Accommodating obesity

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Accommodating obesity

of Goliath Casket poses with the company's largest stock

size of casket, 53 inches wide, at the firm's shop in Lynn, Ind.

Caskets are normally about 27 inches wide. AP

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

NEW YORK — From the cradle to the grave and most points between,

obesity has found its niche in American marketing. Make that a wide

berth.

Baby seats, doorways and caskets are but a few examples from a long

list of life's accouterments that are getting much bigger to

accommodate much bigger people. There are also vacation resorts for

those embarrassed to be seen in a bathing suit.

At Freedom Paradise on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, the chairs are

wider and without arms, to prevent getting stuck; the beds are king-

sized and reinforced, to prevent collapsing; and the beach is

private and secluded, to prevent gawking and staring.

" You should not be embarrassed by how big you are, " said

Fabrey, whose online business " Amplestuff " offers larger versions of

everyday things from umbrellas to footstools. " You can't just yell

at someone and tell them to lose weight. You're already dealing with

people who think they have no worth.

" They still have to sit down on a chair that doesn't collapse, " he

said.

Like others in this small but growing group of businesses, Fabrey

started his company after discussions with an overweight

friend. " She was a big woman, and she said, 'There's got to be an

easier way to get through the day.' "

To make living large a little easier, Fabrey sells lotion

applicators and sponges attached to handles — enabling the user to

reach all parts of the body; handbooks on hygiene with tips on

dealing with odor problems, chafing and irritations caused by skin

folds. His business also provides links to physicians and medical

services.

" We don't take any position on whether someone should lose weight, "

Fabrey said. " That's up to the person. "

Seemingly every day, another study appears that shows the United

States is becoming a country of fat people. According to the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 71 percent of men

weigh too much, along with about 61 percent of women and 33 percent

of children.

As Americans grow in weight, their life expectancy becomes shorter —

by as much as five years, according to the latest national

statistics — more than the impacts of heart disease and cancer.

Obesity is fast approaching tobacco as the No. 1 cause of

preventable death.

The price tag to taxpayers, according to the CDC, is a whopping $117

billion a year, a figure that some health experts dispute, claiming

the government numbers are based on faulty data. Not disputed,

according to obesity specialists, is the amount Americans spend

trying to get thinner — $33 billion a year.

U.S. Surgeon General Carmona sounded a dire warning last

month, telling university students in South Carolina " obesity is the

terror within, " and that unless people start getting thinner, " the

magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist

attempt. "

Such pronouncements help fuel criticism that catering to bigger

people really means throwing wide the door to death by overeating.

But for those who are overweight, who know full well how it feels to

be sneered at, laughed at, pitied and scorned, having a simple tool

such as a sponge on a stick, or a sturdy footstool that can bear up

to 500 pounds, makes one feel a little more human. And a little less

demonized.

Even toddlers have joined the overweight ranks, with car seat

manufacturers offering the " Husky, " which is 10 pounds heavier and

four inches wider than the standard size.

Bliss, a self-described " chubby chick " in suburban

Philadelphia offers " plus-size fitness and lifestyle coaching. "

Which means, she says, encouraging overweight clients to exercise as

best they can, to eat healthily and to not focus on losing pounds.

" People cannot just stop being fat, " she says. " It's prejudice when

you say a fat person does not need things to make them comfortable, "

she says. " People crumble when you given them even more pressure on

top of a life that's already not working. "

To make caring for the overweight ill easier, and to make patients

more comfortable, there also are specialized medical products for an

ever-growing clientele.

Treating the obese is called bariatric care, from Greek root meaning

weight. Providing it means hospitals are paying for wider beds,

wider wheelchairs, wider doorways, longer needles and bigger CT scan

machines. As well as larger gowns and extra-sized slippers.

And for the end of life's road, coffin makers have introduced new

lines with higher-gauge steel and widths of up to 28 inches, from

the standard 24.

In Indiana, the Batesville Casket Co. calls it " a little extra room

for life's final journey. "