Why are Americans so Ashamed to be Obese?

HI DERE

Perhaps we ought to just accept that it is a "disease of affluence"

The fact that it IS a disease is precisely why you should not accept it. Obesity has a multitude of well-documented health risks attached to it. Everything from increased incidences of cancer, to diabetes, joint problems, as well as respiratory and cardiovascular conditions - just to name a few. Obesity is not a moral issue, but it is definitely a health and social issue. America is the favourite target, but people all over the developed world are literally eating themselves to death, and any attempt to normalize the growing trend towards obesity can only be categorized as incredibly irresponsible. In a similar vein, why is everyone so down on alcoholism?

I think making it a moral issue is lame, broadly speaking, but there is something to be said for simply buckling down, hauling ass to the gym, and avoiding the tempting foods. I've lost a lot of weight with a fair-ish amount of effort, but the lower my weight gets the harder it is to keep losing. I've had to really kick it into high gear as of late and the results are still painfully, annoyingly SLOW as hell...and yet here I am stuck in the overweight (but no longer obese) category. It bothers me to think that some people size me up (har) as some lazy, over-eating slob without realized how difficult it was for me to just get to this point. Meh.

*oozes off*

I BLAME THE MEDIA FOR INVENTING THIS CULTURE OF SHAME. WE ARE IN FACT HAPPY FATTIES HOORAH! ALSO, PREVIOUS THREAD IN FACT NICER, ALSO FUNNIER, SO SORRY.

xpost

Why is it irresponsible to normalize obesity?

Because in all of the attempts to make the world more "fat friendly", people sometimes gloss over the rather serious health effects. I'm not talking about a world in which everyone is stick thin. I actually think that people look better with a bit of meat on them. However, what I don't like is seeing and hearing people who are dangerously overweight trying to justify a condition which puts them at risk of coming down with any number of very serious, mostly preventable conditions.

New Hampshire Doctor Outraged By Complaint

POSTED: 5:29 pm EDT August 22, 2005
UPDATED: 6:08 pm EDT August 22, 2005

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating a Rochester doctor because a patient complained that he bluntly told her she needed to lose weight.

Dr. Terry Bennett said that he's outraged by what he calls a baseless complaint. A patient was apparently insulted when Bennett told her that she was obese and could only get healthier by losing weight.

"It's an epidemic in the United States, and it's croaking us," Bennett said.

Bennett said that it's a lecture he gives to many of his overweight patients.

"It's your weight, ... and there's dozens of programs," Bennett said. "You don't have to come in here. You can join Jenny Craig. You can go see Weight Watchers."

Bennett said he tells obese patients that their weight is bad for their health and their love lives. But the lecture drove one patient to write a letter to the Board of Medicine, which has passed on the complaint to the Attorney General's Office.

"Did I sleep with somebody? Did I give somebody drugs? Was I careless? No. End of story," Bennett said. "That should have been the end of it."

Now, other overweight patients are coming to Bennett's defense.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," patient Mindy Haney said. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said that Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but, at first, she didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

Haney is so upset at the complaint that she has started a petition demanding that the attorney general be fired. So far, she's gathered 100 signatures.

Bennett said that the Attorney General's Office tried to get him to settle the matter by agreeing to attend a medical education course, which he refused.

"I'm sorry," Bennett said. "If she's watching, I'm devoutly sorry to have offended you. I didn't mean to offend you. I meant to tell you the truth. And that's what I tried to do."

The Board of Medicine would not comment on the case, but Vice President Kevin Costin said, "Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone."

Bennett said that he thinks his apology should be enough.

If there's one thing I hate more than fat people, its fat people who make the rest of us feel bad about not being fat.

Doesn't it go to quality of life, too? I've never been overweight but used to weigh like 25 pounds more than I do now, and I felt awful and nothing fit properly. Pretty often I could really go for a giant cheeseburger and pizza and fries and a milkshake, but if I eat that stuff I feel gross & unhealthy.

Also I am not sure of statistics but there must be plenty of people who don't look particularly fat on the surface who die of heart attacks or diabetes or cancer. Do they get extra charges or not?

What about heavy people who are in fact healthy, who eat well, excercise daily, have cholesterol levels, blood pressure and heart rates to reflect this?

Fat you can see. So it is easy to assume that this particular fat person spilling onto my seat in the bus is a burden on society with no self control, whereas they might in fact be someone who is constantly struggling to make healthier choices, just that they can't carry around a photo and say "look, I've got heaps better than I was, I'm really trying" to everyone who eyes them with distaste.

I imagine that 'fat activists' who run around saying that they're beautiful and essential members of society in spite of (or because of) their fat might be a bit annoying, because noone wants to encourage kids to grow up with a health risk, but are there really that many of them? I suspect they might be or arguing so fervently their case because they are trying to fight a very large tide of discrimination.

xpost

If that was the case wouldnt Norway and Luxemburg be even fatter than the US?

?? I'm not sure what you meant by "charge people" but if we're talking insurance for example, I know at least here you pay a LOT more for your insurance (if you can even qualify) if you do high risk extreme sports, smoke bajillions of cigs, are a drug user, etc etc.

In the other thread someone posted an article that made an interesting point - it isnt the fatness itself that is a health risk, its what people are often doing/eating to get to that point that is making them sick.

For eg: for the first time in my life I've put on enough weight that now I'm actually wanting to lose some. I eat very well, small portions, and I walk a lot. Why have I put on weight? I drink a hell of a lot. But its the drinking that's making me ill not the extra weight.

Everyone should watch that "Jamies School Dinners" show. It is a shocking example of how bad we have let diets become, esp for children, and how much it affects not only their weight, but even in thin children it affects their digestive system, liver, and mental faculties (ADD etc etc). To me thats the real concern, who cares what size you are because of it.

XP: Thanx, TRZ!

also, she had a drug problem, but no one ever talks about that.

In other spheres of life those people who complain so vigorously about t-shirts may well be humbly listening to their Doctor's warnings and trying to encourage their children to eat less, play more, etc.

Also I wonder (re the warehouse space argument) if there are so many people complaining about not finding clothes that fit, if they were available would they not be snapped up by eager buyers, rather than taking up space? This also applies to slender people with long legs, short women with big busts, people with very small feet...("what do you mean there's no demand? I'm asking for it" etc)

(ps Sorry I was not thinking of insurance but of health care and in NZ which may well be different to other places around the world. As I recall for insurance they don't ask you how much you weigh so much as more direct questions about your likelihood of heart disease, stroke, diabetes. In particular family history and medical history)

this isn't quite right. i know if you regularly engage in risky behaviors like mountain-climbing, skydiving, etc. or smoke heavily, take medication with side-effects, etc. you can bet your life insurance rates will skyrocket.

OTM!!