Obesity: As Dangerous As WMD

I think I’ve been watching too much TV lately.

The latest program to rattle my cage was a recent documentary involving Alice Waters, the well-known American chef and cook-book author, who founded the restaurant Chez Panisse in the Bay area in 1971.

In terms of food, it was a revolutionary step generated by Alice’s determination to offer meals made from healthy, organically grown fruit and vegetables, and to educate the general public about the benefits of eating natural produce, as opposed to junk food and over-processed products.

Though Alice's restaurant has thrived over the past three decades and meals there have given tens of thousands of visitors a new taste sensation, the message still has a long way to go.

According to medical health experts, obesity in the United States is at an all-time high.

This got me doing some hasty research, the results of which I’ll cram into a nutshell here.

An estimated 57% of Americans are overweight, including 60% of Americans aged 20 and older. One-quarter of American adults are also obese. Statistics indicate that 280,000 adult deaths each year in the US are attributable to obesity.

It’s estimated that nearly 31% of American teenage girls and 28% of boys are somewhat overweight, while an additional 15% of American teenage girls and almost 14% of teen boys are obese. It's been determined that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in all major socioeconomic and ethnic groups, including children and younger adults between 25 and 44.

In a recent address at a conference of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, the current US Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona, stated that obesity is the greatest health threat facing the country, and that the threat is as real as “weapons of mass destruction”.

Ironic is that Americans spend some $33 billion dollars a year on weight-loss products and services, but hesitate to take the simple steps that could help lead to healthy weight loss and to an overall better quality of life: namely, exercising more and eating less, focusing on meals consisting of fresh fruit and vegetables rather than junk food and over-processed and high-fat products.

These aren’t the only solutions, of course; a number of factors can contribute to obesity. These include genetic, psychological, physiological, metabolic, socioeconomic, cultural, and lifestyle. On the whole, however, obesity is considered a chronic disease rather than simply a lifestyle choice, although the latter is seen to be the main cause. The problem is twofold: people don't get enough physical exercise and they eat too much food. (It’s difficult to resist fast-food offers of two or even three portions for the price of one! McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and countless other proponents of SAD - the Standard American Diet - have a lot to answer for.)

As if the physical and emotional effects of being severely overweight or obese aren't enough, sufferers are prone to a host of other diseases resulting directly from obesity. These include (but aren't confined to):

-High blood pressure and high blood cholesterol

-Coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure

-Type 2 diabetes (becoming increasingly prominent in children)

-Osteoarthritis

-Gallstones

-Low back pain

-Obstructive sleep apnea and other respiratory problems

-Some types of cancer, such as endometrial, breast (fries have been linked to breast
cancer), prostate, and colon

-Complications of pregnancy

-Poor female reproductive health such as menstrual irregularities and infertility

-Bladder control problems

-Psychological disorders, including depression,

eating disorders, distorted body image, and low self esteem

Truly shocking was a comment by one of the medical experts who’d been interviewed in the program about the prevalence and dangers of obesity. He stated that if the current trend continues, this generation of children will become the first in human history to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Food for thought indeed.

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For clinical purposes, obesity is described in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a more accurate measurement than weight alone. A healthy BMI is 19-24. Simple overweight is a BMI of 25-29. Obesity begins at a BMI of 30. Morbid obesity begins at a BMI of 40. Super morbid obesity begins at a BMI of 50, and super-super morbid obesity begins at a BMI above 60.

You can find out your Body Mass Index (BMI) by using this

Simple Calculator

Don't Be Afraid of a Wolf at the Door

I’ve always felt an affinity with wolves. Maybe because I grew up in the dense forests of northern Ontario and remember the depths of snow and the inky blackness of a lonely night sky in winter. Maybe because I love the way that wolves simply go quietly about their business. In particular, I admire lone wolves, who follow their own nature and choose not to run with the pack.

It’s a shame that these intelligent and elegant animals have had such a bad rap throughout history. Tales abound of their viciousness, aggression and treachery. None of them are factual.

Ellen J. Stekert, English professor at the University of Minnesota and past president of the American Folklore Society, writes:

“We all live in a world of symbols. The symbolism embodied by the wolf is vast and compelling. Wolves evoke powerful feelings in us, and these feelings can nowhere be seen better than in the expressive interactions we call folklore: in legends, folktales, proverbs, folk speech, beliefs, and material culture.

The wolf has coexisted with mankind for thousands of years, and as each culture experienced the wolf, the folklore of that people reflected their feelings about the animal. Today in most of Europe and North America the wolf is a singularly sinister creature - one associated with mystery, power, danger, and sheer evil. But the wolf has not always been seen negatively. Groups who were primarily hunters or whose life style emphasized living intimately with nature viewed the wolf as a positive symbol. There is good evidence that when humans were hunters, they lived in peaceful and respectful coexistence with wolves. Only when man began to farm and raise animals did the wolf become his adversary, a threat to his very life (and livestock). The farmer or herdsman had to contend with the wolf as a predator, not fellow hunter, and he fully realized that the animal was as skilled and intelligent a hunter as he once had been. In many ways, the wolf's living patterns are more like those of humans than those of most other animals, and this may well account for his power as a cultural symbol. After all, man cannot domesticate the wolf as he has the dog, and so the farmer and the shepherd have had a good reason to be concerned.

There are many examples of how our verbal symbolism reveals our negative feelings about the wolf: why not speak of "crying leopard", or sing "Who’s afraid of the big bad bear?" The man who is a womanizer is a "wolf," not a dog. No one "cries boar" no matter how appropriate the pun might be. We "wolf" down our food; we do not "fox it down." And the coyote would never be seen in a sheep's clothing. Such are the indications of our negative attitudes toward the wolf as reflected in our current folk speech.

We learn "acceptable" attitudes as we grow into our culture. Some adults can manipulate these cultural symbols to their own end, as Hitler did with the wolf during World War II ("the wolf packs" for his submarines and "The Wolf Lair" for his Prussian retreat). But it is virtually impossible to change such compelling stereotypes that have been learned from our earliest days: we resist, rationalize, and turn deaf when data is offered which does not support these beliefs.

The vast stores of international and local folklore show us that through time the wolf has symbolized widely different things to different people. The wolf is depicted along a spectrum encompassing human, nurturing, intelligent, graceful, foolish, cunning, rapacious, evil, and supernatural. Each culture has taken from this pool and created its own symbol(s) of the wolf: folklore that did not fit was dropped or changed. Thus folk tradition both reflects and influences cultural attitudes.

All folklore is not "false," but some of the "truths" incorporated in folklore are different kinds of truths from what we think they are; they are often truths about feelings and not about facts.

To one who has had the experience of hearing a wolf "sing" it will come as no surprise that the distinctive howl of the wolf is one of the most remarked upon, almost hypnotic and magical qualities of the animal and could be, therefore, a major motif in a folktale. Other foolish wolf stories with international distribution tell of the fox who tricks the oafish and gluttonous wolf into a cellar where the wolf overeats so that he cannot escape his hunters through the opening by which he entered. Then there is the story of the wolves who climb on top of one another to see what is on the other side of a wall: the lowest wolf runs away, causing all on top of them to land in a heap.

Certainly this is not the cunning, rapacious wolf from whom the woodsman saved Little Red Riding Hood. But this is a widely distributed option for the character of the wolf in international folktales. That the wolf is depicted as a fool is not surprising, for what is feared is often belittled, and one way to negate fear is to attribute to that which is feared the exact opposite characteristics of those which it possesses. Thus, the wolf becomes a fool rather than an intelligent creature. However, intelligence certainly is a characteristic of the wolf in other widespread folk narratives and folklore.

The wolf's intelligence is illustrated in numerous legends about "lone wolves,"or, in American West, the "lobo"wolf. These solitary wolves were stalked by professional hunters and some gained notoriety for being able to escape hunters with astonishing alacrity. Most striking about the "lone wolf" stories is the recurrent references to these wolves as if they were human outlaws, complete with nicknames ("Old Three Toes") and anecdotes about how they were able to elude traps and bullets. The intelligence credited to these wolves could easily come from observation of the wolf in a natural state, and folklore reflects this potentially positive trait. An English proverb nearly 400 years old says, "Wolves lose their teeth but not their memory." The wolf who stood guard over the severed head of St. Edmund (the ninth century martyr and king of England) until it received proper burial is a praiseworthy and intelligent model. Even the Boy Scouts who identify themselves as Wolf Cubs can be proud of such informed loyalty. The belief that wearing a wolf's tooth makes one brave, or that a wolf hide offers protection from epilepsy are but two uses of wolf parts as positive cures and charm.”

Click here to see the wolf design above on a number of products.

Two excellent movies that portrayed the wolf in a justifiably sympathetic manner were the 1983 film “Never Cry Wolf” (based on the autobiographical novel by Farley Mowat), starring Charles Martin Smith, and Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves".

Here's where you can Learn More About Wolves

Therapy or Cruelty: Where's the Border?

Last night I endured an hour-long TV documentary that broke my heart. It affected me on a number of levels and I can’t get rid of the feelings of profound sadness and anger. Maybe it will help if I give voice to the thoughts.

The documentary was about Chloë Jancata, a 13-year-old girl in Perth, Western Australia, who for the second time in her life had to do battle with an attack of acute lymphatic leukemia. First diagnosed when she was 10 years old, she had undergone treatment and the disease had gone into remission. Three years later she had relapsed badly.

Because the usual chemotherapy no longer worked, Chloe was selected - and thereby became the first person in the world - to undergo a radically new experimental treatment in a children’s hospital in Perth. The treatment was administered by a team of cancer specialists from the US, and it was a merciless and exhausting regime of intense chemotherapy. Quite literally, it was an attempt involving life and death.

In the meantime, medical specialists had discovered a genetic means to determine which children had the greatest chance of a relapse after an initial bout of leukemia. For the treatment of such cases in the future, this was a significant breakthrough, but it was of no benefit to Chloë. Instead, she needed to put up a long and excruciatingly painful fight. Her mother and the doctors that surrounded the child must have asked themselves whether the long months of suffering served any real purpose.

Tracy Zdencanovic, Chloë’s mother, stated: “It seems to me they’re bringing her as close to death as possible without actually killing her.”

The only chance Chloë had for a long-lasting recovery was a transplantation of bone marrow and umbilical cord blood. But these treatments would put her life at acute risk. Her own bone marrow needed to be totally destroyed to the point where she had absolutely no resistance. And then there was no way back. Without her own immune system, Chloe was in severe danger of lethal infections. She was completely dependent upon the knowledge of the oncologists, who were keeping her alive - though just barely - with a terrifying cocktail of medications that were wreaking havoc of their own.

Chloë’s heart-wrenching story clearly demonstrated the raw reality regarding what science can do against a disease like leukemia and what they can’t do. It was devastatingly clear that for the development and implementation of a new method of treatment a terrible price needed to be paid.

To cut this long story short: After enduring months of needles, chemotherapy, nausea, agonizing pain, and whole-body radiation to destroy her own blood cells to make way for the new cells that would be transplanted into her, the emaciated, weak, pale slip of a girl with the heart of a warrior finally gave up the battle.

That’s the story.

The three things that bother me are these:

1. The documentary ended abruptly, with only two short sentences stating that Chloe had died. The program then quickly changed to another. At the very least, one might have expected a sentence in the credits acknowledging and thanking the girl for having volunteered to serve as a human laboratory rat and to feature in a public documentary of an ordeal that ended in her death.

2. Several times the desperately ill – and clearly frightened - child asked her mother, a doctor and one of the nurses - in a voice that was never strong enough to be above a whisper - "Am I going to die?" Each time she was told “No”. The doctor’s reply was, “We’re not going to let that happen.” I understand how difficult a question that must be, and it makes me wonder why, in cases like Chloe’s, no appropriately trained death counselor was available to help her face and come to terms with what was clearly a possibility. I hope that in the end she didn’t feel betrayed by everyone.

3. The third issue has to do with the prolonging of life when its quality is so violently compromised. At what point do excruciatingly painful and uncharted so-called therapeutic methods cross the border into blatant cruelty that, under other circumstances, could be punishable by law?

Alright. I’ve got that off my chest. But it’ll be a lot longer before I lose the image of Chloë’s face and her lovely eyes dark with pain and desperate with trust.

A Rose By Any Other Name

I spent most of today struggling with a German translation, so my only contact with the outside world consisted of gazing through my study window. Not that there was much to see. Same old drab, chilly, wet weather. I forget who once said that February is to the year what Sunday is to the week, but he was spot on. And if it's February and a Sunday at the same time, the blahs can move in with a vengeance.

All of that got me thinking about how I look forward to the spring, to the emergence of new life, and to flowers in particular. And the one I look forward to most is the rose, my personal favourite. That in turn led me to wonder about the origins of human fascination with this gorgeous plant, and - as aways - the internet turned up an interesting snippet of information (from Sheila Pickles in The Language of Flowers).

"The rose is one of the oldest flowers known to man, and still one of the most popular. Nebuchadnezzar used them to adorn his palace and in Persia, where they were grown for their perfume oil, the petals were used to fill the Sultan's mattress. In Kashmir the Moghul emperors cultivated beautiful rose gardens and roses were strewn in the river to welcome them on their return home. Roses later became synonymous with the worst excesses of the Roman Empire - the peasants were reduced to growing roses instead of food crops in order to satisfy the demands of their rulers. The emperors filled their swimming baths and fountains with rose-water and sat on carpets of of rose petals for their feasts and orgies. Heliogabalus used to enjoy showering his guests with rose petals which tumbled down from the ceiling during the festivities.

The Rose is the flower of love. It was created by Chloris, the Greek goddess of flowers, but of a lifeless body of a nymph which she found one day in a clearing in the woods. She asked the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave her beauty; Dionysus, the god of wine, added nectar to give her a sweet scent, and the three Graces gave her charm, brightness and joy. Then Zephyr, the West Wind, blew away the clouds so that Apollo, the sun god, could shine and make the flower bloom. And so the Rose was."

Roses are also attributed with magical, mystical qualities, and have been the subject of poetry and prose throughout the ages. I love to photograph them, and sometimes use the images in designs for my online shop.



Please click on Mystical Rose if you'd like to see the design on a number of products.

Here in the Netherlands it's now nearly midnight, the witching hour. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, my mattress isn't filled with rose petals, but it's mighty inviting just the same. (-:

It's been a long day.

March Prepares to Swoop In

As anyone older than 39 can testify, that’s the age at which Time begins to warp and to spin past at increasingly accelerated speeds!

Christmas, New Year, and Valentine’s Day have vanished over the horizon, and now March is looming, already giving us a taste of the rain and gale-force winds for which Holland is renowned, and heralding in a number of international and (in the US) national events.

One of these, and of particular significance, is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Cancer in any form is frightening, but the colorectal version is especially insidious, because often no symptoms at all are evident until the disease has reached a critical stage.

It’s essential for Americans to support Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and the first best way to do this is to make an appointment with your general practitioner or proctologist. Pronto. A screening takes little time, but could be just long enough to save your life.

Colorectal cancer is no joke, and I’d never make light of the disease or of the doctors and healthcare workers who are dedicated to its prevention and treatment.
Nevertheless, human beings are a species blessed with the gift of humour, often of the darkest kind, and this can extend to amusing images or text on T-shirts and other items even in the most sombre of circumstances.

This brings us to the second best way to show that you’re behind (no pun intended) Colorectal Cancer Cancer Awareness Month. Why not wear a cheeky (OK, that was on purpose) T-shirt to that medical appointment in March? Or, if you’re a doctor, hang a framed wall tile in your office, or wear a pin to make your patients feel more at ease. Laughter is, after all, an effective relaxant.

To this end (hehehehehehe) I’ve created a handful of designs that you can view and buy at National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month


To whet your appetite, here are three examples:








For detailed information about colorectal cancer prevention, I strongly recommend a visit to this site: Prevent Cancer

Stay tuned to LoneWolf for more scintillating (and possibly even very surprising) March events!

It Happens All The Time In Heaven

Spending time alone is my modus operandi, and you can usually find me out shooting with my new camera (the impressive Canon 20D (which I gave to myself shortly before Christmas) or at my computer, editing images or updating my online shop at CafePress.

But when I realised recently that I'd begun to talk out loud to myself I decided it was time to set up a blog so I could chatter to everybody. Perhaps - like the "noiseless, patient spider" in Walt Whitman's poem - a few of the filaments that I fling out into the Universe will catch hold somewhere.

Most of my spare time lately has been spent updating my shop. I've created a new section called The Third Sex, featuring designs aimed at the Rainbow People, members of the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender community. I have a particular respect for these people, many of whom have chosen to follow their hearts and natural inclinations in a society that is - at best - rigid and barely tolerant of differences and - at worst - bigoted and lacking in compassion.
(Walt Whitman, who was homosexual, wrote extensively about this.)

Part of this respect stems from the loving friendship and kindness shown to me a number of years ago by a gay friend. In fact, the first gay person I'd ever met. Bob, who died 28 years ago of what we know now to be AIDS, opened my mind and my heart.

I love poetry. And because I follow the Sufi tradition, I love the poems of Rumi and, above all, the Sufi master Hafiz, arguably the most beloved poet of Persia. He lived in the period c. 1320-1389, and was an enlightened human being. His poetry is rich in insight, understanding and love. While working on my shop's The Third Sex section last night I was reminded of one of his poems.

It Happens All The Time In Heaven

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again on earth -

That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,

And women and women
Who give each other
Light,

Often will get down on their knees

And while so tenderly
Holding their lover's hand,

With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,

"My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more
Kind?"

(Translated version by Daniel Ladinsky)

And having remembered the poem, I decided to use it as a design on products in my shop.
One of these is the mug, shown at the top of this page.
(The entire section can be viewed here: The Third Sex

Further to the topic of GLBT issues: On July 20, 2005, Canada became only the fourth nation in the world to allow same-sex marriages. (The others are Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.) But the Conservative leader Stephen Harper recently campaigned on the promise that he would permit Parliament to vote on whether to change the definition of marriage back to "one man, one woman". A recent online poll was taken about the issue of same-sex marriage being re-opened, and the results were 52% Yes, 45% No, 3% Not sure.

I wonder what others think.
Comments, anyone?