It wasn’t that long ago that Leftists, and, yes, this very much is a Leftist push, were telling us that obesity was a bad thing, often because of ‘climate change’ and environmental reasons. They understood that it was bad for the medical sector, driving up costs, and, really, just being bad for people. But, now, the Party Of Science has decided to ignore medical science in favor of social justice warrioring
https://twitter.com/lpolgreen/status/1042424647793471488
A snippet from the article
Which brings us to one of the largest gaps between science and practice in our own time. Years from now, we will look back in horror at the counterproductive ways we addressed the obesity epidemic and the barbaric ways we treated fat people—long after we knew there was a better path.
About 40 years ago, Americans started getting much larger. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 80 percent of adultsand about one-third of children now meet the clinical definition of overweight or obese. More Americans live with “extreme obesity“ than with breast cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and HIV put together.
And the medical community’s primary response to this shift has been to blame fat people for being fat. Obesity, we are told, is a personal failing that strains our health care system, shrinks our GDP and saps our military strength. It is also an excuse to bully fat people in one sentence and then inform them in the next that you are doing it for their own good. That’s why the fear of becoming fat, or staying that way, drives Americans to spend more on dieting every year than we spend on video games or movies. Forty-five percent of adults say they’re preoccupied with their weight some or all of the time—an 11-point rise since 1990. Nearly half of 3- to 6- year old girls say they worry about being fat.
The emotional costs are incalculable. I have never written a story where so many of my sources cried during interviews, where they double- and triple-checked that I would not reveal their names, where they shook with anger describing their interactions with doctors and strangers and their own families. One remembered kids singing “Baby Beluga†as she boarded the school bus, another said she has tried diets so extreme she has passed out and yet another described the elaborate measures he takes to keep his spouse from seeing him naked in the light. A medical technician I’ll call Sam (he asked me to change his name so his wife wouldn’t find out he spoke to me) said that one glimpse of himself in a mirror can destroy his mood for days. “I have this sense I’m fat and I shouldn’t be,†he says. “It feels like the worst kind of weakness.â€
You see what they’re doing, right? Making obese people Victims, making this about Feelings. Once this is done, they can move on and forget about what medical science says, which is that being overweight is mostly not a good thing.
The second big lesson the medical establishment has learned and rejected over and over again is that weight and health are not perfect synonyms. Yes, nearly every population-level study finds that fat people have worse cardiovascular health than thin people. (we could probably just stop there) But individuals are not averages: Studies have found that anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are metabolically healthy. They show no signs of elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance or high cholesterol. Meanwhile, about a quarter of non-overweight people are what epidemiologists call “the lean unhealthy.†A 2016 study that followed participants for an average of 19 years found that unfit skinny people were twice as likely to get diabetes as fit fat people. Habits, no matter your size, are what really matter. Dozens of indicators, from vegetable consumption to regular exercise to grip strength, provide a better snapshot of someone’s health than looking at her from across a room.
No one is claiming that it is a good idea to be too skinny, especially if they are out of shape. That’s a strawman and a deflection. Anyhow, the article goes on and on and on and on, but, this is about mainstreaming obesity. I see it almost daily on Yahoo News. We see it in fashion magazines, and even in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, where they featured a “plus sized“, ie, obese, model in a swimsuit. They’re trying to make it OK to be fat. Why? Who knows the mind of a Leftist. Most who support this are just parroting talking points.
Medical science says being fat is not good. I’m pretty darned fit in terms of muscle. I go to the gym 3-5 times a week, based on work schedule. I do eat lots of fruits and veggies. But, I know that I need to lose 20-25 pounds. I’ve certainly replaced a lot of fat with muscle, but, I still need to lose some weight. Because it is healthier. It’s time to stop mainstreaming people staying fat. We don’t need to shame them, we can help them, but, not entice them to continue their unhealthy lifestyle.
I have mixed feelings about the “obesity epidemic” but I do not have any doubts about the left’s campaign to divide Americans into grievance groups for political gain. And then using that to pressure and ultimately mandate everyone else’s behavior.
I want everyone to be free to live life as they choose, and that includes being fat. Dare to be fat! And everyone should have to bear the costs of their choices. And that’s where the left’s logic always leads. They want government to pay for everything, and therefore they want to control everyone’s behavior because it affects government costs. Just get the hell out of people’s lives and the problems work themselves out.
I dated a woman last year who sells hospital beds. More than half go into private homes. The big beds for big people cost $60,000! Because they have folding sides or something. I think the high prices are because of insurance and medicaid. I know an undocumented immigrant carpenter who could build a giant’s bed frame for $300 and he’d feed his family for a week on the profit.
I used to like being bigger and stronger, but as I reached middle age I made a conscious decision that I would prefer to be lighter as I got older. Less strain on the joints and back, better cardio, easier to get around, and I’m faster on my bicycle. I lost 40 pounds, gradually over a few years, no big deal, no big diets, just exercised regularly and avoided desserts. Another benefit is that it put me in the position to have relations with women who also keep slim, fit, active, and sexy. This had made my life fuller, happier, warmer, with wonderful travel and love. And some heartbreak but that’s part of life. I’m very thankful for being in this place in my life.
This article does a disservice to heavy people who are normal, happy people with rich lives. I’ve met plenty of those. I know some very successful obese people who live enviable lives and are popular in their community. They might even joke about their weight from time to time, but a lot of people would love to be them. Its not all tears and depression in the fat world.
Heavens! Mainstreaming??? The last thing America needs is more kindness and understanding!
Do you really have a problem with treating obese people as if they are just people? Perhaps this is just characteristic of conservatives to want to denigrate others.
Finding a partisan angle in the article shows your own bias.
Anyway, the crux of the article is to focus less about weight per se and more on actual behaviors that one can control, e.g., exercise, healthier diet, don’t smoke, no unprotected sex with strangers, wearing seatbelts, no illicit drugs etc, and working with your physicians to prevent and treat medical conditions. Shaming and yo-yo dieting has not worked.
Kindness and understanding? Talk about cruel to be kind!
You want anybody you love (if such a thing were possible) dying of a heart attack or stroke at 40?
Consider a 20 year old “man”, 400 pounds, blood sugar of 400, and already blown out a knee by just standing on it. Consider a 600 pound woman that can’t get in bed without a mechanical lift.
And you can control eating. Just push it away. People have been doing it for millennia. These 500 pound monsters wee unknown until the Left started pushing the slob culture.
You’re always stupid and always wrong (usually because of the Lefty rot you’re pain minimum wage to peddle), but this hits a new high in low.
You’re so, so dumb. So dumb. And filled with hate.
Do you really think that 500 pound Americans are a real health problem in the US? Do you really think someone is 500 pounds because liberals weren’t critical enough of them? Maybe if you had just called this person a monster more often, they would have lost weight. You’re so dumb.
Nino rant calling people dumb and filled with hate.
Bwaha!!!
The Oppressed vs the Oppressor strikes again. Social issues are of little consequences to me on the right unless they start hitting my bottom line. What ever your thing in the land that guarantees you can do your thing is alright with me as long as your thing does not trample on others constitutional rights.
I don’t care about fat people. I see obesity as a personal problem, not a public problem that needs to be “solved”. As long as I don’t have to sit next to them on the airplane, or be forced into participating in a government regulated health care plan where I have to subsidize other people’s pre-existing conditions and known health care costs, I really don’t have a dog in that fight. Oh… wait.