The Body Positive and anti-diet movements are normalizing obesity, and some dietitians and researchers, funded by fast food companies, agree.
“Fat is okay” is the new mantra of those who want fat people to be accepted despite their appearance and health problems related to obesity. “Body positivity” is defined as “a movement in which people whose bodies may not be seen as acceptable by society feel good about themselves and the way they look.” The body positive movement, along with the related “anti-diet” and “health at every size” movement, are normalizing fat, which discourages people from losing weight or getting in shape. The New York Times criticized social media, such as Instagram, where influencers are pushing the idea that boys should be muscular and girls should be thin.
According to data from the National Institute of Health (NIH), obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions, affecting 34% of adults and 15-20% of children. Furthermore, 17% of children and 68% of adults are overweight, marking the first step towards obesity.
America leads the world not only in obesity rates, but also in athletes, fatty foods, and diet foods. Therefore, food manufacturers, weight loss companies, and fitness equipment manufacturers can make money regardless of whether people lose weight or not. Food companies can even make people fat and then sell them the cure.
WebMD said, “Overweight people may be considered healthy if their waist size is less than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men and if they do not have two or more of the following conditions: high blood pressure, high sugar levels in the blood and high cholesterol.” He goes on to recommend that overweight people not gain any more weight and “lose a few pounds.” However, a 40-inch waist for a man would suggest that he needs to lose much more than a few pounds.
Search standards are also changing. WebMD said: “Obesity and related diseases claim many lives every year. The annual figure was initially estimated at 400,000, but was recently revised to 112,000, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.” It seems a little strange that the established research needed such a large adjustment. Furthermore, while approximately 51% of the population is obese, there are over 173 million obese people in America. If only 112,000 of them die from obesity, it doesn’t seem like such a big threat. And this is consistent with the findings of a study cited by WebMD: “One thing that was a big surprise was that the study found no increased risk of death for overweight people.”
At the same time that articles tell people they can be fat and healthy, and WebMD claims that fat people are not at higher risk of death, the University of Chicago Medicine reports that “thirteen types of cancer and 200 more health conditions are linked to obesity.”
It seems counterintuitive that being fat is healthy, and it’s a bit suspicious that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US NIH have both declared obesity an epidemic, but WebMD and other sources say there is little or no connection between fat and fat. and poor health. The recent rise of “wokeism” has also infiltrated the problem of obesity, using the term “fat shaming”. According to the Washington Post, doctors may be guilty of fat shaming and “fatphobia persists in medicine.”
This bizarre movement of failing to say things that are true but hurtful is so extreme that a morbidly obese model named Tess Holliday, who weighs 260 pounds and wears a size 22, told the media that she identifies as anorexic. The news was edited on YouTube because the word “anorexic” cannot pass censorship. Now we are not even allowed to say the names of health problems or identify them as health problems.
A quick Google search reveals any number of articles with titles like “There’s no such thing as ‘junk food'” and “Why there’s no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods.” There have been allegations that fast food companies have funded researchers and influencers to promote anti-diet and body-positive images.
It is well documented that fifty years ago sugar companies paid researchers to promote the idea that dietary fat, not sugar, was the cause of obesity and poor health. More recently, the Washington Post reported that General Mills, the company that makes Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms cereal, has promoted the anti-diet movement. The company sponsored a campaign citing anti-diet research and condemning “food shaming.” They offered freebies and sponsorships to registered dietitians who tagged their cereal sponsorships with the hashtag #DerailTheShame. General Mills went so far as to pay lobbyists to influence federal policies to keep health information off food labels.
The profit incentive of fast food companies, combined with the rejection of reality often associated with the “Woke” movement and the idea that no one should ever be held accountable for their actions, is contributing to the demise of an entire generation by encouraging it to be overweight.
Similarities are often made between smoking and obesity. Cigarette companies tried to promote scientific studies that cigarettes did not cause cancer. Fortunately, the government was not convinced by this and launched anti-smoking campaigns, highlighting the threat of smoking to health, ultimately leading to a reduction in the percentage of adults who smoked. In 1965, 42% of adults smoked. In 2021 it was only 11.5%.
By promoting the narrative that fat is healthy, the exact opposite will happen. The percentage of Americans who are obese will increase. Fortunately, fast food companies can fund new research, adjusting statistics to reduce the number of deaths.