While reading a blog entitled Eat To Live Or Live To Eat? on Getfitslowly.com I was reminded of a program I saw recently that adressed this idea specifically. The program was entitled “I eat 33,000 calories per day.” It interviwed 4 different people who were morbidly obese tipping the scales at over 550 pounds each. Each one of them was bedridden and could not leave their house or even walk without assistance due to their enormous size and weight.

                This article “Eat to live or live to eat?” describes a relationship that some people develope with the foods they choose to eat. Some people use these foods as a comfort tool and coping mechanism for dealing with life’s problems. Most of the time people like this enjoy eating unhealthy foods with saturated fat and sugar content. Unfortuneatly behavior like this leads to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

            All of the people in this show had these health problems and were doing nothing to change their situation for the better. Their weight also opened the door to a host of other health issues such as increased heart size, constriction of the lungs (leading to problems with breathing), issues with blood circulation, and the inability to walk without assistance.

             One man who weighed in at over 700 pounds could not leave his bed and had to be removed from his home at one point with a forklift. His family cooks for him on a daily basis and his grocery bill usually goes up to 200 dollars per day. He eats eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, french toast, burgers, french fries, steaks, potatoes, pizzas, hot dogs, pastas, and chinese food along with four gallons of kool-aid and iced sweet tea every single day. He breaths with the help of an oxygen tank that delivers air through his nasal passages. Even though he continues to gain weight he says that he loves eating and that he will continue his eating habits even if it means an early death.

             This problem of obesity and an overall “live to eat” mentality is growing more and more common not only in America but in other countries around the world. The people in this program were all from the U.K. I believe that the number of weight related deaths will only increase in the years to come as more people don’t take the time to better their eating habits and prepare nutritous meals for themselves on a daily-basis. Fast food chains all over the world make it easy to get a “quick fix” of garbage food rather than spending the time and money to eat healthy but at the same time they are not the ones that should be blamed for this problem. People need to take more responsibility for themselves if they wish to preserve their lifespan and remain in “good shape.”

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Comments

5 Responses to “Those who live to eat.”

  1. jag1 on December 10th, 2008 1:37 pm

    i find your topic very interesting

  2. katt on December 10th, 2008 6:15 pm

    I have seen that show and I really feel bad for those people. How do you let yourself get that out of control?

  3. Edilia on December 10th, 2008 7:31 pm

    It’s true, people are becoming bigger and bigger, and you could be right, some people may live by that “live to eat” philosophy, but I also believe that the fast moving world has a major contribution to it. Everyone is on the run everyday and junk food just seems to be more accessible.

  4. 561akathefinest on December 10th, 2008 10:37 pm

    its true people have to control the amount of food that they are eating

  5. Edilia on December 11th, 2008 10:33 pm

    To finish on my last comment- time is one reason why people are eating alot but television is another reason. Not only do more people eat in front of the t.v and eat, but as they do, they don’t pay attention to how much they are eating or even to when their own body is giving them sighs that they are full. Also, all these commercial for burger king, mcdonalds, pizza hut, etc are aiding our people in becoming huge. How come we don’t aire commercials with a healthy tip of the hour or something like that, telling our people what types of foods to eat, the exercise that can be done, and other ways to keep healthy. Instead we see commercial praisng the dollar menu at McDonalds. How sad!!!

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