From: Mxsmanic on
Donna Evleth writes:

> That's what the doctor who prescribed the medicine told me, too. He was
> wrong, at least for me. That is why he is no longer my doctor. The
> specialist, whose name I managed after much effort to pry out of him, told
> me that I probably will never need insulin. Since I am now 74, she may well
> be right. I hope so. I don't even want to think about insulin.

I suspect that most aspects of Syndrome X (obesity, hypertension, diabetes)
can be fixed by lifestyle changes, but there's a huge tendency today to resort
immediately to medication. It's true that lifestyle changes may take longer to
work, but I don't think that 6-18 months of hypertension or hyperglycemia is
going to kill the average person while he or she makes the lifestyle changes.
From: Mxsmanic on
Donna Evleth writes:

> I don't like to be evil, but this sort of person makes one wish for the
> providential heart attack. Beyond his incredible cost to the taxpayers, his
> life sounds dreadfully lonely.

I always wonder how people can get so fat and yet not die of hypertension or
diabetes, both of which are closely linked to obesity.

I wonder if he was fat as a child. It seems that people who grew up fat
tolerate obesity in adulthood better than those who grew up thin.
From: John Rennie on
Mxsmanic wrote:
> Earl Evleth writes:
>
>> The next time you buy a can of peas, read the fine print.
>> Sugar is added to a lot of things now not to make them
>> sicky sweet but to give the appearance that natural
>> plant sugars are there but even more so.
>
> Or to serve as a preservative. But even sugar doesn't always have as strong a
> taste appeal as fat. Personally I don't like things that are sickly sweet,
> which is why I prefer plain milk chocolate to chocolate candies with hideously
> sweet fillings.

"Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk
powder or condensed milk." Wikipedia
From: John Rennie on
Mxsmanic wrote:
> Donna Evleth writes:
>
>> I don't like to be evil, but this sort of person makes one wish for the
>> providential heart attack. Beyond his incredible cost to the taxpayers, his
>> life sounds dreadfully lonely.
>
> I always wonder how people can get so fat and yet not die of hypertension or
> diabetes, both of which are closely linked to obesity.
>
> I wonder if he was fat as a child. It seems that people who grew up fat
> tolerate obesity in adulthood better than those who grew up thin.

Read the article.
From: Mxsmanic on
John Rennie writes:

> "Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk
> powder or condensed milk." Wikipedia

Yes, I know. But milk chocolate does not contain a sweet, syrupy filling, in
the way that a box of fancy "chocolates" does. Milk chocolate is considerably
less sweet.

In the U.S., a perfect example of excess sugar can be found in See's Candies,
which I find to be intolerably sweet. In contrast, there are many brands of
plain milk chocolate in Europe that are only moderately sweet, and some brands
that are very high in cocoa are actually bitter.