“Obesity Crisis”?????

Repost from July 8, 2008, with a few revisions and additions.

I hate the word obesity, to begin with, but who in their infinite wisdom has decided that fat people are in a crisis? Is it because they feel this is one group they can use guilt and fear as a means to control? After all, weight loss programs, foods, and books are big business. All you have to do is watch TV commercials, especially on shows targeted at women. And people like Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, and Marie Osmond wouldn’t lie to us, would they? And I used to like these actresses.

Of course, Jennie Craig and Nutrasystems work for those who are used in the ads… they not only get the food and program for free but they get paid for eating them as well. That doesn’t work for the rest of us. And seriously, when they go off the diet, they usually gain their weight back. If they didn’t, these companies would go out of business. Years ago, I tried Nutrasystems.. it didn’t work at all, and I felt the so-called counselors were nothing more than bullies.

I tried it again, thinking it would be easier just to microwave the meals. The food was more complicated, more expensive, and didn’t taste any better than it did before, and I gained weight. I’m not used to eating four meals a day.

Sorry, but I don’t buy into the theory that being fat contributes to high blood pressure, diabetes, and death. There is a man who weighs over 600 pounds and has none of the risk factors that are usually attributed to fat people. I weigh over 300 pounds and don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure, and I’m certainly not dead. And until someone can explain to me why my 125-pound, active, healthy 16-year-old daughter died for no reason, I’m not going to believe my weight will kill me. I’ve survived a near-fatal car accident, a premature birth, cancer, and other problems, but at age 71, I’m still here.

Here are some of the things I found online…

“ABC News’ special report on the obesity crisis threatening the US.”

How?

“The nation’s scales are going up…up…up…and it’s clear that we have an obesity health crisis on our hands.”

Why is that clear? People are living to an older age too… and ages are going up… up… up, is that a health crisis too?

“A third possibility — and the one that Knopman leans toward — is that obesity, including a large belly, is a marker for poor health, dementia…”

Hmm… I remember when runner Jim Fix, all skin and bones, collapsed and died from a heart attack while running. My mother weighs maybe 110 pounds and has dementia… Sorry, it doesn’t add up to me.

“Solving the obesity crisis. I read two items in the news guaranteed to make obese people and the parents who raise them feel guilty.”

Ah, there is that guilt trip again…

“Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled among adults.”

Could it possibly be because the number of adults also doubled?

“Rush Limbaugh blamed “the left” and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) for “the latest crisis” of “obesity.”

And I imagine he is blaming witchcraft as well…

“Parents are starting to take some drastic steps to help their obese teens lose weight.”

At what cost?

“I expect that, in the next three to five years, the obesity crisis will transition into something more easily handled by our health care..”

I’m not even sure what this will mean. Will we be drugged to comply?

“The obesity epidemic isn’t just plaguing the US, but Mexico ranks as the second highest obese population in the world.”

Oh, now it’s a plague. Will this become the new Black Plague? (Written before Covid)

So, basically, because some people…
a. don’t like fat people
b. can use fat people to blame things on
c. can make money off of fat people

Everyone has decided the world has an obesity problem. Aren’t there more important things to worry about and put money and effort into? Such as…
Homelessness
Weather disasters
hungry people
education
general healthcare
mass shootings

People telling me how I should look are as narrow-minded and selfish as those who tell me what religion I should practice and what to believe.

Get off my back, okay? I’m sure you all have things you need to take care of in your own life, so stop trying to control mine!!