly, US farm subsidies are still greatly promoting obesity by lowering the cost of ingredients that go into processed foods—particularly high-calorie processed foods! Besides, who has time to cook anymore? Fast food! Eat up America! Oh, and HoPpy EaStEr! Bok Bok!