What do you mean by: his condition is not voluntary? Because he recently made the descision to walk everywhere, yet still remains obese his condition is not voluntary?
Bear in mind that having more fat means that the brain gets starved of (glucose)[http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/ObesityBrain2009.pdf] and blood sugar levels have (impacts on the brain generally)[http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/276/5/R1223]. Some research has indicated that the amount of sugar available to the brain has a relationship with self-control. A moderately obese person may have fat cells that steal so much glucose from their brain that their brain is incapable of mustering the will in order to get them to stop eating poorly. Additionally, the marginal fat person is likely fat because of increased sugar consumption (which has been the main sort of food whose intake has increased since the origins of the obesity epidemic in the 1970s), in particular there has been a great increase in the consumption of fructose: which is capable of raising insulin levels (which signal to the body to start storing energy as fat) while at the same time not activating leptin (which makes you feel full). Thus, people are consuming this substance that may be kicking their bodies into full gear to produce more fat: which leaves them with no energy or will to perform any exercise.
The individuals most affected by the obesity epidemic are the poor and recall that some of the cheapest sources of calories available on the market are foods like fructose and processed meats. While there is a component of volition regardless, if the body works as the evidence suggests: they may have a diet that is pushing them quite hard towards being obese, sedentary, and unable to do anything about it.
Think about it this way, if you constantly wack me over the head you can probably get me to do all sorts of things that I wouldn’t normally do: but it wouldn’t be right to call my behavior in that situation “voluntary”. Fat people may be in a similar situation.
He doesn’t want to be morbidly obese. He wasn’t always this way. He doesn’t want to die early and has tried to mitigate his trajectory into an early grave.
How about someone driving a car, skidding on a patch of oil and colliding with the guard rail? Was the collision voluntary? I don’t think so, even if the driver in question habitually speeds and lets themselves get distracted. Add in a broken speedometer, and the analogy is complete. (And note that you can’t take a human body out of commission like you can refuse an inspection sticker on a car.)
So non-obvious side effects of the descision are non voluntary. Colliding from speeding and obesity from overeating/lack of exercise would be arguable non obvious as well.
I would say however that the metaphor with the car may be more accurate if the driver was repeatedly skidding into mailboxes and other small things (apparently the ground has many oil patches), so that when he later on collided with the guard rail it was a rather obvious end result.
I notice you say “overeating/lack of exercise.” I hope one of those two doesn’t indicate careless reading.
I wouldn’t be so glib about adjusting food intake, unless you’ve done it and kept weight off for some time. Usually, people who have done this know it isn’t trivially easy. It’s far from easy. Simply fasting for a set period of time is much easier by comparison.
The overeating/lack of exercise had to do with causes of morbid obesity in general.
I understand that this person has started to walk as a means of counteracting the lack of exercise, or are you referring to something else I may be misreading?
And yes, I understand that adjusting food intake is non trivial. How am I being glib? And how is that relevant to the metaphor?
Morbid obesity does not just spring up on you, your weight gradually changes and your eating patterns likely get worse. It is not at all like a sudden patch of oil.
It would be accurate to describe the situation in terms of a car driver not putting any maintenance into their car. Eventually the car starts to make strange noises. Later on still, the engine light comes on. As years go by, the car is driving slower and slower. Are we really surprised when the engine stops working altogether?
What do you mean by: his condition is not voluntary? Because he recently made the descision to walk everywhere, yet still remains obese his condition is not voluntary?
I am not sure that follows.
Bear in mind that having more fat means that the brain gets starved of (glucose)[http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/ObesityBrain2009.pdf] and blood sugar levels have (impacts on the brain generally)[http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/276/5/R1223]. Some research has indicated that the amount of sugar available to the brain has a relationship with self-control. A moderately obese person may have fat cells that steal so much glucose from their brain that their brain is incapable of mustering the will in order to get them to stop eating poorly. Additionally, the marginal fat person is likely fat because of increased sugar consumption (which has been the main sort of food whose intake has increased since the origins of the obesity epidemic in the 1970s), in particular there has been a great increase in the consumption of fructose: which is capable of raising insulin levels (which signal to the body to start storing energy as fat) while at the same time not activating leptin (which makes you feel full). Thus, people are consuming this substance that may be kicking their bodies into full gear to produce more fat: which leaves them with no energy or will to perform any exercise.
The individuals most affected by the obesity epidemic are the poor and recall that some of the cheapest sources of calories available on the market are foods like fructose and processed meats. While there is a component of volition regardless, if the body works as the evidence suggests: they may have a diet that is pushing them quite hard towards being obese, sedentary, and unable to do anything about it.
Think about it this way, if you constantly wack me over the head you can probably get me to do all sorts of things that I wouldn’t normally do: but it wouldn’t be right to call my behavior in that situation “voluntary”. Fat people may be in a similar situation.
He doesn’t want to be morbidly obese. He wasn’t always this way. He doesn’t want to die early and has tried to mitigate his trajectory into an early grave.
How about someone driving a car, skidding on a patch of oil and colliding with the guard rail? Was the collision voluntary? I don’t think so, even if the driver in question habitually speeds and lets themselves get distracted. Add in a broken speedometer, and the analogy is complete. (And note that you can’t take a human body out of commission like you can refuse an inspection sticker on a car.)
I think I see what you are saying here.
So non-obvious side effects of the descision are non voluntary. Colliding from speeding and obesity from overeating/lack of exercise would be arguable non obvious as well.
I would say however that the metaphor with the car may be more accurate if the driver was repeatedly skidding into mailboxes and other small things (apparently the ground has many oil patches), so that when he later on collided with the guard rail it was a rather obvious end result.
I notice you say “overeating/lack of exercise.” I hope one of those two doesn’t indicate careless reading.
I wouldn’t be so glib about adjusting food intake, unless you’ve done it and kept weight off for some time. Usually, people who have done this know it isn’t trivially easy. It’s far from easy. Simply fasting for a set period of time is much easier by comparison.
The overeating/lack of exercise had to do with causes of morbid obesity in general.
I understand that this person has started to walk as a means of counteracting the lack of exercise, or are you referring to something else I may be misreading?
And yes, I understand that adjusting food intake is non trivial. How am I being glib? And how is that relevant to the metaphor?
Morbid obesity does not just spring up on you, your weight gradually changes and your eating patterns likely get worse. It is not at all like a sudden patch of oil.
It would be accurate to describe the situation in terms of a car driver not putting any maintenance into their car. Eventually the car starts to make strange noises. Later on still, the engine light comes on. As years go by, the car is driving slower and slower. Are we really surprised when the engine stops working altogether?