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Obits.

cooby Aug 31 2018 01:49 AM

I’ve been reading the obituaries every day lately. I don’t know whether it’s because my mom and my husbands dad are elderly or what. We are both in our 50s. But it seems people are dying younger

Fman99 Aug 31 2018 11:42 AM Re: Obits.

cooby wrote: I’ve been reading the obituaries every day lately. I don’t know whether it’s because my mom and my husbands dad are elderly or what. We are both in our 50s. But it seems people are dying younger I wonder what percentage of the people in this country are suffering with health problems due to poor diet and a lack of exercise? I've been walking around the NYS Fair a lot the past ten days and maybe it's just more on display there, but I feel like people don't do the things they could/should do to prolong their own lives.

Benjamin Grimm Aug 31 2018 11:56 AM Re: Obits.

I think it just tends to jump out at us more when we see that someone died at the age of 45 than when we see that someone died at 85. There have always been people who died young, and I have to think it was more common in the past than it is now. And to Fman's point, I remember in 2012 I spent two and a half weeks in Southern Africa. (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Namibia.) And when we got home, and went to a public art show in a local park, I was struck by how many old people and fat people (and old fat people) that I saw. It wasn't until then that I realized that such people were very rarely seen in Africa. There they don't have the luxury of overeating or living to an old age.

Edgy MD Aug 31 2018 01:14 PM Re: Obits.

Yeah, but there is strong evidence that the mortality rate of, in particular, white males is going up, up, up. More suicides. More drug abuse.

MFS62 Aug 31 2018 01:27 PM Re: Obits.

Yes, its hard not to notice the big guts. I blame lack of exercise and ads for sugary products that get kids into unhealthily eating habits early. As Casey Stengel once said, "Most of the people my age are dead". Later

Lefty Specialist Aug 31 2018 02:52 PM Re: Obits.

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, but there is strong evidence that the mortality rate of, in particular, white males is going up, up, up. More suicides. More drug abuse. The death rate among white males 45-55 has been going up for 15 years straight. And it's being driven by non-college educated men who've seen employment opportunities dry up.

cooby Aug 31 2018 06:24 PM Re: Obits.

Oh god. the pictures of groups in our local paper are horrible. Even teenagers. Absolutely obese. And most pictures around here of course lately, are of county fairs, and most of the people in the pictures are eating.

Frayed Knot Sep 02 2018 01:15 PM Re: Obits.

The number of obese people -- and I'm not using that term lightly -- I see on a daily basis is stunning. It's great that supermarkets and shopping malls regularly provide riding carts for those who need them. But it's sad that a decent sized place needs to stock around 20 of them because, instead of just the old, the infirm, or the injured who need them, so many younger folks need them (or simply want them) as well because they're just too big to walk from one end of the store to the other. It seems to me that when I was a kid in school there was one fat kid in every class. ONE! I mentioned watching a Lynyrd Skynyrd documentary a week or so ago. And, not surprisingly, there's a lot of footage from outdoor, southern concerts where the audience contains hordes of shirtless guys and barely covered girls. Now granted, these are mostly kids, but you don't see one fat person in the entire shot(s). And that was four decades ago, not four centuries. But at least most of the fat kids today cover themselves in tattoos so their attractiveness is enhanced in a way so you don't even notice the excess blubber. Oh wait.

cooby Sep 03 2018 12:10 AM Re: Obits.

Exactly! We have a column in our paper called ‘Old picture Album’ and lately they’ve been putting in pix from the early ‘90s and though the hairstyles are stunning, the real eye opener is the slimness of MOST of the people, even the middle aged. Now I’m not saying I’m still a slender reed, like I was even 10 years ago. I’m in my 50s and I know that makes a difference But I watch what I eat and although I am not exactly an athlete I do stay fairly active between swimming, gardening, walking around, babysitting, etc In other words, the same stuff the middle aged people of the 90s did. I swear it’s the food additives

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 04 2018 03:42 PM Re: Obits.

yes there's some evidence it's the processed food revolution which made food incredibly cheap -- and supermarkets large enough to require motorized carts for disabled people to travel within -- but is loaded with unintended consequences.

Frayed Knot Sep 05 2018 09:22 PM Re: Obits.

Also, there were various government actions designed to slow down weight gain by the American public -- subsidized high-fructose corn syrup for instance -- which wound up having the exact opposite effect. The road to hell ... good intentions ... yadda, yadda So this week I saw a couple kids -- obviously brothers, maybe 9 & 7 (I can't tell anymore) -- wearing matching t-shirts with one of those cartoon turtles on the front and the expression I'M INTO FITNESS. On the back, though, is the punchline: INTO FITTIN'THIS PIZZA IN MY MOUTH -- a line which might have been a bit more funny if both kids weren't already fat!! Now maybe it's bad genetics in that case, but you're also 9 & 7 and virtually everything you're taking in should be being used for growth at that stage, as in UP rather than out.