Obesity isn’t the half of it: fat or thin, our eating is disordered

[Northerner]

Sally Davies, the UK’s chief medical officer, is right to highlight women’s health issues. Her report, published at the end of last week, is comprehensive and thoughtful but her implicit claim, that obesity poses a threat to the nation comparable to terrorism, is concerning (she wants it to be elevated to the level of a “national risk”). This generated headlines but closed down the complex thinking that’s desperately needed.

What is obesity? Is it one thing? No. It is an arbitrary number on a scale which counts people with a BMI of over 30 as obese. Bundled together in Davies’ figures are the “overweight” who, according to the US National Centre for Health Statistics, are not necessarily unhealthy. Health and weight are not the same. There is health at different sizes.

Is obesity a result of overeating? Yes, maybe, and no. There’s science and then there is the agenda of the various health, fitness and diet businesses mixed up in this. Sometimes fatness is the result of inadvertent repetitive dieting which can upset our metabolism. Sometimes it’s a result of eating the non-food foods that industry peddles. These drench our tastebuds with fat, salt and sugar combinations that overstimulate without giving a sense of satisfaction – other than reaching the end of the packet. Sometimes it is because these same non-food foods take a too-quick journey through our body without being properly digested.

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ef-medical-officer-war-on-fat-troubled-eating

 

[AlisonM]

Now that made sense to me, but will anybody listen?

 

[trophywench]

Well when she says 'our' she's clearly wrong anyway - speak for yourself, luv! My eating isn't at all disordered, I don't follow any of the fads and never have.

 

[robert@fm]

Well when she says 'our' she's clearly wrong anyway - speak for yourself, luv! My eating isn't at all disordered, I don't follow any of the fads and never have.

It's called "the royal we" and is a common fallacy, especially amongst those with any kind of agenda to push. Another example I came across was in a Daily Fail article some 25-30 years ago, which was full of gems such as "our body clocks are set to wake us at 7am each morning" -- mine isn't, never has been and probably never will be. 🙄

 

[Andy HB]

It's called "the royal we" and is a common fallacy, especially amongst those with any kind of agenda to push. Another example I came across was in a Daily Fail article some 25-30 years ago, which was full of gems such as "our body clocks are set to wake us at 7am each morning" -- mine isn't, never has been and probably never will be. 🙄

Not strictly true. It will be 7am somewhere on the planet when you wake up. 😉