When did fat become a bad word?
I'm not a linguist but I'd venture to guess that the use of the term fat to describe obesity stems from the nutrition terminology of fat as a component of food intake. Obese animals have high fat content, and many people believe that eating fat will result in becoming fat.
I'm not a nutritionist, but for some reason I'm not so sure about that. I don't subscribe to the Atkins diet, but it did shake up our concepts about fat and protein intake, as well as our concepts of carbohydrates. Recently a friend mentioned that eat fat satisfies our hunger and suppresses the body's yearn for food intake. I don't know if its accurate, but it makes a lot of sense to me!
If this logic is actually accurate, shouldn't "carb" be the bad word? I like carbohydrates because some contain good fiber, but I also like their flavor, and they can provide energy.
Childhood obesity is in the news again thanks to Mrs. Obama's plan to help overweight children. My unqualified opinion is that snack foods, lethargy, and soda is to blame. What do you think?
I'd also recently read that some parents in the United Kingdom were arrested for child abuse because their child was obese, but then later acquitted because a geneticist declared the child's situation an unavoidable genetic disposition. I'm not sure what to think about that.
