Newsweek on obesity

[tahnan]

This week's Newsweek's cover story is titled What You Don't Know About Fat. There was a lot in there that I didn't know about fat, and the article said a number of interesting things about the biology of the fat cell and how a better understanding of it is giving researchers insights into how to combat morbid obesity.

I was fascinated by the sentence "The point of this research isn't to prove that obesity is bad for you; the evidence of that is statistical, and unassailable", mostly because I've certainly seen articles assailing that. (I'm by no means a doctor; I'm not really in any position to evaluate the claims.)

But by far my favorite sentence of the article was this one, which appeared after an enumeration of some of the health risks:

For anyone thinking of becoming obese, this ought to give them pause.

What an incredibly inane statement. I'm trying hard to imagine the hordes of men and women across America saying things like "I've got no plans for this weekend. Maybe I'll try to become obese" or "I just feel too darned socially accepted these days; serious weight gain ought to take care of that." And I'm failing.

And then the press wonders why we don't trust them.

Comments

[drastic.livejournal.com]

Ordinarily, I'm quickly down with hypotheses along the lines of "clearly, the author's an idiot." (A bit too easily, most likely.) But I dunno, in this case, I think I'd lay about ten quatloos on an alternative theory: one of the authors was just trying to sneak something smartassed past the editors' attention (which I'm also, of course, down with).

Still, I wouldn't bet above twenty on it.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I'd take that bet; I give even odds for idiot vs smart-ass.

How...I have no words for that statement.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I'm perfectly willing to believe it's smartalecky. But it's still a stupid thing to write, and smartalecocity in a news article, well, doesn't leave me with much faith in the press.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, apparently there are some people who are thinking about becoming obese. Apparently.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Hee! (I want you to know, tahnan, that I'm reading your LJ posts here at the breakfast table with Chris, and my loud giggling keeps causing him to look at me like I'm crazy. Good job.)

As for "obesity is bad for you," I would argue that yes, it's pretty unassailable that obesity is bad for you. The question is, how do you define obesity? Fat != obese, although that seems to be the prevailing attitude these days.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, yes. Being severely overweight has health risks. (So does being severely underweight.) It is indeed primarily in the definitions, and very much to this article's credit, it didn't once mention BMI (though I thought I saw a sidebar for it in the online version) or any other measure of what level of fat is unhealthy. Since that wasn't the point of the article, it meant that the article stayed amazingly well on-track.

[colorwheel.livejournal.com]

It hasn't been proven that fatness is unhealthy. What has happened is that study after study (beginning at the beginning of the 20th century) has been built upon bedrock that is seriously scientifically flawed. Decades roll by and the scientific flaws stay the same and the paradigm becomes ever more entrenched in our minds.

I know you're distinguishing, in_parentheses, but most people in the world hear "obesity" and think "fat," so I need to say this. Maybe the very very fattest people are at elevated health risks. But not more than the very very thinnest, and it's still unclear what's best for them to do about it.

Soon I'll try to post some reading material for whoever's interested. jadelennox regularly posts it too.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

Could you give me a quick summary of the flaws you see in the bedrock research?

fatness not proven unhealthy

[colorwheel.livejournal.com]

Sure, thanks for asking. I posted it on my own blog rather than cluttering up tahnan's. Wander over, everyone welcome.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

most people in the world hear "obesity" and think "fat"

I guess you're right that people do these days, but I actually don't. Where I come from, "obese" means that you're carrying around so much weight that even an otherwise healthy heart and knees complain when you try to climb stairs. I've known people like that, and I can't possibly believe that they're as healthy as average-weight or thinner people with the same diet and exercise habits.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

(What's best for them to do about it, I have no idea. That's a good point, that no one knows. "Just lose weight" is obviously a gross oversimplification, and possibly very damaging.)