from The New York Times
Update: The following post is very rant-like, my apologies. The research on monkeys upsets me. Do we have to do this to these creatures who can’t make choices to prove that not getting outside and moving one’s body and eating poorly can be deleterious to health? I’m glad we have medical interventions that can help. I also wish that we all could observe a better social ethic around living healthily. Seeing monkeys and humans lose the graciousness of their being in this way makes me ache. There is no other way to say it.
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This article in the NYTimes described obesity research being conducted on primates. Why does reading about primates confined to cages, eating bad foods as they gain pound after pound, tear me apart more than my knowledge of all the people who live this way? So many people get out of bed, trudge to work, eat donuts/muffins/bagel with coffee on the go, sit or stand all day enclosed in a small space, snack to forestall boredom and fatigue, eat unhealthy take-out lunch, then sit, stand and snack some more until its time to go home and watch TV (and snack). Are we any different than those poor research primates, save the fact that no one is studying us? (more…)
Ordinary Earth ™ 