> And we're trending the wrong way on obesity, too.
It's absolutely creepy how there's a constituency of people who are upset by any scientific possibility that fat people could be relatively healthy, or be made relatively healthy, without losing weight. The desire for fat people to conform or be punished, damn the science, is fetishistic. That's the only motivation I can think of for being upset by the exploration of the precise effects that being fat has on health.
I'm nowhere near fat right now, but if there were an injection that saved fat people from insulin resistance and inflammation, the farthest thing from my mind would be to get upset about it. If you believe that gluttony is a mortal sin, no need to be upset if the only ways fat people are punished on earth are cardiovascularly, through their knees, and through the aggression of bullies; your deity can punish them after death for not eating as moderately as you would have preferred.
I don't necessarily disagree, because yeah, having lots of adipose tissue doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong at the moment. In my experience, the perpetually healthy fat person is a rarity. The possibility of being fat and otherwise healthy is used as an excuse the vast majority of the time to not actually address one's own health. If someone is fat, it would really be a good idea to get a DEXA scan to confirm that they don't have too much visceral fat. As any one who's pro-fat or body positive if they know what their level of visceral fat is and chances are they couldn't tell you what visceral fat is.
There should be a reasonable medium where fat people aren't outright shamed for being towards one end of the bell curve but red flags for unhealth aren't ignored for the sake of other's feelings. America and now many parts of the west are facing various health crises to such an extent that I don't think obesity should be brushed off as perhipheral to other problems. Being fat has many comorbidities, and just focusing on losing fat is usually the best way to address those issues.
> I'm nowhere near fat right now, but if there were an injection that saved fat people from insulin resistance and inflammation, the farthest thing from my mind would be to get upset about it.
I agree, and there kinda sorta are medications currently available that would tremendously help. Off the top of my head, I don't know what it's called, but I know some people who've been on next-generation medications for obesity that target the ghrelin-leptin balance, basically correcting one's sense of hunger and satiety. Having seen the results myself, it works insanely well.
On the other hand, solving obesity with a pill still has some moral issues. If everyone could just consume anything they want in massive amounts and not get fat, I don't think that's really good for a person's psychology in a similar sense that giving someone a bunch of money often doesn't end well. It's not a scientific argument, but a philosophical one; I know. Such drugs may also give someone the idea that they can just eat whatever they want because they don't gain weight, but just because you don't get fat doesn't mean there aren't other consequences to eating lots of sugar, carbs, odixated oils, etc.
The question should be why we are so fat now. But that would mean believing that experts can be compromised and that a century of nutrition policy has been a failure, which many people aren't ready for. Just my opinion.
It's absolutely creepy how there's a constituency of people who are upset by any scientific possibility that fat people could be relatively healthy, or be made relatively healthy, without losing weight. The desire for fat people to conform or be punished, damn the science, is fetishistic. That's the only motivation I can think of for being upset by the exploration of the precise effects that being fat has on health.
I'm nowhere near fat right now, but if there were an injection that saved fat people from insulin resistance and inflammation, the farthest thing from my mind would be to get upset about it. If you believe that gluttony is a mortal sin, no need to be upset if the only ways fat people are punished on earth are cardiovascularly, through their knees, and through the aggression of bullies; your deity can punish them after death for not eating as moderately as you would have preferred.