And i get that. And it is sad that people are mean and others may feel bad.

But we cannot allow the response to be that we allow 'positive imagery' to be shut down, banned and demonized from the public square and replaces by 'fat acceptance' imagery all in the attempt to make those who either failed or choose not to fight or the small portion who simply cannot win the battle against obesity, not feel challenged and 'shamed' by such imagery and messaging.

I totally get that those who are obese will feel more accepted, less centered out and less depressed or challenged in a world where the efforts to promote physical health are silenced and replaced with 'obesity as healthy' images, but that is so very dangerous to society.

And as more of the population just accepts obesity as their fate, the cries to silence the 'physical health' debate will only grow louder.

You have so many doctors today saying they cannot raise obesity with their patients directly or about their kids. The hostility they get back makes it not worth it. The parents have given up trying with the kid and now do not want to face what they see as 'shaming' in being reminded as to why it is so important for them to keep fighting. That 'shaming' they feel is merely education. But yes, education can result in shame, when one fails. True. That is not a reason to not educate.

As i increasingly think that prescription drugs may be societies only way out of this dangerous health decline, I am happy to see breakthroughs like this.

I would prefer if society had the will and strength to deal with this without drugs but I fear that battle has been surrendered.




Newly approved drug heralded as 'game changer' in the growing national obesity crisis

A new ************ treatment is being heralded by some health experts as "groundbreaking," and a potential "game changer" in the growing epidemic of obesity...

"We don't use those terms lightly," Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine professor Dr. Robert F. Kushner, an obesity medicine specialist and trial investigator for the drug, told ABC News. "I've been involved in the field for 40 years. The reason we think that way, it results in amount of weight loss of an average of 15% or more, which we have not seen before."...

The drug targets patients with a BMI over 30, or a BMI over 27 with at least one weight-related comorbidity.

...
"Semaglutide is a paradigm shift from other obesity medications, because it targets the gut as opposed to the brain," ...

For 68 weeks, participants injected themselves weekly with either semaglutide or a placebo. On average, over half of those who received the drug itself lost nearly 15% of their body weight, and over a third achieved a weight loss of at least 20% of their weight.

Current anti-obesity drugs on the market result in a weight loss of about 6% to 12%, according to Kushner...

Obesity has become a major public health crisis, linked to multiple diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. Its metabolic implications were evident during the coronavirus pandemic, placing people with obesity at greater risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.

Given current trends, nearly 1 in 2 American adults will be obese by 2030, according to a 2019 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine...

Although not all experts went as far as to characterize the new treatment as "game changing," many agreed that semaglutide could lead to the advent of a new generation of drugs, which could change the way obesity is treated.

"I think this could represent a shift in the way we think about the disease of obesity," Butsch said. "If we give a medication which could be perceived as a more benign treatment option, and it produces significant effects, then you finally have a shift in getting more and more people to their goal of having a normal body weight, or significantly reducing people who have severe obesity."

The weight loss observed in the trial was often accompanied by health benefits, including improvements in blood pressure, blood lipids and blood sugars...

"With each increment of reduction, you're seeing, potentially, a comorbid condition also being impacted to the better,"

They don't need more advanced drugs they just need to eat less advanced food. A lot of the processed foods are designed to get you to overeat.

Sadly that is not true. We definitely need more advanced drugs and more treatments and perhaps regulation on food.

Not because the path forward to more success against obesity is not self evident and available to most but because much of society has simply given up on this fight.

So drugs/treatments/regulations becomes a way to save them from themselves.

The idea of regulation on food is interesting. I wonder if the companies selling addictive chemical nightmares will eventually be viewed the same way as tobacco companies?

Loads of food regualtion and room for plenty more. They're introducing calorie info in restaurants int the uk which sounds like a good challange but wont apply to anywhere worth eating at.


What a nice thought. I'm far too nice to apply it to people who want to get old.

It has been discussed but the Food lobby is very powerful in ways the tobacco lobby never achieved.

Nothing tells that tale more clearly than the story of Turkey Butts and how the US Food lobby used the World Trade Organization to force certain nations to take and sell this otherwise waste product to the great detriment of their citizens or they would deny them entry to the WTO. A literal 'your physical health or your economic health' forced choice.

Yes Country sovereignty was put at threat because a waste product could make great profits for US companies.

Good luck instituting any meaningful gov't regulation in this area.

'It's a Time Bomb': How the Pacific is Being Fed to Death by Western Food

Make Them Eat Cake
How America is exporting its obesity epidemic.

well we could peface every discussion with 'lol usa'

Not sure what point you are making there but regardless the number of people dealing with over weight issues who are not happy with their state and say so, but cannot find the discipline to lose weight will almost certainly and happily, in large percentages, look to medicines (science) like this to help them achieve their weight loss goals while not having to do as much of the work, to do so.

I do not think there is anything controversial in saying that.

Sure that's fair enough. No objection to helping people do what they want to. Plenty of things I would chose to do if they were easier. That doens't imply it's wrong not to do them when they are harder.

It's the idea of saving people from themselves that is a tad on the patrionising/noxious side.

Fat people are like alcoholics. Part of it is a choice initially at least and then it becomes an illness. But that doesn't mitigate the costs they create for the society that has to care for them.

That sounds more like a description of joggers but ok

I assume no-one actually believes the cost to society argument? - fairly sure that doesn't look pretty for the 'want to get old' brigade but that doesn't matter for me as I'm aware it's a bullshit argument anyway (usually used by the right/etc to argue for crap like family values but handy for bigotry of all forms).

eww at both pictures jesus lol, spoilers next time

Most people with weight issues do not embrace it as you do. They talk about the constant battle, challenge of it. Many claim to eat properly and exercise appropriately despite that mostly not being the case for the vast, vast majority.

So no, I do not think suggesting 'saving those people from themselves' is inappropriate or inaccurate.

They want change and a different outcome and are simply not disciplined enough to achieve it.

And I am not saying that last bit casually or dismissively as I know it is not easy.

I thought both pictures were necessary when i posted them as we see even in this thread the casual linking of anorexia with mental illness while that is dismissed for that type of extreme obesity, despite the linkages almost certainly being the same.

Instead there is an attempt to socialize and normalize even that form of extreme obesity as 'beautiful as you are', and to provide imagery which makes others feel more comfortable in accepting themselves as they are at that weight, which I believe is a massive mistake by society.

I maintain societal pressure is needed and does work, in helping populations adjust behaviour and find motivation. Not just for physical outcomes but for mental ones as well.

Everyone with weigth issues is in a constant battle with it. Including you from what you've said. Me too.

I said patronising and noxious. It's not a matter of truth

It's not a question of easy. We want something that is impossible and it's a question of which compromises we make. Where science, education, information etc can help than excellent reduce the need for compromise then fantastic - can we have some more please. You deciding what is best for everyone else - nah!

The problem with your argument is that negativity and criticism won't solve the issue you are trying to solve, it will make it worse. You believe you are on a crusade to right a wrong, but your tactic isn't one that helps.

Pointing out that obesity is dangerous, sure. Pointing out that less fat is healthy for an obese person, sure. Loudly proclaiming that you think obesity is ugly doesn't do diddly squat. You're just likely to feel people feel bad about themselves and send them into a negative spiral.

People who go around being conscientious about themselves will be less likely to exercise in front of others, they'll be more likely to bouts of depression, which is often connected to eating disorders and can lead to over-eating.

Positivity motivates better than feeling bad. That isn't fluff. It's the stone-cold truth.

I would never do or condone that.

What I am speaking out against is creating in messaging and marketing ad's
a body positivity message around obesity. That is, IMO, the normalization and acceptance of obesity something they would never do with anorexia, outside the fringe fashion industry flirtation with heroin chic which was rightly criticized.

You keep trying to compare to anexoria but they're not remotely equivilent. The problem with aneroxia is that it's commonly people who think they are fat while actually being thin.

Fat shaming makes this worse not better - arguably the condition is entirely down to societies portrayal of thin as good / fat is bad. There is no equivalent of people force feeding themsleves because they think they are thin when in fact they are fat. (Or if there is, it's staggering rare)

Hi Chez,

I would like you to meet Tess Holiday above.

Part of a growing trend of obese people claiming to be anorexic and that they don't over eat, etc.


Tess Holliday Reveals She’s ‘Anorexic and in Recovery’

“I’m not ashamed to say it out loud anymore.”

This week, Tess Holliday shared that she is in recovery from anorexia. The model and activist posted the revelation on Twitter and Instagram, apparently in response to comments about her recent weight loss. Comments like these can be extremely triggering for anybody recovering from an eating disorder (ED), she explained.

“I’m anorexic & in recovery. I’m not ashamed to say it out loud anymore,” Holliday tweeted on May 1. “I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness & equates that to worth, but I get to write my own narrative now....

Holliday, who has for years called out fatphobia, weight discrimination, and concern trolling about her health, elaborated on this message in a May 2 Instagram post. “To everyone that keeps saying ‘you’re looking healthy lately’ or ‘You are losing weight, keep it up!’ Stop," she wrote. “Don’t. Comment. On. My. Weight. Or. Perceived. Health. Keep. It. To. Yourself. Thanks."

Her weight has changed while she practices regular eating patterns to help her body recover from the restrictive eating that characterizes anorexia, she explained. “Yes, I’ve lost weight—I’m healing from an eating disorder & feeding my body regularly for the first time in my entire life.”

The model laid out for followers why, exactly, conflating weight and health is so harmful: It promotes the thin ideal, fatphobia, and diet culture. “When you equate weight loss with ‘health’ & place value & worth on someone’s size, you are basically saying that we are more valuable now because we are smaller & perpetuating diet culture… & that’s corny as hell. NOT here for it.”

There is also a ripple effect, Holliday says, because the compliments reinforce the idea that thinner is more desirable to others in recovery. “When people working on themselves see you commenting to me that way, it hurts THEM, not just me. I can take it (I shouldn’t have to, but I can) but they didn’t ask for that trauma, ok?” she wrote. "If you can’t tell someone they look nice without making it about their size, then baby, please don’t say nuthin at all."
...

--------------


Can Anorexia Nervosa Affect People of Higher Weights?
Atypical Anorexia in Normal and Higher Weight Individuals

and that 'find' is what you want to rest your case against obesity on? by all means we should help people with 'body image disturbance' type disorders but that's not your issue is it?

Plus the article linked is about people starving themselves because fo feat of being fat rather than force feeding themsleves. If anything it should make you even more wary of your shaming project.

If positivity is so wonderful why doesn't anyone use it to help racists or sexists or Trump supporters straighten themselves out? Does this only apply to helping fat people become less fat?

It applies to everything.

Because saying that something works better isn't the same as saying it is a magical solution to a problem.

Obesity isn't the equivalent of anorexia. Anorexia is a mental disorder, a mental disorder is a pattern of behavior that causes distress or impairment of personal functioning.

Obesity is not healthy from a medical perspective, and there might be mental disorder involved in some cases (like bulimia), but obesity doesn't necessitate mental distress or mental impairment of personal functioning. Which is just convoluted way of saying that obese people can be perfectly content. And contrary to the popular belief, being content doesn't mean people are less likely to lose weight. Indeed, a healthy mind is a better starting point towards a healthier body.

But continued bullying, negativity and unrealistic pressures will indeed often push people into depression, anxiety and the realm of mental disorders. When obesity is a factor in that equation of anxiety and depression, you can often see eating disorders develop that makes it harder to lose weight.

Can a magazine or influence get these nuances wrong? Sure. Those people are laymen, even if they mean well they can be misguided. Even if they aren't misguided, they might have a view to sell. Still, in a media environment with models who work out professionally to conform to a beauty standard, have extensive cosmetic surgery, drop water-weight 2 days before a shoot, uses professional lighting and photographers, applies extensive cosmetic preparation and teams of pros post-edits photographs to remove "imperfections", and who continuously hammer the public 24/7 with extraordinarily silly beauty standards, I'd say this thing is a drop in the ocean.