The Mainstreaming Of Obesity Continues

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

What if the biggest health risk for overweight people is not their weight but the shame and stigma society and the medical industry imposes on them? That’s the bracing thesis of this extraordinary piece by @RottenInDenmark: https://t.co/d6V8nP7ku5

— Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) September 19, 2018

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.”

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.