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Never felt the need to " Alter" my perception of the world. Who knows maybe
I should. :D
Well, I agree with SaintMark and thelivingroyale. And basically, I think it does impair you, so driving a car, flying a plane, etc. while under the influence - not such a great idea. I think it probably is less harmful than alcohol, or at least similar. I think smoking anything is probably carcinogenic, so there's that to consider. I'm fine with it being legalized, actually. And that is happening more in my country at long last (U.S.). I never believed it was a "gateway" drug (especially judging from my friends who smoke/smoked). I think the addictiveness of it is blown out of proportion - cocaine or heroin, on the other hand, are verifiably addictive and far, far more hamrful. I think pot ought to be viewed similar to alcohol. (You could temporarily change the title of this thread: "Take a seat, join me with a spliff, let's talk!") :)>-
Why was grass considered a dangerous drug then? MJ wasn't illegal for a considerable time without all of civilization breaking down. During prohibition alcohol was illegal in the United State, they built a huge apparat of law enforcement to turn them into a nation of teetotallers. Took them only 13 years to find out it was a useless task. By then they got themselves a number of effective organised crime syndicates versed in smuggling and violence, similarly a large branch of police concerned with nothing but keeping forbidden substances from the streets. When it became clear to them alcohol prohibition lost support with politicians and had no chance to stay these very policemen faced losing their jobs. They looked for a substitute for alcohol to keep themin business, drugs seemed to be a growing thread and marihuana was just handily included with all sorts of opium, without actual facts supporting most of the claims about its destructive effectsmade when MJ was banned. Most other countries just followed that example, also for a lack of actual research.
</b>Thoughts about the rise in obesity?</font>
TV screen for the evening. So you do have to watch your food intake. Or
Go to the gym a bit more often. ;)
Of course some of the causes of the obesity epidemic are well understood. An overexposure to sugar and fat, especially at a young age, combined with an increased use of cars for even the shortest trips and the fact that we spend more time sitting on our butts doesn't help us in any way.
So it would seem simple enough to tell people to lose weight by hitting the gym. The problem with that is that we want results and we want them fast. So we run and do push-ups without the proper training or guidance and end up getting hurt and tired pretty fast. Walking or driving a bike seems like a waste of time, so none of that will happen either. And why take the stairs when we can take the elevator? Good intentions are quickly eclipsed by our inherent laziness and our strong appetite for the indulgence of 'doing things the easy way'.
Food, in my opinion, remains the ultimate key to a healthy life style. No more sugar and fat; simple enough, right? Well, no actually. It really isn't that simple. Raw vegetables and unprocessed food are often more expensive than canned stuff. Also, many people are unwilling to spend an hour washing and then cutting and then cooking vegetables and such, when we can just as easily put some lasagne in the microwave or pick up a greasy bucket of KFC on our way home. Better still, why not go to a fast food restaurant because that even saves us the trouble of doing the dishes. Funny thing though. Those noisy dumps hardly qualify as restaurants, whatever they serve isn't really food and fast can be debated too. Plus, what sane person stuffs solid grease down his throat and flushes it away with half a gallon of concentrated sugar known as a soda drink? Parents who teach their kids this habit are no better than the ones who teach them how to smoke or get stoned. Anyway, it takes some practice and some willpower but unless we start rethinking the poisonous mixtures of processed garbage, saturated fats, sugary beverages and alcohol we swallow down in too large quantities every single day, this obesity epidemic isn't going to end any time soon.
I haven't even begun my rants concerning the massive deforestation our planet is suffering only to support the meat industry.
Point is, I'm worried. Some kids half my age can't walk a decent mile without gasping for breath or complaining that their muscles hurt. Some of my pupils bring more food to school than I have in three days: a box full of greased up sandwiches with three layers of baloney, mayonnaise and butter, chocolate bars, two bags of potato chips and several cans of genuine Coca Cola. A male adult should try not to exceed 60 g of sugar every day. Three cans of Coca Cola already put you at 100 g of sugar! And that goes on top of the other filth these kids digest. Many of them are so chubby at the age of 14, one wonders if they'll live to turn 40 some day.
The high price of more healthy foods is a separate issue, because you don't have to eat healthy foods to be thin.
Story from the Daily Mail about a guy called " James Bond" who lost 24 stone !
Personally, I'm probably 98% vegetarian. I occasionally have meat if it is served at special occasions or when I travel home, but that is a rarity. I try to stick to things like green vegetables, brown rice, nuts and occasionally fruits. My rule is that if I have to try and figure out what is inside the product or an ingredient list that has 20 items, something is wrong with the product most of the time. I avoid sodas at all cost and most fruit juice. A medium soda has around 44 grams of sugar, a 12oz soda has around 30-40 grams. The WHO recommends around 10-25 grams of sugar for a healthy male. So imagine someone who has 3-4 sodas a day. It's a losing battle. Anything with sugar is pretty much out for me, unless it has natural sugars and fiber to balance it out.
I highly recommend watching a man named Dr. Robert Lustig on youtube discuss the sugar epidemic. It's very interesting and he really hits the nail on the head with the science. He explains the money side of things very well. Here's one I just recently watched by him. You can also check out his Sugar The Bitter Truth episode as well.
The problem with sugar is that its extremely addictive. We are naturally driven to sweet things and away from bitter for safety in nature. It's hard to think of things like soda and fruit juice as heavily dense calorie packed food items that will make us store fat. I don't fully blame heavier people personally, because I think it's so hard to steer clear of all the junk and mess that's out there and the disinformation that exists everywhere. It's almost like trying to swim in a toilet bowl without getting any on you. It's pretty much going to happen to some extent.
Good topic by the way! Definitely one of my top interests is Health/Nutrition.
Kids weren't fat when I was growing up, other than the odd token fat boy, who liked to stuff his face.
We were always running around, playing games, sports, riding bikes etc
We didn't have video games, computers etc to keep us sedentary.
Plus I don't recall parents packing those glutenous type lunches that @dimi described.
And then of course when we finished high school, many of us were smoking and pubbing so much there was hardly any time for eating, let alone over-eating.
Smoking is a great appetite suppressant.
I never worried about weight until I quit smoking.
Now I do a good run 2-3 times a week, and try to stay off crappy sugar laden junk.
But I still eat burgers and fries and plates of chicken wings.
But I think the kids have to find a way to stay physically active.
Nonsense. Don't eat so many calories and your caloric balance is much easier to maintain.
A small overeat can amount to several extra pounds every year and before you know it your overweight. One of the videos mentioned even one soda a day can lead to a 10lb weight gain by the end of the year. I'm guessing that is if you are hitting the recommended calories with a soda in addition to that.
It takes tons of physical activity to burn these calories off. Far more than most people are capable of doing.
</b>Discuss: Democracy isn't a *perfect* system.</font>
One of the few weaknesses of democracy, I think, is the fact that many politicians are more concerned with being re-elected than with good leadership. Sometimes a society as a whole needs to make harsh decisions and sometimes those decisions aren't exactly popular amongst the majority of the people. And therefore, sometimes, depending on the courage of a politician, the decisions are simply not made. This is one of the reasons why it's so difficult in our spoiled world to enforce for example environmental laws: many of those restrict our own freedom at some level and politicians are usually afraid to face the next election round after having told us that our freedom will be somewhat reduced.
Furthermore, I strongly believe that the proverbial 'majority' isn't always right. Sometimes a minor few people just happen to know better. Yet the majority vote is what makes the difference. A minor few warned us decades ago that our current industrialization model would damage us and our planet severely. Few politicians, if any, were willing to listen. A minor few warned us, years ago, that our financial and economical excesses would soon lead us into financial crises. Hardly anyone acted when it still wasn't too late. A minor few can be more right than the majority. Politicians are often smart enough to realise that but very few are willing to risk their career going against the majority vote.
These two weaknesses lead to temporizing, to fixing things for the current generations without giving any thoughts to the next.
Now, imagine a dictator who has but to snip his fingers and his wishes turn into reality. Let's say he is kind and intelligent and brave enough to make decisions his servants may not at first like, but will eventually understand. The world could be a far better place. The problem, of course, is that dictators aren't usually all that kind or intelligent. The very word 'dictator' has a negative aura around it, and there's a perfectly good reason for that too. Few dictators were wise like Marcus Aurelius and even he isn't always celebrated by historians.
So in the end, I acknowledge that democracy probably is the best system of government we have, but I don't think it's perfect.