Wearing Shoes Bad For your Health?

Loafer writes "Are American sneakers--not American fast food--actually responsible for the obesity epidemic? It may seem like a laughable notion at first; however, not even the best nutritionists, working hard over the last century, have successfully identified a diet that permanently controls morbid obesity. Evidently, something else, besides food, is hindering the ability of overweight Americans to lose excess weight. Well, obesity is extremely rare in Japan, and the Japanese practice the custom of removing their shoes upon entering a home, office, or restaurant, replacing them with more-comfortable slippers, socks, or simply bare feet. Yet in the United States, where obesity is visibly widespread, shoes are worn constantly. Indeed, footwear appears to be a cause of disease in humans."

Comments

Question for the observant

[jilbert]

Has anyone spotted the non-April fool's story on Slashdot today?

Guys..

[Dogers]

Okay, seriously, enough. Give up. People arent visiting the site anymore, look at the number of comments.. 200+, 160, 90, 30, none.

Lets have some regular slashdot news now, yeah?

Riiiiight

[MudButt]

And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we'll drive for 45 minutes in a parking lot so we don't have to walk an extra 12 feet.

GO LOGIC!

[Anonymous Coward]

Japanese arent obese... because they dont wear shoes. There hasnt been a terrorist attack since 9/11.. because of the department of homeland security. I havent been attacked by any tigers lately because... I have switched my shampoo to head and shoulders. Yes, this is a leap in logic Yes, i will get flaimed

The footbone is connected to the immune system.

[tyman]

The purpose of Shoebusters.com is to stimulate interest, discussion, and research about the effects of shoes and socks on major human illnesses and conditions such as obesity, depression, fatigue, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, and even the common cold, to name but a handful.

Maybe, just maybe there could be a connection between arthritis, fatigue and maybe depression caused by really ugly shoes. But since when are the systems in the human body that cause and are affected by asthma, heart disease and the common cold even closely connected to your feet?

Well

[metlin]

This study sounds like Michael Crichton's Caltech on Aliens cause Global Warming.

Hey, if you can correlate any two events without providing proof and can even claim it to be valid science, the shoe-argument is fair enough.

Without shoes

[crywolf]

how am I going to keep my iPod Socks from getting damaged?

And most of us thought it was cause we drive

[WillAffleck]

While it may depend on the shoe - for example, Earth Shoes - in fact, sandals appear to be the best footwear for practical use.

But, if you insist on wearing western-style shoes, the practice of taking them off on entering a home not only will help your feet, it will reduce the amount of dirt, microbes, and dust mites that enter your domicile.

Also, since most American women's shoe sizes are two sizes too small for their actual feet, this can have a major impact just in reducing cramping into too small spaces.

Japan was the only country...

[sharkb8]

Japan was the only country to bomb Pearl Harbor. Maybe if we bombed Pearl Harbor ourselves, we'd all lose weight?

How 'bout if we nuked ourselves (twice). Would we all miraculously lose weight?