[Marxism] Reply to Marvin Gandall on hunger/overeating

["Jurriaan Bendien" <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> There are probably as
> many people in the world today that suffer from overeating and diet
related
> disorders, as there are going hungry.

That's news to me. How do you figure that?

The leader of the Dutch Socialist Party, Jan Marijnissen, claimed this in a
speech prior to the elections here. Their research bureau is usually very
good. I have not verified it, but statistically it could be true. But it is
a bit of a slapstick argument, because how do you define overeating and diet
related disorders ? How hungry is hungry ? :-O

Medically, obesity etc. can be defined in terms of a deviation from average
limits which are known to be healthy for a person living in a given country.
Diet-related disorders are a more difficult challenge for measurement
purposes. In some African countries, women with fat bums are considered
attractive (possibly because they must know how to get food) but point is,
they seem to live quite happily with fat bums, maybe it's genetic or
something. So in what sense have they overeaten then ? As regards hunger,
it's possible to be more precise, because we know miminum limits of food
intake.

J.




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