Taking responsibility for obesity

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This is a brilliant article.

The author, Karen Hitchcock, is a doctor and writer.

She makes some interesting and excellent observations and gives an insight into a doctor's perspective when dealing with obese patients, often with chronic disease.

http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/march/1361848247/karen-hitchcock/fat-city
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  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    I read this today and really enjoyed it.
  • GeekAmour
    GeekAmour Posts: 262
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    Thanks for sharing, loved it.
  • DragonSquatter
    DragonSquatter Posts: 957 Member
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    Very much agree with this also. Good read.
  • REDI4CHANGE60
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    Great article ... thanks for sharing!
  • MCLA4mom
    MCLA4mom Posts: 219 Member
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    loved this article! Thank you
  • luvriden
    luvriden Posts: 52
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    Wow, this is a thought provoking article that is very sad and depressing. I'm glad I read it.
  • Iceman420
    Iceman420 Posts: 195
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    Wow....just wow. Thank you so much for posting this article. It's a real wake up call for me.
  • dwalt15110
    dwalt15110 Posts: 246 Member
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    Wonderful article. Thanks for sharing.
  • megaen29
    megaen29 Posts: 95 Member
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    What a great read! Thanks for posting the link :)
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    Great article, thanks for posting it.
  • TOPSmarca
    TOPSmarca Posts: 187 Member
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    Thanks!!! Bump!
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
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    Wow...great article. Depressing, yes, but insightful and interesting.
  • violettatx
    violettatx Posts: 230 Member
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    I read that article last night and I think it brings up some excellent points. I was talking to my employee at work about it today. She has MS and is quite young. She is always upbeat and very positive. Her take on it is why would anyone not do something about being obese? After all, they CAN do something about it before is seriously affects their health. Others are not so lucky.
  • teresab101
    teresab101 Posts: 56 Member
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    Bump
  • cappri
    cappri Posts: 1,089 Member
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    I had a friend who had been anorexic and spent her teenage years in and out of hospital, being fed through a nasogastric tube. She recovered in her 20s and managed to channel all of her intrusive obsessional thinking about food into athletics. One day she said to me that she didn’t understand why she could be hospitalised against her will for not eating enough, and yet there was no limitation on how fat you could get. It was completely unfair, she said, that you could be refused alcohol if intoxicated but roll into your local fish-and-chip shop 100 kg overweight and be served the equivalent of a week’s worth of calories for lunch.

    That right there. Just WOW!
  • ehimass
    ehimass Posts: 92 Member
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    "He has no friends, no money to buy other consumables, little education, no partner, no job. Some days he doesn’t leave his bed. The choice for him is to eat this food or experience no pleasure. "

    Wow, that hits a little close to home, and for myself, strikes to the heart of the matter (sans the education and job part).
  • astrovivi
    astrovivi Posts: 183 Member
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    Oh hey, I don't think it's depressing. I think it's a wake up call to everyone ... we should be taking responsibility for our health.

    I think the message is that doctors can feel helpless when faced with patients who are obese or who rock up asking for a solution that doesn't involve them actually doing something positive about their own diet (and exercise, lifestyle).

    I like that she encourages a focus away from aesthetics and more on health. This is important for everyone and a good message for anyone at the extremes of healthy weight, whether obese or extremely underweight.
  • astrovivi
    astrovivi Posts: 183 Member
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    I had a friend who had been anorexic and spent her teenage years in and out of hospital, being fed through a nasogastric tube. She recovered in her 20s and managed to channel all of her intrusive obsessional thinking about food into athletics. One day she said to me that she didn’t understand why she could be hospitalised against her will for not eating enough, and yet there was no limitation on how fat you could get. It was completely unfair, she said, that you could be refused alcohol if intoxicated but roll into your local fish-and-chip shop 100 kg overweight and be served the equivalent of a week’s worth of calories for lunch.

    That right there. Just WOW!

    yes I loved that too. As someone who also had anorexia in her teens, I used to wonder the same thing :O
  • newmein2013
    newmein2013 Posts: 674 Member
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    Great read. Thanks for posting.
  • shortie_sarah
    shortie_sarah Posts: 177 Member
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    thanks for sharing. There is someone that I really wish I could show this to but I would just be told that I'm "judging" her or something along those lines...