Maybe the CDC finally has a clue.
When I heard the CDC released a new report that diabetes is on the rise, I expected to read the press release and be enraged. But I was happily surprised.
In this new press release, instead of going straight to the lose weight argument, they instead suggested “healthy eating and physical activity” as lifestyle changes to battle the onset of diabetes. Obesity was listed among the risk factors for Type II Diabetes, but was not given as the stand-alone cause.
One of my reasons for getting involved in Fat Acceptance due to my anger at those agencies setting public health policy which used fat as a proxy for a whole litany of health issues. Despite my own health issues, I didn’t see my fat family and friends getting sick or falling dead, so I was suspicious of this claim.
And I was right to be suspicious. Saying that fat is a preventable cause of death and that we should aim for a healthy weight, suggests that there is a proven route to change our circumstances. But the very first piece of information I found when I looked into fat research is that only 2-20% of people are able to keep off any weight lost in the long term.
I started to have some hope when the public health policy tune changed to, “Just lose 10lbs.” Sadly, this was still a manipulation because they conveniently left out the part about how keeping off 10 lbs. for one year is the best most of us can expect.
There was still the implied “keep trying” after you lose that initial 10lbs. They’d leave out the part about how you’ll probably regain any weight you lose in the long run. And there was rarely any mention that changing your eating and exercise habits alone can be beneficial without any weight lost (aka, HAES).
I’m not against science or research into fat. And I see the point of promoting healthy behaviors that are well-proven, like washing our hands or safe sex. Ultimately, I’d fight for the right to make choices for my own body regardless of what public health policy is promoting.
But I have a real problem with myself or others being manipulated. I’d like to see agencies like the CDC go back to promoting proven routes to health, instead of promoting “fat panic.” Maybe they’re finally swerving back towards the right path. But only time will tell if that’s true.
Wow, I thought the CDC was required to mention the horrific side effects of obesity in every press release, including those dealing with bioterrorism threats.
Hopefully this is the first in a looooooooooooong-overdue policy shift away from a weight-centric focus and toward a health-centered focus. I think the public would benefit greatly from health advice that isn’t tied directly to weight loss, since weight loss attempts are ultimately self-destructive.
Great find, Elizebeth.
Peace,
Shannon
Maybe the CDC has finally realized that people of all sizes get diseases, and that some diseases can’t be prevented just by changing one’s weight. If it were a matter of being fat alone that caused heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, then no thin people would ever have any of those diseases, but thin people have them and die of them too (and fat people have better survival rates in a lot of cases). So maybe the CDC is getting wise to the “obesity paradox(es)” and realizing that recommending healthy eating and exercise is better than advocating weight loss, which has such a huge failure rate. Now, if only the ADA would get up to speed on how to treat type II diabetes, instead of recommending and pushing high carb diets, we’d be set (you would not believe what a hospital considers an appropriate meal for a type II diabetic, and they should know better).
Vesta,
I’m in the middle of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and the author talks about how they are promoting high carb diets for diabetics because they believe the increased rate of heart attacks in diabetics is due to the increased consumption of red meat. So to prevent too much red meat consumption, they promote more carbs, even though it’s COMMON SENSE that carbs will exacerbate diabetes.
I can’t believe they still promote this! Ridiculous. And they wonder why we are skeptical of these health organizations.
Peace,
Shannon
And I don’t understand the supposed increased consumption of red meat. DH has type II, and yes, we eat red meat, but we also eat a lot of pork, chicken, and fish - out of 7 suppers each week, 2 are red meat, the rest are pork, chicken, fish, or shellfish (and he takes the leftovers for lunch the next day to work).
I’m betting the increased rate of heart attacks in diabetics is not due to increased consumption of red meat, but due to insufficient testing of statins, blood pressure medications, and blood glucose control medications - or actually releasing those medications knowing that they cause heart attacks in some diabetics but releasing them anyway because big pharma wants the money those medications will bring.