Here at the Harvard School of Public Health, we look at health, illness,
disease, and injury issues from several perspectives, including the
'population level' (statistical, 'birds eye view').
I think that making these promotional claims suffers a real POLITICAL
downside that we used to discuss (in terms of economic issues) when I was a
MENTAL HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN (in terms of this adage, posted on the head
chaplain's door):
"Values are DESTRUCTIVE when the means to attain them are available to some
but not available to all."
So, brilliance may be important for society, but not everyone can exhibit
that quality, and for some, self-protection strategies may emerge as a
social backlash against some kinds of brain-related behaviors.
Wealth may be very liberating, but while Mitt Romney isn't apologizing for
being successful, 62% (in a recent study) of extremely wealth Americans
have come to believe (in the wake of the 99% 'Occupy' protests) that
conspicuous consumption and flaunting of one's wealth is a very undesirable
behavior; further, excluding others by price segmentation can have its own
harmful effects (as we study here in a social policy department of Harvard
Medical School).
And claiming that ALL vegetarians or vegans are automatically PETA-grade
nudity-mongers may have its own psychological burden.
Recently I heard a few vegetarians talking about visibly overweight
vegetarians; one commented, "I think that it's much easier for an
overweight nonvegetarian to chat with an overweight vegetarian because s/he
won't feel a cloud of judgment during the conversation, even if that cloud
of judgment is only imaginary."
*
*
*It's better to have a healthy weight, but putting ALL the weight of
outreach in the 'consequentialist' argument of the health benefit of weight
reduction (a) may not work for the would-be vegetarian (who may among the
many who don't get that benefit), (b) may focus the would-be vegetarian's
attention on weight loss alone (and prompt the would-be vegetarian to give
up on vegetarianism if the weight loss doesn't appear soon enough); and (c)
may fail to address the OTHER (deontological: rights and duty-based) issues
or reasons for not eating meat, eggs, dairy.
Statistically, that claim MAY be factual and evidence-based; however, we're
not ALL doctors and IMO ought not to be POLEMICALLY advocating that benefit
as a sure thing, ought not to be advancing that as a guaranteed benefit. I
lost massive amounts of weight when I first became vegetarian - in my 20s.
As I age, however, the pounds collect. should I stop admitting that I'm
vegan? You can decide that in your mind, but I'm calling the shots on what
I say about myself. A little help along the way might be appreciated, so
you know it.*
*
*
*Further, why not LOOK at those who TRY to make "single-case arguments' for
skinny vegans: typically, HERself a skinny vegan.*
Now, with that said, we should redouble our efforts to achieve and maintain
a healthy body weight. Perhaps there IS something psychologically erratic
about us, and perhaps we OUGHT to correct the problem pronto - post haste.
But thinking through some issues takes time'; we can accelerate that
learning process; if we can accelerate anyone's growth towards health, IMO
we ought to do that in a kind, gracious, effective, and sustainable way.
*Maynard*
*Maynard S. Clark* | GoogleChat: Maynard.Clark | Skype: MaynardClark
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Given my observations, experience, and list of online support groups for
overweight vegetarians, the problem seems to be statistically less
frequent, but where it does appear, it is thereby a greater problem for
those vegetarians and vegans who still struggle with weight problems - and
the embarrassment may be from their corpulence that may be unrelated to
their vegetarianism, but by others may be assumed to be related in
proportion, not to the excessive poundage, but to there visibility in
talking about vegetarianism and veganism (especially for ethical reasons).
On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 8:44 PM, Brook <brook@brook.com> wrote:
>
> http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/314/are-vegetarians-thinner.html
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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