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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robohogs who wrote (1022)	2/20/2006 3:38:29 AM
From: Lady Lurksalot	Respond to of 42652

Jon, "I am not sure that charging more for someone who smokes is such a bad thing - folks have known it was not good for a very long time. " If you truly believe this, then you have bought into the dogma and mantra. My admittedly uncredentialed opinion is that smoking or not smoking is not the end-all and be-all of health or lack of health. "But the problem is it sets a precedent for future "issues" such as overweight/obesity/diabetes/etc." Exactly what I said. "I personally believe that the government/doctors are somewhat responsible for some of the diabetes/obesity issues with the ill-conceived old food pyramid and its unintentional heavy reliance on processed carbs. Many people who are fat or obese really do try and control their weights but the low fat/low calorie diets do not seem to work for them. I know that I personally can run 4 times per week and cut back to 1500-2000 calories per day and still not lose weight if there are too many of the wrong foods (and those wrong foods for me are heavily processed carbs)." Two part answer: Cookbooks are not always good for recipes and most defnitely not good for administering individual health decisions. It is best not to become a true believer and buy the party line as to what the government or other vested interests and entities want to spoonfeed us WRT our health. "I also believe that someone who is overweight (not obese though) but fit is probably going to cause fewer cost health issues/cost issues than a slim non-exercising person. How do these lines get drawn?" How do these lines get drawn? Cookbooks rule, sadly, as do actuarial tables. "PS A 5-10% overweight newly religious exerciser." Good for you! But don't try to overdo it. Be patient with yourself in this regard. - Holly