Soundings: Beauty and the obese
2006; BMJ; Volume: 333; Issue: 7561 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0959-8138
Autores Tópico(s)Obesity and Health Practices
ResumoYou really know that you are getting old when a short and balding middle aged man comes up to you and says, “Dr Farrell, you used to be my tutor at medical school.” So in an attempt to regain my lost youth, when I was virile and strong with flowing raven locks, the body of an Adonis, and a bottom like a peach (at least that's what my Auntie Mamie used to say—we were a close family, perhaps a bit closer than was entirely healthy, but that's rural Ireland for you), I took the family to Orlando, Florida. And I must say it has been fantastic. Walking down Main Street, USA, towards Cinderella's Castle was like being a child again, the mother ship calling me home. The happiness is unrelenting, the artifice uncompromising, the ingenuity unremitting. The Spider-Man three dimensional simulation ride at the Islands of Adventure theme park combines a roller coaster, special effects, and virtual reality. The killer whales at Sea World are magnificent, and, despite my uneasiness about their captivity, the palpable bond they share with their trainers is surprisingly moving. In the Fantasmic!, a spectacular daily show at Disney-MGM Studios, Mickey Mouse defeats the forces of evil in a blizzard of pyrotechnics. A fortnight on holiday allows only the most superficial observations on US society, but gosh, so many Americans are really fat, and some of the aetiological factors are obvious. For example, moving walkways are so called because one is meant to walk on them; they're not called “Sit your big fat butt down and block every one behind you”-ways. The restaurant portions are correspondingly enormous. One menu included an advertisement for a self-referral coronary heart disease screening clinic. The advertisement was directly opposite the dessert section (which was filling even to look at)—no irony there. I am prejudiced against private medicine; once patients become clients it is tempting to exploit their gullibility and vulnerability. But I have patients at home who have skipped long queues for hip replacements and cardiac bypasses by paying for them themselves, and they do not regret their investment. Having a prejudice confounded is unsettling. In the land of the free, money can buy anything, and perhaps there's no better way to spend it.
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