"FAT" gene versus lack of self-control...how did our parents do it?

Question

It seems like virtually every anomoly can now be placed on the fault of a "gene", and NOT the individual...

Did the human being somehow just genetically mutate in the past 30-40 years(versus the past 10,000,000 years)...why did our parents drive small cars...didn't have diabetes...didn't need LIPO...or plastic surgery...or American Idol for a value system(or gross-consumerism as a way of life).

Maybe our parents were not as stupid as we think...maybe were just swallowing a new pack of lies and distortions to "validate" our incredibly poor choices we have made.

I don't think lack of self-control is a disease...it's a sell-out.

Answer 1

We live in a world that where people blame everything on anything or just live in denial. People have become too involved with the problems that they forget to look at how they are causing their own problems. There is no fat gene just like there is no chemical imbalance that causes depression. Like my teacher told my class in radiology sometimes there are unknown causes for illness but people feel better if you give them a reason so they will tell you your skin problem is a spider bite. This is wrong but people will believe so much if they are told to.

I don't think our parents were smarter I think they didn't have as much propaganda and advertising to deal with. Big businesses have become more greedy and try to rip off the little guy at every chance they can. Have you ever tried to do a rebate it is very tricky and they get away with that all the time. If anything I have known is our parents are the more gullible ones. The war in Iraq is also a lie I saw questions about why don't we pull out of there and the best answer was "well it would be really messy and complicated but its hard to explain" and that is an answer? Someone told them that just like someone told us too buy big SUVs and whatever other crap they want us to buy/believe.

Now days you have to be smarter than to just do what we are told and see through everything they tell us. Most people need to wake up and see that if they eat too much junk food they will be fat and they will teach their children the same eating habits and they will be fat too. Of course most people don't realize that most of what they eat is basically FDA approved poison but if they try they could find out what is unhealthy, but most people believe that they would be poisoning us but they really are after money and don't actually care about our health.

Medication for depression is a joke ask a psychiatrist they will tell you that they are not meant to cure you. Isn't just easier to say chemical imbalance than to see what you are doing to cause your own problems most of the time it was just child abuse but they don't realize it or it is too hard to deal with so they don't and then wonder why they are not happy.

People believe what they are told to the point it is almost scary but I have a lot of hope for the younger ones they are much smarter and opened minded than our parents could ever imagine. Just take away all of ones beliefs and all you will be left with is the truth.

Answer 2

I think most research shows that people who are overweight simply eat more than those who are not. If there is a "fat gene" most people don't have it. However, I think it is also fair to say that there has been a drastic change in what people eat. Our parents were not junk food or fast food addicts. The lack of nutritional content and high fat content in the type of food many people eat is astounding. As well, we have all been participants in a grand experiment on what ingesting chemicals and living in a toxic environment does to the human body. Hence the "new" health problems (or increase in "old" health problems like diabetes.) Then add to the mix the triumph of Consumerism and you can kind of understand where we are at today. Sad, but true.

Answer 3

Our parents had fewer resources and electronic and mechanical devices to help them, so they had to work harder. They had to WALK over to the telephone when it rang, turn on the TV manually, and dial the radio. There were no remote controls. If they had a car, they had to actually go out in the snow and start it. They had to write a letter and go to a mailbox and mail it. In general, they had to do much more exercise just living than we do today. I also believe there was much less junk food in the house due to lack of financial resources. People actually cooked dinner instead of ordering takeout.

As for self-control, this is something that must be relearned. In an era where anything is possible and available, it's difficult to develop self-control. I think it should be course #101 in every school health class!

Answer 4

If homosexuality were to be genetic after a number of generations the gene would have to dissapear since it would stop with the gay person since (in the majority of cases) they wouldn't have kids. Simple logic dictates that there isn't a "gay" gene. I rekon the best explanation is nurture not nature. With regard to Ms.Super Doope, there actually isnt a shred of evidence for an exclusively homosexual animal outside of humans. The case that most people knew about was the one with the gay penguins. However these days, Silo (one of the penguins) has a "girlfriend".

Answer 5

I agree with the above posters and I will add that when our parents were raising kids there were a few more physical activities to do.....a.k.a. housework.....walking...(gasp)....I see people today get home after getting their meal at a fast food shop and plopping on the couch. I have also overheard a person say they were exhausted because they done two loads of laundry that day? Sweet Jesus.....get a grip. There is maybe a very few irregular weight gainers but most of it is just plain laziness.

Answer 6

To some extent the average person IS responsible for many of our newer, more modern problems, but to a larger extent than you might think, he/she is not.
It is easy to be harshly judgemental about problems that only directly effect others. Certainly there ARE people who are fat from overeating, but they comprise a relatively small percentage of the overweight people that I know. Every day of my life, I see heavy people who eat less (and healthier) than their skinnier friends, relatives and /or co-workers.

The usual American lifestyle depends on the purchase and use of products manufactured by mega-industries that place cost-cutting and gouging profits way ahead of the public good. Ingredients in processed foods are appallingly unhealthy, yet most of us do not live lives in which we are equipped to grow and process our own.
(Autism in children was all but unheard-of till the medical establishment started using mercury as a preservative in childhood vaccinations which laws have made mandatory and, unfortunately, unavoidable for concerned parents.
Most parents, however, never knew it was in there.)
No company is going to volunteer the info that their products do more harm than good. Therefore, most people haven't a clue as to why their health is not what it should be.
(And, YES, THIS is just in that last 30-40 years you are talking about.)
As for the car thing - I don't know how old you are, but when I was a kid, there was practically no such thing as a "compact" car readily and affordably available in America. Cute little sports cars from Europe were the rich man's luxury and people like my parents drove big, ugly, sheet-metal monsters because they were all we could get. (I can still recall how my mother hated driving that big old Buick she always called "The White Elephant"!) Nissan (formerly "Datsun"), Toyota, Subaru, even VW and Volvo, only came along later.
(Had something like my own little Nissan Stanza been available to my mother, she would have been way beyond delighted!)

As for diabetes, my great grandmother lost her right leg to it in the mid 40's, and EVERY member of mother's family has had it since then - except my mother, who died too young to have developed it first.

Lipo or plastic surgery? Well, neither is a choice I would opt for, personally, but I am not unable to understand why someone else might. Like it or not (and many of us DON'T like it), we live in a world that judges us by surface-level appearances. When you log onto a dating website and 9 out of 10 guys describe the female they want to meet as "height-weight proportional", "slender", etc, when you see a store clerk pass right by the unattractive customer who was there first and approach the prettier one who just came in, when you see a bus driver go on by the stop with one plain-looking girl waiting and then stop for the statuesque beauty at the next stop, lipo and plastic surgery don't seem so outlandish.
It is one thing to be okay with your OWN looks, but for everyone else to be okay with your looks (and for you to be okay with their REACTIONS to your looks) is another matter entirely.

I WILL agree with you on the American Idol thing, though. I have never watched it, but have never had any desire to, either. (In fact, when I was living alone, I didn't even bother to own a TV set.)
I would also agree that it borders on offensive to me to classify the common vices like alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addiction, etc, as diseases. They most certainly are NOT "diseases".

Yes, people SHOULD take responsibility for their own quality of life - as far as a reasonable lifestyle allows them to, but we should never lose sight of the fact that the world has changed around us DRASTICALLY over the last few decades, and some of those changes effect us ALL in ways our parents would not and could not have ever imagined.