How many bathrooms in your house? What does that have to do with anything? Crazy. I don't know how the government is going to get everyone's BMI? HIPAA would prevent our doctors from handing over any data they collect. People lie on their driver's license application; no one actually measures and weighs you at the DMV. As for the comparison to smokers, to my knowledge, the government did not keep a database of names of smokers. They taxed cigarettes as a monetary deterent. I guess they could tax my Krispy Kreme's chocolate-topped Kreme-filled taste of heaven !
I know...it's unfair, because no matter how much I eat, I just can't seem to grow another inch taller! :lol:
Well, maybe they can spend the government money on some sort of operation to increase your height, and thus reduce your BMI! That should make everyone happy!
LOL - I stopped growing UP at age 12-13. Never grew taller - still at 5ft. My BMI is awful - it was even when I was 125lbs - my Dr told me NOT to lose anymore weight because I would be unhealthy at that point. My blood sugar, cholesterol, pressure and everything else they test for is ideal..... no problems at all.... even under extreme stress it was STILL fine. If I was 105lbs (which is what the BMI wants).... I would look icky!
I believe you are comparing apples to oranges. Smoking is a choice, seat belt use is a choice....you either do it or you dont. I also think it's unjust for the government or anyone else to equate BMI with health. As other's have said, I have two very different children...one high on the scale, one very low. It's a matter of metabolism, not choice. My husband's job and lifestyle kept him very active. When he got injuried, it limited his physical abilities. Even tho he changed his eating habits, he still gains weight due to that. There are also medications that the side effect is weight gain. I know a woman who was a size 3 all her life. She suddenly put on 40 lbs in two years. Doc's kept waving it off saying it was "pre-menapausal"...turns out she had a thyroid problem. It's bad enough society tries to push the image of what we should all look like, let alone let the government make choices based on something like this. When you see someone overweight, dont just assume it was a "choice" that they made.
Health insurance companies also have sneaky ways of getting health information that some normally would not divulge. My dh's employer signed up with a new health ins. co. When the representative was signing employees up, they were asking each employee names of other employees AND their known medical issues. They were going to use this information to surcharge those said employees. Under HIPPA an employee can't legally talk about the other employee. The ins. co. let all the employees have a free blood test that tested for cholesterol, blood sugar, liver functions, etc. A lot of employees thought this was a good deal, getting something for nothing! The ins. co. then, used the information from those tests against the employees for higher premiums. I told my dh and son's to be sure they know what they are doing before releasing that kind of info. to their ins. co. Of course they didn't have any issues with them knowing because all three of them came back with a perfect score. They also weight and measured each employee before the blood test. Sneaky way of getting info. Make the employee think the ins. co. cares!
Jackie, I did the same thing and added a little sticky note on my census that I'd be more than wiling to pay $100 fine and show it to the media. Never heard a word from them.
I'm the one who needs to worry about my BMI. Due to a number of issues over the years, I went from underweight to very overweight. Anyway, 4 of my 5 kids are skinny as sticks so I'm not too worried about them. In fact, one of them is considered very underweight but she's extremely healthy and has endless energy.
Well stated! I have a friend who has put on a lot of weight, not from being a couch potoatoe and being lazy, her thyroid is messed up. She has been taking an rx for it, but bless her heart, she still has not lost any weight.
As far as banning foods, I don't want that either. I eat foods some people call unhealthy, but is as unprocessed as I can get it. I've got family who flip because I eat butter, bacon, and coconut oil and one that thinks all of that should be banned. I'm a fan of raw milk and that is illegal here, -- we don't need MORE regulations - we need to be allowed to make our own choices. I'm also of the mindset that high cholesterol isn't a precursor for heart disease, slowly but surely that info is starting to creep out into the medical field. Look up Jimmy Moore's blog. I guess you could say it is controversial because of its label - don't want to get in an argument with anyone about it. My point is we have to do what works for us we have the right to make choices in our life and no one should take that away from us whether it be food, education for our children or our right to not fill out info on a form we don't deem necessary.
I feel like we are all missing the point. It is our lives, how we choose to live it doesn't matter. What we eat or don't eat is our choice. I have read the constitution and the DOI and neither give the Gov. a right to control my health care, or my diet/health. They have a few, very few listed duties, and controlling health care is NOT one of them. It is an issue of freedom, and not an issue of diet, or cost to the government. If they were only doing the duties the Const. laid out for them then we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.
Ouch... Ouch! That really hurt! "Those kind"? I'm actually really shocked at the harshness of this response. :cry:
We didn't fill out everything on our census either. SOme of them were rediculous. SOOO, we had a census worker knocking on our door and wanted to come inside (it was over 100 heat index outside). I said, "No, how can I help you." She said we didn't fill out the census enough and she needed more info: name/ages/SS# of our children and so on, and I said, "No." I don't think that information is any of your business. Then she asked if I worked/where I worked, and DH also, and I said the same thing. What did I get in response?? A LECTURE! She was proud to have the census in our lives, and if not for the census she wouldn't know anything about her past relations and so on. I said, "Thats a great story, but no." She came back 2 days later and told DH that I wouldn't give her the information, AND that I was very rude to her and that HE needed to give her the information she needed or we were going to be "in a mess" of trouble with "the law". :evil: Crazy lady. DH finally said, "Whatever" and told her, but it makes me think of the Black Panther intimidation at the polling booths and so on...Intimidation Intimidation Intimidation.
Our census form was short. I did have to fill out the LONG form years ago. I feel if they require a select fewto hand over very personal information, then everyone should be treated the same.
Uh, I could be wrong, of course, but I'd be willing to put money on the fact that she was being sarcastic.
Putting aside the issue of what the government should and should not be doing, isn't it a good idea to monitor the BMI of our children? In fact, I'd like to know other measures too, such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and so on. This would point out the effects of their eating and exercise habits and maybe inspire them to improve. One of my sons recently came into the room with a saucer containing a fair amount of sugar. He'd read the amount of sugar contained in one can of soda and decided to see what it looked like. It was quite revealing. Translate that into how many miles it would take to walk that off, and he's learned a valuable lesson.
I think any parent with a brain and two eyes can adequately discern the affects their child's diet is having on said child. I don't think there's any benefit to "keeping score" where health is concerned.
I don't feel the need to monitor that for my children. None of them are overweight and all are fairly active, though with Faythe you need to prod her into physical activity more than the other two. And as for monitoring that for me, I'm already aware that I need to lose about 20 to 30 lbs. Having a BMI won't matter. Besides, I think you'd be better off with skin fold tests and per cent fat instead. That way, you take bone size, height, etc., into consideration.
