this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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People are shamed for smoking as they should be for its health effects on them and others. Obesity should be treated no differently. You don't get to 400lb because of a bad thyroid, you get to 400lbs because you are addicted to food and over consumption. It puts undue strain on our medical facilities, and impacts the obese indivuals ability to be a functioning member of society. There should be conversations about why it's bad. We shouldn't treat it like some innocent personal choice when it is not, it's shortening lifespans, the bad diet exacerbates mental health issues, can lead to diseases like type 2 diabetes. The problem is we don't also target the food industry as much as we should for them pushing all the sugar coated processed garbage in the first place. They should be equally as ostracized as tobacco companies are for their aid in a similar epidemic.
I didn’t quit smoking because people shamed me, I did it because the risks were clearly defined and didn’t like the negative effects on my health.
No qualified medical or public health policy professional is like “yo let’s villainize fat people”. It’s dumb idea just to make people feel better about being assholes to folks struggling.
Hilarious username clash
How do you factor in the overabundance of cheap, nutritionally fucked food, and how that may affect those living paycheck to paycheck? It feels odd to recognize it's a problem, but then also claim obesity is an absolute failing that should be universally shamed.
Side note, as a nurse I've seen patients who are obese because of circumstances and medical issues. Someone who has to work two jobs, has a kid, and newly discovered hypothyroidism is not obese because they don't care. They have a medical issue and no extra time/resources to compensate for it with a refined diet and exercise (especially considering one of the most common symptoms of hypothyroidism is fatigue). You're not even factoring in the undiagnosed, or those who don't have access to sufficient healthcare.
My overall point is if you're targeting obese people specifically, you're not on the right track.
I eat constantly processed shit. I hate cooking, but it's still damn simple, don't get the biggest meal at McDonald's, get the low sodium/fat frozen pre cooked meals that only have a couple hundred calories per serving for under the cost of a meal from fast food. Then you just don't over eat, wait 20mins or so after and let your body naturally tell you it's full instead of eating until you want to puke. Bottled water is cheaper than cans or soda regardless of if you get them from a dollar store or not. It's literally cheaper to eat less food which is the main part of weight maintenance.
Hypothyroidism is like 5% of the population. Obesity is at 40%, let's not act like our obesity epidemic is because everyone with hypothyroidism is trying to move to the USA to boost our statistics.
Na there is nuance between shaming someone for decisions made well within their control and understanding some are placed there beyond their control. I'm not advocating for those with hypothyroidism to be attacked, if anything calling out obesity would help bring awareness to those fronts as it would promote discussion about the issues instead of downplaying it so those with issues cant get the help needed like you descibed earlier in your post. Like trying to pass legislation that requires employers to give reasonable medical accommodations to those individuals so they have enough time to prep meals or even have subsidies that can give them more healthy choices at reasonable prices.
I maintain my lean figure by consuming 1000 calories of Soylent for the morning/lunch time and and pigging out for dinner. There is cheap nutritionally good food, but junk food addicts don't care to seek it out.
There's also this issue of fat people and climate change, which no one really wants to address.
Like how many times are we going to see "the dairy industry is killing the planet" whilst simultaneously ignoring who the fuck supports that industry.
Spoilers, it's fat people.
I'm not fat, and I love me some cheese. I'm pretty sure that most of the fat people I know eat far less variety of foods than I do, so I'm not certain that we can blame fat people for that. I've personally had a theory, based entirely on anecdotal evidence, for some time that being a picky eater is more likely to lead to obesity than any other factor, barring medical reasons such as a dysfunctional thyroid.
And being a picky eater can be, but isn't always, linked to several other factors, like Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (which can be treated, usually with CBT)
The dairy industry is subsidized through the US government, it's literally a goal for the fda to promote dairy, and companies that use more diary or cheese in their products get subsidies from the government (think stuffed crust pizza and extra cheese). Putting that blame on the obese is not what I was getting at, at all. More that we have industries who do not care if they create obesity, but if we apply social pressure, it may help stop some from over consumption at a young age. If that can aid in promoting healthier life styles from a young age before major life stressors make it almost impossible to get out of that seems like some form of progress as our governments seem keen to do absolutely shit for the problem at hand. Then we can try and figure out more human solutions but allowing for this level of hyper consumption unabated just doesn't seem sustainable or progress inducing.