This is in no way a scientific observation. We went to Costco today. We also tried to go to a movie this evening, but missed it. We ended up at Red Robin--a burger 'joint' that started out in Montlake over-looking the ship canal and that has expanded.

Most of the women I saw today were, I'm sorry to say, fat!

Sometimes, older women do gain weight because of the hormonal changes they go through--but these were young women accompanied by young fat men. They were usually dressed in bermuda shorts and tank tops or tees--often form-fitting. (It's been hot recently.)

The form jiggled as they walked. The shorts were stretched to the limits, squeezing out fat rolls over their knees. The tees, stretched across their jiggly stomachs, outlined their exaggerated belly buttons. Remember, these are young women.

How did this happen? Is it greasy junk food? Is it an attitude? It can't be poverty, or they wouldn't have been able to afford $10 for a 'gourmet burger' or the space to store Costco-sized food packages.

Young women, have you no pride in yourselves?

You are attributing ugliness to fat because it looks unappealing to you.

Body shapes and types and the attractiveness thereof are subjective at best. Standards of beauty change. See Reubens.

More important is the fact that overweight people MAY, I stress may, be subject to more diseases such as diabetes and be more succeptible to other ailments earlier than thinner folks.

I am for people being at the weight that makes them comfortable. If that's 20 or 30 pounds over my particular taste, that's their business and not mine.

Morbid obesity, on the other hand, is a mental as well as physical condition which should be treated.

I take it the men's shape appealed to you?

There are many factors that contribute to one being overweight. If there could be one aspect of the American diet we could all change and benefit, it would be to treat "grains"...all of them like a condiment. The human diet was never meant to consume so many grains. In fact grains should be at the top of the food pyramid followed second by fat! That's right, the body needs a certain amount of fat to keep off excessive weight.

An ideal diet would include meat, fish, poultry, or veg protein (soy)....followed by vegetables for carbs (limiting starchy ones like corn, and sugary ones like carrots) some fruit a *tiny* bit of brown rice..or sprouted bread, like manna bread for a side dish or even desert. Oats are ok as well...

The problem is when you eat out, on the run, most menus contain a grain. I stayed at a La Quinta Inn recently, and the free breakfast was 100 things you can do with bread!

On the other hand, wheat bran truly helps lower cholesterol by essentially "sweeping" it out of your system. There aren't many, if any, other foods that can do that.

The best predicator of heart disease is insulin, not cholestrol or even high blood pressure. If you take a blood test and find your triglycerides high (more that 150) and your HDL cholesterol low (below 35)...this means you are producing too much insulin.

By all means if you have high cholesterol, lower it... if you have to by eating wheat bran (ok in small portions) and oats... Sprouted grains is the best way to go.

In a way, you're right, Dax. But I was more turned off by the way they were dressed. It looked as if they were wearing the same clothes they'd worn in high school.

I work with some morbidly obese people. Actually, I don't know if they've been diagnosed as such but one woman is about 4'10' tall and looks as if she weighs around 200 lbs. and one is 5"4' and looks as if she weighs over 200 lbs. The shortest one is a very pretty woman who always dresses beautifully; the second is older, also an attractive woman, who also dresses well. The third is close to 6" tall and at least 300 lbs and doesn't seem to care how she looks.

And it's all over--local malls, movie theaters, resteraunts. I really don't care how heavy someone is but I can be turned off by the way people often dress. I know, I know! I probably have more unrecognized prejudices. But I recognize this one and am working on it.

Phooey! I am a product of my culture and its standards of sexual attractiveness and make no excuses for mentally evaluating the opposite sex based on that standard. When the "norm" shifts dramatically toward what our culture says is morbidly obese, without the standards of attractiveness shifting along with it, an increasing proportion of our populace appears sexually disgusting. Don't give me that "Reubens" excuse. We aren't talking about some baby fat and 4-months-pregnant tummies. We talking about people so fat that they huff and puff to climb an escalator! People that should be required to buy three seats on an airplane (or two on the aisle, but then the food cart couldn't get by them). Their numbers are definitely on the increase.

If you know that your body is ugly, why dress to show it off? I can understand not being able to control your weight, but dressing in short shorts smacks of just saying "up yours".

If this is a prejudice, I recognize it. But I'm not going to work on it.

Very well said!

By all means. Let's all show our disgust for fat people.

Who's first? Oh, someone already was.

Okay, who's second?

Whatever goes around, comes around... sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but never fails.