chris_h said:
I have come back after reading the first page off of the link, I should never have put on weight or become diabetic, as if it is caused by sitting on soft sofas, as as a kid I always sat on the floor crossed legged or on my knees, we had polished hardwood floors and my Mother tried her hardest to get me to sit in an armchair, I even sat on a hard chair to eat at the table, even now I mainly sit on a dinning chair, as I find them more comfy, at the computer now I am sitting at the table on a wooden seated chair. Where I can I will still sit on the floor. As does my brother and he like me is diabetic and more over weight than me. If our mother would allow we used to sit on the floor at a coffee table to eat, just like the Japanese, he even lived in Japan for many years, living their life style, and still does now he is home. So sorry again I can't see it.
I’m glad that you posted such a productive comment. It gives me the opportunity to explain a little bit more before I start to talk about “How to lose weight”.
As you see, I’m convinced that the widespread of modern style of upholstered sitting furniture is the main factor that is responsible for the epidemic proportion prevalence of obesity and the epidemic proportion prevalence of type 2 diabetes. (I’m also convinced that the widespread of modern sitting furniture is responsible for a higher prevalence and rising trend of some other negative health conditions, but at the moment for simplicities sake I will leave them aside).
Before the widespread of modern style upholstered sitting furniture happened, mostly the middle aged and the elderly where affected with type 2 diabetes and to a far lesser proportion than today. This fact alone leads to the conclusion that sitting furniture has plenty to do with the type 2 diabetes and on the other hand, it shows that even in the household without modern style upholstered furniture, type two diabetes wasn’t unknown.
Nowadays, in almost every household there is some type of modern style upholstered sitting furniture. On the other hand, amongst a great percentage of households, no one is affected with obesity or type 2 diabetes. Even in household where some member is affected with diabetes, others are not.
On the other side of the coin there are the facts that;
Not all people who are affected with type 2 diabetes are obese.
Many people are just overweight but still they are affected with type 2 diabetes.
Many people are not overweight but still they are affected with type 2 diabetes.
Among obese people, type 2 diabetes is far more common than among overweight people. Among overweight people, type 2 diabetes is more common than among normal weight people.
Those facts lead to an already widespread opinion that the solution for the rising trend of type 2 diabetes is to combat obesity. On the other hand, it seems obvious that by combating obesity it will result in reversing the rising trend of diabetes but it will not entirely combat type 2 diabetes.
The fact that even in households that do not have modern styles of upholstered sitting furniture where diabetes isn’t unknown leads to the conclusion that replacing modern style furniture with traditional ones will not entirely combat diabetes. For people who are already affected with type 2 diabetes is hard to expect a cure for diabetes by simply replacing modern furniture with traditional ones.
Although in my strong opinion replacing modern style upholster sitting furniture with traditional ones would reverse the rising trend of obesity and the rising trend of many other negative health conditions, at the moment I do not advise anyone to change their sitting furniture because for people with certain health condition can produce negative consequences for health. (About that subject, I will try to explain this in one of my future posts.)
The solution for type 2 diabetes (as well as the solution for obesity) isn’t to make any overnight changes (because it can do more harm than good).
Understanding how and to which extent the sitting furniture determines the biomechanics of sitting will be an important step in the attempt to understand how the biomechanics influences the body weight, body weight distribution and health.
More about the biomechanics of sitting on traditional sitting furniture and the biomechanics of sitting on modern style upholstered furniture I will try to explain in one of my future posts and I will be thankful if you participate. There are not many people around that find it more comfortable sitting on a wooden seated chair and that is just one of the reasons why I think that your participation in this discussion will be highly valuable.
In my next few posts I will try to explain how certain types of walking and how walking on different ground effects the body weight. I’m sorry that I couldn’t reply to everyone’s comment but in a few of my future posts I will try to reply on comments relating to body fat distribution and abdominal obesity. Also, I’m sorry that in the next few days I will not be able to concentrate on this topic, and because of that my next post (that will be at the same time as my first post related to “how to lose weight”) will be posted on Saturday (16/01/2010).
I hope that my next post will be “the end of the beginning” of my attempt to explain how to lose weight.