In case you have been living under a rock the last week
or so, last Tuesday the American Medical Association officially designated obesity
as a disease. The motive behind the move
is twofold. Declaring it a disease is supposedly going to increase awareness of,
and increase treatments for obesity.
Increase awareness?
While I wasn’t aware two-thirds of Americans are
overweight and one-third is considered obese until I started reading articles
this week, I didn’t think there was an overall awareness issue (1). I thought
it was fairly easy for people to look in the mirror, see the spare tire around their
midsection, and have their brain make the connection that they may be
overweight. I can’t even fathom a reasonable excuse for how someone who is
obese could be unaware of the fact.
Increase treatments?
There is one very cheap and extremely successful treatment
option. It just so happens to have 100 percent success rate for those who choose
to implement it. Not to mention, it has zero negative side effects. Maybe it’s
just me, but this sounds like the perfect treatment option. So, what is it?
Burn more calories than you consume. How? Eat less and
exercise more.
It is truly that simple. The scary part is that every single “diseased”
person out there is aware of this very simple and very effective treatment.
Instead people choose risky surgeries and diet
supplements that are either:
a) just a combination of diuretics to give the illusion
of weight loss, or
b) a combination of shady unheard of ingredients that are backed up
by even shadier, self-funded research
It’s just another case of people looking for a magic
pill. People want to think the 200 pounds that has somehow magically attached
itself to their body is somehow not their fault. That it is completely unrelated
to their sedentary lifestyle and their diet that consists solely of all you can
eat buffets, trips to the fast food restaurant, and those easy, cheap, and convenient
processed foods. Then they wash it all down with a nice “diet” soda. (See the
diet soda, I told you I was trying really hard to lose weight).
I distinctly remember a girl in college asking me what she
could do to lose weight. There was one problem though. She said she wanted to
know how she could do it without working out and without changing the way she
ate.
This is the epitome of what I hate. People who eat like
shit, don’t exercise, and then binge drink two or more nights a week, but are
too stupid to understand why they are out of shape or fat as shit.
How many of you know an overweight person who is
constantly popping the newest weight loss supplement to no avail? Guess what
happens? A couple weeks or months later they are still fat. So what is the
solution? It’s easy, they simply have to keep looking until they find the right
pill.
If you are eating an excess of 800 calories every day and
you take a supplement that boosts your metabolic rate by 50 calories a day,
guess what? You’re still eating an excess of 750 calories a day. So not only
will you not lose weight, but you will actually continue to get fatter. This
should not be so hard for people to understand.
Did you know that nearly all recipients of gastric bypass
surgery are required to lose weight prior to their surgery?
The reason being it helps give the doctors more room to operate and it helps to
prepare the patient for life post surgery. If you can lose weight in order to
be able to have surgery, then why the hell do you need the surgery in the first
place? The lure of finally having the magic solution within their grasp, the
one that is going to undo all the years of ignoring all the symptoms and all
the times you decided to hit the buffet instead of the gym, is actually strong
enough to make them give up their gluttonous ways, at least temporarily. However, it is still too hard to continue what they just proved to themselves that they are capable of, and instead of continuing their weight loss journey the
natural and safe way, they almost always will opt to continue with the surgery.
If this offends you, I am not sorry, and it is probably because I have struck a nerve and you know what I said is
true. If you are overweight and serious about losing weight, then take action.
If you need help, then get it. If you don’t have anyone to ask for help, shoot
me an email and I will help you.
When simple weight loss is a goal, especially when you
are talking about large amounts of weight, it is very simple to setup and
implement a very effective diet plan that consists of satisfying amounts
of food and food that is still delicious. You don't have to starve yourself or eat bland food to lose weight. Once again, if you need help setting
up a proper diet, then please ask for it.
I am not going to argue at length against the AMA’s decision to
declare obesity a disease for two reasons:
a) I guess it can technically be construed to
meet the definition of disease
b) arguing over whether or not obesity meets the definiton is not the point of this post
According to Dictionary.com the definition of disease is
as follows:
“a disordered or
incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body
resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection,
poisons, nutritional deficiency or
imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness;
sickness; ailment” (2)
Allow me to make one arguement about why obesity does not fit the definiton for disease before we move on. My argument being obesity is not at all a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system (as defined above). Although I could make a strong argument that it is due to a disordered or incorrectly functioning brain, but I guess that would make it a mental disorder (addictive behavior).
Obesity is in fact, the body functioning as designed. You
consume excess calories and the body will store those excess calories. If you
continue to consume food in excess then your body will continue to store that excess
food, and it is going to do so by making you fatter and fatter.
Don’t get bent out of shape over the last couple
sentences though, because if you do you are clearly missing the point. This is
not an argument splitting hairs between what is technically a disease, what is technically
an addiction, and what is simply a lack of self control.
If you want to waste hours debating the validity of
obesity as a disease, remember that any argument you make can be applied to
smoker induced lung cancer and alcohol induced liver disease, just to name two. So you have a
long and endless road of debating ahead of you, but then again some of you just like to argue, so feel free.
So what is the real problem?
By labeling obesity as a disease, the AMA has just given
people an excuse for being fat.
The term disease comes with the connotation that the
person suffering from the disease is a victim. Victims are generally people who
have suffered misfortunes due to circumstances or fate, and generally no actions of their own. Victims are people
you should feel sorry for.
No one is a victim of obesity and no one should feel sorry for you being obese. You did not catch the obesity disease from another obese person. Your lack of self control to
make yourself get off the couch and put the fork down does not make you a victim. Do not feel sorry for them. Instead feel sorry for the couch.
The only argument that I will ever accept would be that
obese children are victims. Children are too young and are not informed enough
to understand the need for physical activity and a balanced diet, but their
parents are. If your child is obese, it is YOUR fault. Obese children are
victims of their parents, but this is a whole other topic.
There is precedent with the AMA naming similar “addictive
behaviors” as diseases in an effort to increases awareness and treatments of
said disease. In 1956 the AMA declared alcoholism as a disease with the same
good, but misguided intentions they had when they did the same with obesity (1).
Studies later showed that by declaring alcoholism as a
disease, people started to view their alcoholism as a “chronic relapsing
disease” and not as a self-imposed result of their addictive behavior. They also became more
likely to accept the idea that they were powerless against alcohol and that
treatment wasn’t possible without extensive medical treatment and counseling.
Not to mention they had more frequent and more severe relapses (1).
Labeling obesity a disease will only have the same
effect.
We all know people who are severely overweight, who claim
they have tried everything to lose weight, while they sit there sweating their ass off as they stuff their
faces with junk food, feeling sorry for themselves. This type of behavior is going to be even more prevalent
now that the AMA has given them an excuse for being fat.
What else is wrong with this decision? This could force
insurance companies to pay for treatments for obesity. What will that do to your
insurance costs?
How about pharmaceutical companies are now going to be
even more motivated to research and manufacture drugs that aid in weight loss,
especially if insurance companies are going to have to help pay for them.
Big pharma will pump out some products with some truly
nasty side effects, which somehow magically melt away bodyfat, at the expense of melting away your organs at the same time. Worst of all people will
flock to these drugs, rather than simply improving their lifestyle, because it’s
always easier to take a pill than to actually take responsibly for yourself and
make the lifestyle changes necessary to actually fix the issue. Since the self-destructive lifestyle isn't going to change, then the diseased person will be dependent upon these drugs forever.
Rather than choosing to put in the work and implement a
healthy lifestyle, people will choose to take the easy way out. Instead of
choosing a treatment that offers zero negative side effects, they will choose
to continue doing what they have been doing which is eating like shit and not
exercising and hope that the newest pill is going to finally be the answer to
the prayers.
References:
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