XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   And Venezuela is great at gun rights.   
      
   The next prime minster!   
      
      
    candidate for UK parliament: North Korea and Cuba are the best at   
    fighting obesity   
      
      
   Famine can do wonders for your figure. Are you struggling to shed those   
   stubborn final pounds? Food shortages, vitamin deprivation, and government   
   rationing will help you get over the wall. You may die from it, but the weight   
   loss will make you look    
   fabulous.   
      
   At least, that's the takeaway from a Sky News interview this week featuring   
   double Olympic gold medalist James Cracknell, a member of the Conservative   
   Party who has aspirations of becoming a member of the U.K. Parliament.   
      
   "If you think of the two countries in the world that got a handle on obesity,   
   what do you think they are? Which two countries?" Cracknell asked.   
      
   One of his hosts responded, "I don't know."   
      
   "North Korea and Cuba. They're quite controlling on behavioral change, so   
   there is a place where it has to be worked and you have to get people to buy   
   into it," the Olympian said.   
      
   One host interjected with some fairly important background information, "Yeah,   
   but people are starving in North Korea, aren't they? You know, they're not   
   obese because they haven't got any food."   
      
   "Well, exactly," Cracknell responded. "But there were sanctions and everything   
   else. But the example is behavioral change."   
      
   If it's any comfort to Cracknell, whose comments are being criticized all over   
   social media, he's not alone in suggesting famine is great for weight   
   management.   
      
   Cosmopolitan said basically the same thing a few years ago when it praised the   
   "Cuban diet."   
      
   "Between 1990 and 1995, thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuban   
   people were forced to alter their entire lifestyles. They couldn't afford   
   petrol, so the government provided them with bicycles. People started walking   
   everywhere. Food was also in    
   shorter supply – there were no supermarket aisles stuffed with junk food or   
   wallets stuffed with money with which to buy it," Cosmopolitan's Rosie   
   Mullender wrote in 2013.   
      
   She added, "In short, Cubans could no longer afford to be fat. In that   
   five-year period, they lost an average of around five kilos per person, which   
   is over 11lbs. As a result of people getting slimmer, they also started living   
   longer, with fewer Cubans    
   dying of diabetes and heart disease."   
      
   Going out on a limb here, but pretty sure the Cubans didn't think of the food   
   shortages, economic crisis and government-imposed rationing as a fun,   
   figure-trimming "diet."   
      
   That's like hyping the "Death March of Bataan" for all the calories burned.   
   Think of all the steps those POWs got!   
      
   Cosmopolitan's "Cuban diet" garbage is almost as bad as when it published an   
   article last week about one woman's amazing weight loss story. The woman,   
   31-year-old Simone Harbinson, lost 44 pounds without any exercise!   
      
   Her secret? Cancer.   
      
   To recap: Famine and cancer are great for weight loss, according to   
   Cosmopolitan and a would-be British MP. No word yet on whether the other   
   horsemen of the apocalypse make good personal trainers.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)