Quote:
Originally Posted by ATL_Gator
Given the links and what not.. I can understand not advertising/pushing the weight loss and life extension link...
But health?
The definition of health:
- The state of being free from illness or injury: "he was restored to health"; "a health risk".
- A person's mental or physical condition.
A person successfully managing an illness/injury/depression that is directly caused by excess weight (no matter how much) with medication doesn't mean that they are healthy. Longevity does not enter that definition. |
True, but here's the larger picture: as soon as you label fat a disease, that person is, by definition, unhealthy. So, that right there skews the numbers.
Then, doctors begin to medicate for various risk factors associated with obesity, whether or not said factors actually appear to be killing people. Ex: a former client of mine was technically moderately obese. In his case, in spite of normal health markers, and in spite of the fact that his parents were long-lived, his doctor prescribed statins prophylactically.
Then you have to take into account that thin people have the same conditions ... and appear to die earlier from them than fat people do.
Finally, the moral panic over obesity ignores the fact that Americans are, in point of fact, healthier than ever.