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Thoughts on the “glamourizing/normalizing” obesity vs body positivity conversations

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Replies

  • rwecker5782
    rwecker5782 Posts: 14 Member
    Although fascinated with this thread, I couldn't read all comments before I wanted to add something.
    Humans are attracted to and love looking at beautiful, healthy, strong things including people. That said, there is a wide range of what people think is beautiful, healthy, and strong looking!
    Unhealthy people are a cost to society in healthcare and other ways.
    The food industry reminds me of TikTok and other media: They expertly and scientifically grab us and keep us coming back to them for things that increase their bottom line, not to things that benefit our health and well being! And on top of it all, we are then "blamed" for our predicaments! We are labeled "addicts" and "lazy". It is hard to eat well and live well when we are being unwittingly controlled and sabotaged by corporations that know exactly how to manipulate our brains and bodies.

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,453 Member
    Lol so if you've been in some 3rd world countries, heavier people are usually richer. No wonder all those countries think Americans are rich. :D

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Lol so if you've been in some 3rd world countries, heavier people are usually richer. No wonder all those countries think Americans are rich. :D

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png

    Yes, this was certainly true for the one Costa Rican village with which I am familiar.

    (And the non-heavy / non-wealthy people ate a high percentage of carbs, so take that, carb-demonizers.)
  • siberiantarragon
    siberiantarragon Posts: 265 Member
    @nooshi713

    I was watching World News Tonight last night and they claimed that many of the deaths in Los Angeles were occurring among "younger people with no pre-existing conditions." I thought of this discussion and how the news was probably exempting obesity and undiagnosed conditions from that list.
    mariamsmb1 wrote: »
    Diabetes is the biggest health crisis in our country right now, IMO.

    Diabetes is a big reason why I'm trying to eat healthier and exercise more. I've never been overweight, but I have PCOS which increases the risk of diabetes, and type 2 diabetes runs in my family. One of my older close relatives is pre-diabetic despite not being overweight and generally eating healthy and exercising regularly. Another close relative got it despite having a very physically demanding job for most of their life. So the people who can reverse their diabetes just by losing weight or changing their diet are lucky, in a sense.

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    nooshi713 wrote: »
    I'm usually a "live and let live" kind of person. But what's really annoyed me this year is that obesity now negatively affects everyone, even if they are not obese. By which I mean, COVID-19 is a disease which disproportionately harms obese people. Most of the people who are hospitalized or die from it are obese, especially the non-elderly people. Countries with very low obesity rates, such as Japan and South Korea, have much lower death and hospitalization rates than other economically-similar countries, despite a high proportion of elderly people. (And this doesn't get discussed in the US -- people just say Japan and South Korea "handled the pandemic better"...as if the fact they have a 4% obesity rate and we have a 42% obesity rate plays no role.)

    All year we've been in lockdowns and told that we're killing people if we go outside. Some people have lost everything to lockdowns -- their jobs, businesses, homes, mental health, physical health, education, etc. I have a health condition that is made worse by the lockdowns, and nobody cared about that. Yet I don't see many people who are obese and worried about COVID-19 doing anything to lose weight. In fact, studies indicate that most people gained weight during the lockdowns. We're all expected to blow up our lives indefinitely to reduce other peoples' risk, yet they won't even do the slightest thing to reduce their own risk. That is so selfish and unfair and yet nobody calls it out.

    I think the media and government play a role in this because they haven't been really talking much about the role obesity plays in COVID-19. The UK is the only country I saw that really discussed it in any official capacity, but even then they kind of forgot about it. Meanwhile I've seen countless articles where the media talks about a "perfectly healthy young person" who died of COVID-19 and then when you see the picture, the person is 300 or 400 pounds. That just shows how sick our culture is, that being morbidly obese is now considered "perfectly healthy," because people are too afraid of offending someone to tell the truth. And that attitude is contributing to peoples' deaths, from COVID-19 and from the many other complications of obesity. Sometimes I wonder where we would be if the public health messaging this year had focused more on weight loss, instead of officials doing things like banning outdoor exercise and closing parks.

    So yeah, I'm way more judgmental about "fat positivity" culture now than I used to be, because it's a big reason why we're in this mess now.

    I agree. I work in the ER in Los Angeles and see Covid patients every day. We are NOT seeing young healthy in shape people die. Most of the younger people with complications are either very obese or diabetic and uncontrolled. Some people told me they have no medical problems but then their blood sugar is 500. They did not know they were diabetic apparently or someone told them they were years ago and they ignored it.

    Obesity is a huge problem when it comes to Covid. We need to focus on this instead of ignoring it.

    Thanks for your lifesaving work.