Wednesday 7 October 2009

Where there's hate, there's money

Looking at a subtly named report on the potential price of being hated it's pretty apparent that the writer has picked up on what fat people have discovered-yet again that fact is not mentioned, because whether we are being shamed or 'rescued' it has to be done to us- that the obesity crisis wallahs are trying to bring about their prophecy of fat ill health.

Whether fatness is intrinsically unhealthy or not is a moot point if you just manipulate factors to heighten this potentiality. Namely, the prophecy of the self fulfilling kind.

Again, the purpose of the obesity crisis, is to perpetuate itself, it has nothing to do with helping people;

The motivation is generous enough: Anti-obesity rhetoric encourages people to eat less and exercise more.

Yeah, we'll be the judge of that thanks, this line might work if you've had no experience of generosity whatsoever, I have, and I know it isn't. The so called 'well meaningness' of any participants is an irrelevancy, because you don't need to stigmatize people or take part in it to help them, that is your choice. Well meaning doesn't = well doing, and if you care enough, you'll stop flattering yourself.

Note that this list of in this case, US diet industry includes along with the usual suspects of commercial diet centre chains, the lodestars of healthism; the exercise industry, dietitians. Then there's the medical professions still pretending that dieting is scientifically valid and the merry cutters of weight loss surgery,(they ought to be laughing all the way to the bank) and big Pharma. Lovely.

It also expresses why I can't really get excited about whether BMI's uselessness, it's not any more useless than any other measure;

But even the most accurate measures of fatness—like dual energy X-ray absorptiometry—don't really improve our ability to predict health outcomes across the population

Most people in FA retain still accept the likelihood that the higher up the weight scale you get and retain an open mind, still, on whether fatness in general is intrinsically a health issue, unfortunately, as usual the 'proof' of the latter, is non-human;

That's not to say obesity won't affect your body, independent of any social factors. As Muennig points out, obese lab rodents aren't likely to suffer much emotional abuse from their fellow mice, but they seem to have higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines nonetheless.

Unsurprisingly, health bigwigs, don't take any of these concerns seriously, especially our old friend Kelly Brownell;

For Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center and a leading researcher on both health policy and weight bias, the dangers of discrimination are important but relatively modest. What about the idea that targeting obesity might be counterproductive for the fattest Americans? He doesn't buy it.

Oh really Kelly? This incidentally, is a man who started off his career plump and has grown bigger, whilst preaching to others about weight loss and the perils of fat. Without any explanation, as to why he could neither prevent his own weight gain or return to his former plumpness- I won't put on him the onerous task of acquiring thinness.

He has been well validated by the establishment, so I suppose that's his reward, all though he's been of absolutely no use to any one who might actually need help. That kind of sums it all up really.

* Amended to fix link

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