Is obesity a disease or a symptom?

Not sure what to think whether obesity should be classified as a disease. It will be interesting to see how insurance companies will handle this issue. I think the bottom line is to find out the root causes of why obesity is so widespread in our society and to address those issues. I

It is definately not a disease... it is a condition or a sympton or in some cases an illness

I have a chronic genetic disease - which can only be controlled with medication. Nothing I will ever do or eat will change the fact I have this disease...

Im not saying in all cases obesity is a choice - but generally people are obese cause they eat too much and dont exercise enough.. this can be due to a mental illness, being under educated about healthy living or it may be mere laziness and love of food. There are many reasons whichcan make a person obese..

However, in my opinion it is not a disease!

Not to derail anything, but I think it's important that we remind ourselves what obesity is before we start giving our own opinions. It's really not that difficult to be considered "obese" in America, because the definition tends to be based off body fat % and BMI. According to the app here on MFP, a 5'10" male weighing more than 209lbs is Obese. For the guy who is simply overweight, yeah he doesn't have a disease, so putting down the donut will work just fine, but for the person with 60+ lbs to lose, then yeah, we're talking about an entire lifestyle change, not that different from the lifestyle change that someone with diabetes or alcholism needs to make to get themselves healthy.

When the AMA calls something a "disease", that doesn't mean that it's viral or bacterial. It means that it's a condition that most people can't overcome by sheer willpower. Everyone here on MFP is getting help through the site, if nothing else, so we can't claim that we're doing it 100% by ourselves. We're making use of tools, information, education, etc., to better combat something that we were having difficulty with on our own.

And for everyone who wants to blame capitalism for Obesity in America: Take off the tinfoil hat and grow up. No one is sitting in a boardroom going, "Man, how can I rip off America and slowly kill it's people today for my own selfish needs?"

Actually alcoholism can be a genetic disease. Most people don't want to hear it but about 20% of people actually have changes in the chemical receptors in their brains. People are extremely prejudice against people who are alcoholics and they are constantly thrown under the bus because most people drink and don't want to hear about how it actually is a genetic illness. With that said there are people that just drink to much regularly.

And for everyone who wants to blame capitalism for Obesity in America: Take off the tinfoil hat and grow up. No one is sitting in a boardroom going, "Man, how can I rip off America and slowly kill it's people today for my own selfish needs?"

I agree with most of what you're saying. A disease can certainly be self-inflicted. It's my fault if I get an STD after unsafe sex and it's my fault if I become obese after having an unsafe diet.

I don't blame capitalism for obesity, but it certainly isn't helping. People are certainly sitting in a boardroom asking themselves "Man, how can I convince a bunch of people that they need something that not only do they not need, but is actively harmful to them? I need them to buy as much as possible so that I can make money." This is the nature of a consumer culture and the purpose of advertising. Capitalism has a vested interest in making it as easy and stigma-free to consume vast quantities of goods, particularly goods that need to be consistently replaced. It's how companies survive.

And for the record, I like my tinfoil hat. When I feel depressed, I put it on and look at myself in the mirror. It's impossible to take one's self seriously while wearing a tinfoil hat. Try it. You'll thank me.

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Its a disease just like alcoholism is a disease.

:huh:

Mental Illness.


Compulsive excessive drinking = alcoholism (slightly different from the physical dependence that comes about, as if it were about the dependence, people would stop being alcoholics after the first detox)

Compulsive overeating = obesity


I agree that the word obesity usually describes the symptoms of overeating rather than the act of getting there. But the principle is sound - it's a mental health problem, just like other compulsive detrimental behaviours are.

[/quote] So, sometimes it is not simply "throwing sunshine at people," it is truly an addiction.
[/quote]

You're right - it's throwing sunshine at people AND redefining "disease" so that insurance will cover the costs. I'm okay with the 2nd part.

I'll probably get drilled for saying this but I think obesity is simply the result of bad decisions. Bad decisions about what to eat, whether to work out, whether to deal with stress by eating, etc. I've been there and that's why I was overweight.:ohwell:

I know I'm replying late, but I think this is a pretty important topic and I didn't want to not reply to these.

I also find huge issues with some people in this thread who automatically assume that obesity squarely sits on the shoulders of those who are obese. Yes, personal responsibility is a factor, but there are other deep psychological and physiological reasons that keep people from losing weight. Losing weight is not an easy thing. It's not as simple as "put down the doughnuts!"

Losing weight is pretty simple and you don't even have to put down the doughnuts when losing weight

No, you don't have to put down the doughnuts, but to pretend that losing weight is a simple concept and that the millions of people who are struggling with it and have tried countless times to lose weight only to have failed simply weren't trying hard enough because it's easy is completely moronic.

What about the fact that sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup (which has found its way into basically everything) reduce the amount of leptin (the chemical that makes you feel full) in the blood, and if you're not mindful of that you will continue eating even though you have had enough. That has nothing to do with personal responsibility, but moreso being the victim of greedy corporations who want you to buy more of their product. Here is the science behind that:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/4/537.long

Lol Bray. So where does it say it will reduce the amount of leptin in the blood? Unless you're talking about reference 24, in which case leptin was reduced compared to a high glucose diet. But if you want to go by fructose = bad cause "reduces that amount of leptin in the blood", everyone should stay away from fruit, right?

Umm... right here? This says absolutely nothing about needing a high glucose diet.

Insulin release can modulate food intake by at least 2 mechanisms. First, Schwartz et al (18) have argued that insulin concentrations in the central nervous system have a direct inhibitory effect on food intake. In addition, insulin may modify food intake by its effect on leptin secretion, which is mainly regulated by insulin-induced changes in glucose metabolism in fat cells (19, 20). Insulin increases leptin release (21) with a time delay of several hours. Thus, a low insulin concentration after ingestion of fructose would be associated with lower average leptin concentrations than would be seen after ingestion of glucose. Because leptin inhibits food intake, the lower leptin concentrations induced by fructose would tend to enhance food intake.

If we were eating fruits in the same amounts that we are eating HFCS, then yes, I would say stay away from fruits. But we're not, so eat fruit. The point that I was making is that HFCS is in pretty much everything, and has disastrous effects when compared to natural sweeteners.

And since junk food has been deliberately designed to be addictive we can talk about how, when someone does decide to go on a diet and quit junk food, they go through the same symptoms as drug withdrawal--on par with cocaine and meth. Here is an article about the science behind that:

http://www.livescience.com/25588-junk-food-withdrawal.html

When you say someone, did you mean your pet mouse, since that article was talking about a study on mice.

There is a reason that scientists use mice for dietary research. Even though the digestive systems between mice and humans are not completely alike, there are enough similarities to make substantive preliminary judgments. If you are going to throw out all scientific conclusions because they were based on studies on mice, have fun living in the dark ages, I guess.

And for everyone who wants to blame capitalism for Obesity in America: Take off the tinfoil hat and grow up. No one is sitting in a boardroom going, "Man, how can I rip off America and slowly kill it's people today for my own selfish needs?"

There is a direct correlation between obesity and poverty:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/1/6.full

So yes, I would blame capitalism to some extent for obesity. Large food conglomerates may not be saying "How can I rip off America?" but they are saying "What can we do to sell the largest amount of product to increase our profits?" The answer to that question is largely "Remove expensive natural products from our recipes and replace them with cheaper chemical alternatives such as High Fructose Corn Syrup," which directly links to obesity.

I don't know if obesity is a disease but I definitely feel that over eating or eating to much, how ever you want to word it is an addiction. You can't control yourself just like a person with a drinking problem can't control them selves. Disease to me is something that can be caught from some one and cured, being bigger than what society deems you is not a disease and its not everyone else problem. Its your own. Its not like you can breathe on someone and they become obese.