Rant about weight, fat acceptance, obesity and health

[MentalGiant]

Thank you for bringing this up. The "fat acceptance movement" is just a thinly veiled attempt to encourage people who care about being HEALTHY to stop giving a fuck so people who don't and have allowed themselves to explode to the size of a planet can feel better about themselves. It is demonizing having an interest in healthy eating and exercising habits and trying to turn them into a form of disordered behavior. I see it as analogous to the pro-ana movement, though pro-ana has always been underground (and fat acceptance USED to be underground too, it's not a new concept just new to the media spotlight). Imagine how people would react to a large scale, highly publicized, openly pro-anorexia campaign encouraging people to accept and praise people for being dangerously underweight, showing ads depicting severely anorexic women with "inspirational quotes" attached to them all over? Just think of how upset people got when they kept making fashion models more and more skinny? They flipped out to the point models now have to have a minimum healthy BMI to work (rightfully so). But it's totally fine to promote, encourage and praise the opposite end of the unhealthy spectrum, the fatter the better? So basically, we have learned nothing about promoting unhealthy ideals for women from the underweight model craze? 

As for loving yourself, IMO, people should be in support of teaching loving yourself equates to caring enough to keep yourself as healthy as possible, not "abuse your body however much you want and be damn proud of it". What's next? Track mark acceptance? Meth mouth acceptance? This 'fat acceptance' is setting an unhealthy precedence that society no longer values health and taking care of yourself.

[vorlon13]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with a terrible problem with anorexia. He has convinced himself all food is either contaminated, causes allergies, causes cancer, is 'bad' for him, or whatever. He has a specific concern with everything presented to him. He won't take vitamins (they're artificial), even distilled water can't be pure enough for him, he truly believes he is poisoning himself.

His parents were unaware of his conditions severity till the school intervened. At that point the kid looked like a concentration camp victim. He's been institutionalized and unfortunately, his mom has told me the prognosis is very poor. The kid is beyond reasoning with, and apparently has done so much damage to himself even if he lives he will be an invalid.

[Strider]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with a terrible problem with anorexia.  He has convinced himself all food is either contaminated, causes allergies, causes cancer, is 'bad' for him, or whatever.  He has a specific concern with everything presented to him.  He won't take vitamins (they're artificial), even distilled water can't be pure enough for him, he truly believes he is poisoning himself.

His parents were unaware of his conditions severity till the school intervened.  At that point the kid looked like a concentration camp victim.  He's been institutionalized and unfortunately, his mom has told me the prognosis is very poor.  The kid is beyond reasoning with, and apparently has done so much damage to himself even if he lives he will be an invalid.

That's sad. Extremes on either end of the spectrum are undesirable and ultimately end up doing great harm. I also fell into this trap of thinking I should never eat certain foods because they were "bad" for me and such. That was about five years ago. Luckily, it didn't end up as a full-blown problem, but I was borderline. The key is moderation. You can eat bad foods every now and then, but it doesn't need to become a habit. It's all about maintaining balance.

Hopefully, your friend's son will recover. Though the prognosis is poor, stranger things have happened.

[MentalGiant]

The key is moderation. You can eat bad foods every now and then, but it doesn't need to become a habit. It's all about maintaining balance.

Thanks for this comment. This is the part people don't get, that is ok to eat junk food on occasion but that it should just be a treat, not the bulk of your diet.

I am a long time vegan for ethical reasons, so there are foods I don't eat for that reason. I do try to keep the bulk of my diet fruits, veg and whole foods to be sure I'm taking in adequate nutrition every day. But every so often, I'll have a vegan pizza, chips, bake some brownies or cookies (I tend to stay away from refined sugars) or have some of the process faux meat products. Junk food once in a blue moon is fucking delicious and won't kill you or negatively affect your overall health when you eat an overall healthy diet. In fact, I've always found when you make whatever your favorite junk foods might be a TREAT rather than a dietary staple, it tastes even BETTER because you don't eat it all that often. There is no need to deprive yourself of things you love eating, but theres no need to overdo it either.

[Regina]

I've heard a lot of politically correct bullshit lies and half-truths in my short life. Never have I heard such outright lying like the people who try to claim there are no adverse health impacts of being obese.

You are at higher risk of getting a heart attack, diabetes, stroke, cancers, the list goes on. If those don't kill you, then gradually the weight you are carrying will press down on your joints bringing on severe arthritis.

If you're trying to advocate that everyone feel comfortable in their skin and pay no attention to unrealistic beauty standards, go ahead. I've had body image issues myself, I'm all for education on what "normal" bodies look like. Being 200lbs overweight is not "normal" or natural, and don't dare try to claim it's healthy.

This is what happens when you allow people to be "experts" on particular issues they are not sincere about. Being overweight is not the same as feeling insecure about being a flat-chested woman, being short, having "the wrong colour skin" or having worries about your genitals. Those are natural and normal things people are shamed for, which you can't change short of surgery or drastic measures. Losing weight you can start right now and see results in weeks with commitment. Don't like it? Hit the gym.

[GrandizerII]

If someone is happy about the way they look, then I'm happy for them. It doesn't matter if their body doesn't look "normal" or "healthy" to me. What the hell is "normal" anyway? If I accept the person for who they are, then who cares about body shapes and sizes. They don't affect me.

And comparing fatness to smoking is funny. Smoking affects other people around you, not just you. Whereas obesity, that's their problem only.

[Regina]

If someone is happy about the way they look, then I'm happy for them. It doesn't matter if their body doesn't look "normal" or "healthy" to me. What the hell is "normal" anyway? If I accept the person for who they are, then who cares about body shapes and sizes. They don't affect me.

And comparing fatness to smoking is funny. Smoking affects other people around you, not just you. Whereas obesity, that's their problem only.

Is it, though?

I live in a country where austere cuts are having to be made left, right and centre because of the economic recession. Those cuts have also impacted our health service, which could not take sufficient care of my Dad to keep him alive or out of pain as he was dying. You could easily argue that, if we didn't have do many obese people eating their way into a hospital bed, there would be more money to go around for people who have genuine un-preventable illness.

I also don't believe these particular fat people who are always complaining are happy about how they look. If they were so happy they'd have nothing to bitch about and wouldn't give a shit about peoples' comments. I can tell a confident fat person when I see one, because they're not bitching.

[GrandizerII]

If someone is happy about the way they look, then I'm happy for them. It doesn't matter if their body doesn't look "normal" or "healthy" to me. What the hell is "normal" anyway? If I accept the person for who they are, then who cares about body shapes and sizes. They don't affect me.

And comparing fatness to smoking is funny. Smoking affects other people around you, not just you. Whereas obesity, that's their problem only.

Is it, though?

I live in a country where austere cuts are having to be made left, right and centre because of the economic recession. Those cuts have also impacted our health service, which could not take sufficient care of my Dad to keep him alive or out of pain as he was dying. You could easily argue that, if we didn't have do many obese people eating their way into a hospital bed, there would be more money to go around for people who have genuine un-preventable illness.

I also don't believe these particular fat people who are always complaining are happy about how they look. If they were so happy they'd have nothing to bitch about and wouldn't give a shit about peoples' comments. I can tell a confident fat person when I see one, because they're not bitching.

Well, shaming those who do give a shit about their weight isn't being productive, don't you think?

Those people already give themselves enough shit about it anyway.

[Dystopia]

If someone is happy about the way they look, then I'm happy for them. It doesn't matter if their body doesn't look "normal" or "healthy" to me. What the hell is "normal" anyway? If I accept the person for who they are, then who cares about body shapes and sizes. They don't affect me.

And comparing fatness to smoking is funny. Smoking affects other people around you, not just you. Whereas obesity, that's their problem only.

It's funny because that's only true if you're a complete idiot who likes blasting smoke on people's face - Everybody has different experiences, but I've seen no proof  at all that the majority of smokers take pleasure in deliberately harming other people. Also, it really depends on the perspective. For example, research shows that the fatter a country becomes, the lower the standards are, meaning that people who once thought they were fat might think they're thin when comparing themselves to fatter people - Many of my friends who think they're fat say they felt thin when traveling to America - This has an effect of putting more people at risk of getting fat because they think they are thin. Arguably, the main argument against smoking is not just the fact it is bad for others, it's also because governments want to protect smokers from themselves and improve public health, decrease healthcare costs, etc - That applies to being a fat as well, and in that case there is no extra high tax on food like there is no cigarettes.

I pay about 4€ por a pack of Marlboro, about 3.50€ is taxes, now assuming someone smokes a pack a day for 30 years that means 3.50€X365 (number of days in a year)X number of years until they get cancer. Don't tell me the ridiculous amount of money the government gets is not enough to pay for it.

[Chad32]

I would assume fat acceptance is a reaction to the hollywood standards of attractiveness. Some body types are considered attractive, despite the fact that you can't look like some of them without surgery, and someone of average weight will be considered fat. That doesn't mean being 300+ pounds is ok, but you also don't want to be 100- as an adult.