Obesity Is Not Okay
Why glamorizing obesity is reckless
There’s an insidious disease sweeping across our western world. It’s one of the leading causes of premature death and is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions, and lower quality of life.
Obesity.
Over 40% of American adults are obese and if this were some other condition not related to behavior, health professionals and governments would be shouting from the rooftops about it.
Unfortunately, it appears that the growing rates of obesity are being hidden under the blanket of body positivity movements, blurring the lines of health for individuals, healthcare professionals and governments.
Now, please hear my heart, this article isn’t about denigrating appearance, it is about health. I can hear some skepticism and let me wave my ‘white flag’ before getting into a war with anyone.
In my personal life, a person’s size, shape and appearance don’t affect me one bit. In my house, my husband and I deliberately avoid terms like ‘diets’ and saying things like “I need to lose weight”. Rather we talk in terms of needing to eat nutritious food to keep our bodies healthy.
Professionally speaking, however, as a diabetes specialist, size does matter. 99% of the people I see in my diabetes clinic with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. As weight increases, the burden on the economy, healthcare system and physical and mental health grow.
With society recklessly moving towards the ‘healthy at any size concept,’ our nation is being set up to fail, in the race against reducing rates of heart disease, depression and type 2 diabetes.
The notion of being ‘healthy at any size’ is simply not true.
Being obese puts strain on muscles and joints which can lead to osteoarthritis and pain. In obesity, the heart needs to work harder to effectively supply oxygen and nutrients to the body which causes increases in blood pressure. Additionally, the body’s cells develop insulin resistance that can lead to type 2 diabetes, which in turn can affect the kidneys, heart, circulatory system, eyes, feet, brain and nerves.
The problem with obesity is that it’s extremely personal. This drives reluctance to address it as a health condition.
Nowadays if I, as a health professional try to raise a concern with a patient about their weight, I leave myself open to being referred to as ‘fat-shaming,’ I’m mean and unsympathetic.
If the same patient had celiac disease, it would be more than reasonable for me to encourage the patient not to eat gluten. Yet, with obesity, encouraging lifestyle changes and psychological support is somehow inconsiderate.
For this reason, I know that I sometimes shy away from the discussion. I don’t want anyone to feel bad about themselves. So then, by not addressing the condition, I’m not helping with treatment, which then leads to more health problems. Like celiac disease, if I don’t inform the person to stop eating gluten then their risk of developing gastric cancers increases.
Health professionals and governments need to be allowed to state the facts — obesity is a complex disease that requires multidisciplinary intervention and support. If the obesity pandemic is not addressed the health and well-being of society ‘at large’ is in danger.
Whilst protests have been accepted against underweight models inadvertently promoting eating disorders, social media indicates many are happy to defend the glamorization of obesity. The impassioned ‘healthy weight at any size’ advocates are not promoting physical and mental health, despite their belief that they are.
They are unwittingly promoting rates of depression, with it being reported that 43% of adults in America with depression are obese. Whilst causation goes both ways, putting a band-aid over the psychological, environmental and social issues that often precipitate obesity is not helping anyone.
When society starts vocalizing that being obese is okay, what is unconscionably being promoting is a decline in health. There’s a big difference, yet currently, a messy fine line, between promoting self-love and promoting an unhealthy lifestyle.
Instead of stepping up as a society to try and address the root causes for obesity such as mental health issues, unhealthy product commercialization, and socioeconomic and health literacy determinants, it appears as though, contentment has been found in a less offensive approach — ‘health at any size.’
By glamorizing obesity and instantly attacking anyone who tries to raise the alarm about the issue, we’re essentially defending being overweight in order to feel better about ourselves.
Individuals and society would be much better served by shifting focus towards lifestyle modifications that actually make people feel good through encouraging health.
Replacing the glamorization of obesity and the ‘healthy at any size’ lie with fervent advocacy towards improving access to healthy food, health education and psychological support will make people feel much better about themselves in the long run. Such would support improved physical health and mobility, reduced rates of mental health disorders, longer life expectancy, enhanced quality of life and well-being.
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