This Stephen Hawking obesity ad is literal food for thought

December 8, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

So, Stephen Hawking recently offered this ad on obesity:

(Click pic for vid.)

In it, as you can see, he brings up a legitimate issue plaguing our nation: obesity.

After briefly speaking on that, he gives the simple (albeit obvious) solution of altering diet and exercise to help fix it. Fair enough. Then, as the camera pans out on his motionless, emotionless, body in a wheelchair – his voice machine leaves us with the final thought about how anyone could come to realize their own demise via inactivity – is beyond him. It’s haunting, obviously, because it’s a reminder that lazy a-holes (who have all their faculties intact) take for granted their ability to move around freely, when this poor genius is eternally imprisoned in an immobile, dusty husk.

Bummer, right?

Yeah. Sure. But, before you start marinating in shame, let’s don’t allow our able bodied guilt distract us from what’s important here – the flawed logic we’re all all being fed (pardon the pun) about food somehow being less relevant than activity when it comes to obesity. I’m not talking about Hawking, here. But look at that takeaway – at the end. Really? Is the focus truly on inactivity here?

Again, don’t get me wrong. This was excellent and a half on Hawking’s part. Diet and exercise are indeed the duo solution. However, it’s bothersome that the former’s not the focus (which we’ll get to in a moment) when it’s counts more toward overall health than exercise. Also, it’s actually less “simple” (or easy, at least), as he calls it, than you’d think. Not for someone who’s been raised on a fat lifestyle – on sugar and other bad-for-you foods. That said, I’d be glad to educate the arguably smartest man in the world (since he says it’s “beyond his understanding”) about how sugar filled diets turn you too torpid to be active – or how sugar and cocaine comprise similarly addictive qualities making them mind-alteringly difficult to quit, thusly perpetuating a vicious cycle. And how sugar’s in so much of our foods and beverages today – or how the massively sized masses are oblivious to how detrimental it is – or that it’s even in what they’re consuming.

(Geez… see all the refined sugar in that juice? Swap out your sodas and juices for water – for, like, a month.
Just *see* if it doesn’t make a difference on that scale’ve yours.)

I digress. But that cycle is vicious.

Which is why it’s so terribly interesting that the focus for the takeaway end message is on chastising inactivity, and less so wagging the finger at bad diet. (Or the corporations responsible for putting so much of it unnecessarily into our foods to get us good an addicted and returning for more). Because that’s the true culprit contributing to obesity. Especially here in the U.S.. Yes, activity is crucial to battling obesity. But refined sugars and hyper-palatable processed foods found in grocery freezers, on shelves, or in our favorite sodas or Starbucks cups are more to blame. It’s the stuff that makes us crave more of the same imbalanced, healthless crap that is more to blame. Think getting out and sweating’s the best answer? Great. Then let’s just consult the ton of ton-heavy gentlemen and ladies I know who do a crazy level of activity (albeit huffing and puffing by the end). Why do they remain heavy after back to back calorie blasting classes at the dojo we equally frequent? Because – and ask any trainer this – you can’t outrun, swim, or bike a bad diet. In fact, if that diet’s bad enough, with your blood sugar levels effed up making you store more fat and nutrients stripped to help metabolize the crud you’re not meant to be munching in the first place, you won’t even have the energy to do most’ve those three things for fifteen minutes before quitting. So, while it’s great that we’re putting the spotlight on targeting obesity, mayhaps lets start swinging it at the bigger reason why?

But I don’t wanna leave you with the “what’s wrong with society?” message.

The real question here is you. You (wisely) came to my site – looking for answers. So, I’ll ask you: do you wanna lose legit weight (other than the water weight from shame tears falling from your eyes after this ad)? Great. Then eat greener (produce aisle), swallow more agua (that’s non-American-ese for “water”), fire refined sugar from your diet (along with processed foods), and find a form of cardio and strengthening (that’s as addictive as sugar used to be – before you fortunately saw the light and quit it – or greatly reduced it, at least). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that shiz out. No. For that matter, it doesn’t take an iconic robot voiced rock star scientist with a doctorate in astral rocks and stars, either. But that’s mostly ’cause that’s not either of their fields. Time to ask someone whose field it is– instead of aimlessly asking someone famous for advice irrelevant to their skill set.