Survey: Two-Thirds Of Obese Women Are Suicidal

A new public opinion survey in the UK very likely mirrors the state of mind of many overweight and obese people in America.

According to the National Slimming Survey, 99 out of 100 overweight women are unhappy with the way they look because they feel the pressure from their peers and even from the government to look like the beautiful celebrities they see on television and in movies. As a result, overweight and obese women feel more victimized because of their weight problem than ever before.

This survey of 4,000 overweight British women also found that 83 percent of them hated themselves, 91 percent of them felt depressed, and 79 percent were in "utter despair" all because of their weight problem.

What's even scarier than those numbers is the fact that two out of three women in this survey had suicidal thoughts such as "life is not worth living" and 10 percent of them felt this way quite "frequently."

Three-fourths of survey participants admitted they hide food in their bedroom, car, garage and garden and almost half of them cut the size labels out of their clothes.

Despite the popular montra "big is beautiful," 91 percent of the women asked in the survey disagreed and 55 percent said their weight has made their sex life "dire or non-existent."

Nearly one-third of the women surveyed said they would have cosmetic bariatric surgery as soon as possible and 14 percent said they would have it in the future.

Also included in the survey were 1,000 overweight British men, who overwhelmingly (94 percent) said they were made to feel "like second-class citizens" and 71 percent were "poked fun at."

As a man who used to walk this earth at 410 pounds, I can understand most of the feelings expressed by those who participated in this survey. It's no fun being fat and society's disdain for the overweight and obese is ruthless. That is why we need to be looking at a wide variety of ways to help people tackle this issue so substantive solutions can be implemented.

While livin' la vida low-carb is not the end-all answer to everyone's weight problem, it certainly should be a part of the discussion in the debate. Right now it is immediately dismissed as too "controversial" and "dangerous." The only thing dangerous right now is those two-thirds of Americans who walk around either overweight or obese and aren't doing ANYTHING about it. Eating like there's no tomorrow is NOT a healthy way to live and is inviting health problems or even death.

We need to get serious about the problem of obesity because it is having a bigger effect than previously thought not only physically, but also mentally. For the sake of our complete health in mind, body and soul, the low-carb lifestyle should be examined.