Lesbians 2x likely to be obese, and why is that? Options

[jonathan83]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5012769,00.html

LESBIANS are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for obesity-related health problems and death, US researchers said.

The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first large studies to look at obesity among lesbians.

Ulrike Boehmer of the Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues looked at a 2002 national survey of almost 6000 women, and found that lesbians were 2.69 times more likely to be overweight and 2.47 times more likely to be obese.

“Lesbians have more than twice the odds of (being) overweight,” the authors wrote.

This would put them at a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease, among other ailments.

“Our findings indicate that lesbian sexual identity is linked to a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity,” the authors wrote in the study, released this week.

They reviewed smaller studies that have suggested a higher prevalence of obesity among lesbians and the possible reasons why.

“The results of these studies indicate that lesbian women have a better body image than do heterosexual women,” they wrote.

But the authors said they placed little confidence in the idea that lesbians were more muscular than straight women, and thus were more likely to have a high body mass index, or BMI, while having little body fat.

High muscle mass is “unlikely to lead to classification as obese,” the researchers said.

“We reported greater odds of both overweight and obesity in lesbians and we feel confident in asserting that these differences are a result of increased adiposity,” the researchers wrote.

ok they say:
“The results of these studies indicate that lesbian women have a better body image than do heterosexual women,” they wrote.

umm, better body image? Or how about... obese girls can't find any guys so they have to turn to other fat girls. I think that sounds better.

[impala454]

I didn't say it was some cognitive choice that kids make when they turn 12. It is however a feeling, not a biological process. If there's a girl I'm in love with, it's not because I decided "hmm I wanna fall in love with that girl", but it's also not because some chemical in my brain at birth told me I was going to either. I may feel extreme anger towards someone who cuts me off on the road, while another person may not. But I sure as hell don't get angry because of some genetics, it has more to do with how you're raised than anything. If I had been whisked away to some other country and raised by different parents, I'm sure I'd have turned out completely different.

People do change their feelings though, and perhaps someone who's not in as much control over their emotions will change their more fundamental feelings. Let me ask you this, if it's some kind of irreversible (heh, people flip flop being gay all the time) trait at birth, how come certain places have such a high concentration of gays while others don't? It's obviously not because the gay people w/the gay genes are having kids now is it?

I'll tell you why, it's because kids are getting raised without fathers or by people who emotionally castrate their kids before they hit puberty. Parents are teaching their kids that everything masculine is bad, which screws the pooch both ways, little boys act like little girls, and little girls avoid little boys. So... you can either attribute homosexuality to things like this, or you can go on believing there's a random gay switch in everyone's head.

Do I have a problem with gay people? no. Do I think they can just up and change to be straight? no. They can't do that any more than I can change how I was raised. And before you come out with the "but so-in-so was raised 'normal' and they turned gay!", look at the amount of people who completely reject their parents nowadays. Hell just look on here, 9/10 people hate their parents and completely resent them. IMHO bad parenting/divorce is taking our society down the shitter.