As if the obese didn't have enough problems, now some researchers are claiming that fat may actually be catching, like a common cold.
They point to a study that indicates weight problems are shared not only among family units and couples, but among groups of friends as well. Their claim is that if you have obese friends, you are far more likely to be - or become - obese yourself.
Is it a stretch of the imagination to see this “study” as one more indicator of the “fat-phobia” that pervades our society, and most particularly our medical establishments? No stretch at all.
No one disagrees that obesity creates serious medical and social consequences, from heart disease and joint damage to unemployability and loneliness. The points up for debate, however, are just who is or isn't obese, how much extra weight is too much, and whether or not you can “catch” fat from your fat friends.
Body Mass Index, a favorite obesity diagnosis tool, remains a poor calculator for who does or does not need to lose - or gain - weight. Based on the BMI scale, many athletes have BMIs in the range normally associated with morbid obesity, while some obviously undernourished models would be considered healthy.
Further, not everyone's body responds in the same way to the stresses of extra weight. Some sedentary people considered only slightly overweight - carrying less than 30 extra pounds - may find themselves winded walking up a moderate hill, while a more active individual toting 30 or more extra pounds may actually have more stamina than a thinner, less active peer.
What's more, medical concepts of “ideal” body weights fail to take into account other factors that impact weight and health - such as bone frame, age, activity level and family histories. Also, a growing body of research is beginning to point to some startling discoveries, namely that weight - and the appetite that drives our weight gains or losses - may be entirely out of conscious control for a significant percentage of those suffering from weight issues.
As human beings, we evolved in an environment where food was scarce. For thousands of years, our bodies have been “hard-wired” to eat as much as possible when food was available, and store food - in the form of fat - for times when food again became scarce. It is only in the last century that food became plentiful and readily available in much of the industrialized world, and it is in those very areas where the obesity epidemic has taken root in the past 30 years.
Doctors and researchers would better serve the public by aiming their research at finding the root causes of obesity. They must address the underlying questions of why some people, even knowing the prescription for weight loss - eating less and exercising more - and the devastating impact of obesity simply cannot stop eating. And they must advocate on the behalf of the obese with insurers and legislators to compel insurance companies to cover medical procedures that have been proven to assist with weight loss, like gastric bypass and LAP Band surgeries.
It seems this latest study is nothing more than a new spin on something social scientists have known for years - eating habits are learned traits, and you learn them from your family and friends; and eating is not just about consuming fuel, it is an important form of communal social interaction as well. So why the furor of the “findings” of this latest report?
The health care industry makes billions of dollars each year off the wide, sweaty backs of the overweight. Yes, medical experts like to talk in terms of the “cost” of the obesity epidemic, but what they consistently omit from their commentary is just who that “cost” is paid to. It's paid to those involved in the weight loss industry, many of them the very medical professionals who demonize the obese.
It is wholly in the interest of those who make their living on weight loss to convince Americans that the majority of them are obese or in peril of becoming obese. And to continue studiously avoiding the real roots of the problem, and information, education and surgeries that really could help stem the epidemic.
