Diabesity BSity
An ABC news online report lead with the line “Half of all American adults are destined to develop diabetes or pre-diabetes by 2020 if they don’t slim down….” It goes on to talk about the “diabesity epidemic.”
While I applaud the portmanteau, I have to come down against horrible, irresponsible, unprofessional reporting.
Being overweight doesn’t cause diabetes. I know that because the American Diabetes Association says on their website:
Myth: If you are overweight or obese, you will eventually develop type 2 diabetes.
Fact: Being overweight is a risk factor for developing this disease, but other risk factors such as family history, ethnicity and age also play a role. Unfortunately, too many people disregard the other risk factors for diabetes and think that weight is the only risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Most overweight people never develop type 2 diabetes, and many people with type 2 diabetes are at a normal weight or only moderately overweight. [emphasis is mine]
Obesity is not a disease. It’s not a diagnosis. Obesity, as we currently define it, is simply a ratio of weight and height. By this definition most of the NFL is headed toward diabetes. The only thing that you can tell based on a ratio of someone’s weight and height is the ratio of someone’s weight and height. Obesity has no consistent behavior. There are healthy fat people, there are unhealthy thin people.
Their “cure” doesn’t exist. “Slimming down” as suggested by ABC news is problematic at best. Nobody can prove that any method of weight loss works. 95% of people who attempt weight loss fail. We blame them and stop there. That’s like if Viagra only worked 5% of the time and doctors kept prescribing it and then blamed the rest of the guys for just not trying hard enough. In medicine, if a prescription doesn’t work 95% of the time, we work to develop a new solution, we don’t just blame the people to whom it is prescribed.
Correlation is not causation. The fact that two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean that they cause each other. It’s quite possible that both things are caused by a third factor, or that they are unrelated. For example, studies are starting to show that, in countries where there is no stigma on obesity, there aren’t negative health outcomes fromobesity. More studies are needed to determine if the constant shame, stigma and guilt faced by obese people in the other cultures causes the health issues, or if it’s something else, or if causality can actually be linked to weight.
I’m a fan of health. I’m for people getting access to affordable, healthy foods. I’m for people having access to movement options that they enjoy. Why is that not enough? Why can’t we be for healthy people instead of against fat ones? Why do we have to create a culture of guilt, shame and blame? How is that helpful? If weight loss fails 95% of the time, then why not be honest that even if it would solve health problems (and we don’t know if it would) we don’t know how to get it done?
Then we could start spending all of this omigoddeathfatiscomingforuswon’tsomebodythinkofthechildren money creating access to foods that are nutritious and delicious, and movement options that people enjoy. We could pull our health out of the wallets of the diet industry, and put the 60 billion dollars that we pay them every year into something that actually works. Imagine what kind of health we could have if we actually focused our attention on health!
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Great article - however “Nobody can prove that any method of weight loss works.” - not true. I can! And I personally am not against fat people - it is society stigma unfortunately. We should be healthy eaters regardless. Please show me healthy overweight people (anyone over 30+ lbs over weight should implement healthy eating) Why? To live longer and be productive and make a difference in others lives??? America is a fat nation overall - it is soooo sad.
Define “healthy”. I’m DEATHFATZ, meaning I weigh at least twice what doctors think I should, and have for over 30 years of my life (I’m currently 57 years old). My blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol are normal and have been the entire time I’ve been fat. I have arthritis and fibromyalgia, but those aren’t caused by being fat. I also have migraines - not caused by being fat. I have what is probably IBS - not caused by being fat. I have chronic, severe lower back pain - not caused by being fat. Some of these conditions may be aggravated by being fat, but they aren’t caused by being fat. And since there isn’t a safe, effective, permanent way to lose half of my body weight and keep it off forever, what do you suggest I do?
Should I go on more diets and keep messing with a metabolism that’s already messed up from years of dieting? Or maybe I should have another weight loss surgery that isn’t going to work, like the first one didn’t, and that might kill me, like the first one didn’t? Or maybe I should just eat a wide variety of foods in amounts that satisfy me (and don’t set off my IBS-like symptoms), move my body in ways that I enjoy, and take care of my health in the ways that I see fit? I think I’ll take option number 3 and live my life for however long it lasts and to hell with the rest of the world and its opinions. What worked for you doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. Come back after you’ve kept all the weight you’ve lost off for more than 5 years and tell us how that’s working for you. Then come back in 10 years and give us another progress report. If you manage to keep off all the weight you lost for more than 10 years, and it was more than 30 lbs, I’ll be surprised, because you’ll be in that magical 5%. Good luck with that.
While I appreciate that you are “not against fat people”, I take exception to three statements in your comment:
anyone over 30+ lbs over weight should implement healthy eating
I’m 5’4, 284 pounds making me Type 3 - Super Obese. I’m also in the top 5% of every measure of health - strength, stamina, flexibility, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, triglycerides etc. Not only do I not have any health issues, there is actually a 95% chance that I am healthier than you by any measure of actual health. Your dichotomy between being more than 30 pounds over weight and being a healthy eater is both arbitrary and false, calling into question your expertise in this area. The bottom line is that there are healthy people and unhealthy people of every shape and size and you cannot look at someone’s size and determine anything about them except their size.
Why?…To be productive and make a difference in others lives
I apologize if this sounds like hubris, but I think that this point is very important to discount: I’m the CEO of a multi-million dollar business conglomerate. I write a blog that gets thousands of hits a day and nearly everyday I get an e-mail from someone saying that made a difference in their life. I dance competitively as a professional and hold three National titles and have the workout schedule of a professional athlete. I teach dance as movement therapy to people with eating disorders and give talks about self-esteem, body image and Health at Every Size. I choreograph and dance in a professional cabaret company. I volunteer with local non-profit organizations. I’m learning Spanish, reading three books, and writing one. I occasionally take time out of my productive schedule to make a difference in someone’s life by attempting to educate someone who has confused weight with health, longevity, productivity etc. There just aren’t a lot of people who are more productive than I am.
“Nobody can prove that any method of weight loss works.” – not true. I can!
Kindly link to the statistically significant, properly controlled study that shows significant weight loss maintained over a 5 year period by a majority of subjects. Otherwise, I’m going to have to assume that I know more about this than you, and you either one of those people who parrots back what you’ve heard without actually knowing what you are talking about, or you are selling some weight loss thing-a-ma-jig.
Thanks,
~Ragen
Hi Barbee,
Let me make this easy on you: Weight Watchers boasts that it is ranked the #1 weight loss program in the country. In the first quarter of 2009, they had nearly $400 million in revenue, and in 2010 they boasted:
Pretty impressive, eh?
And their entire system is premised on eating better food and including exercise, right? Unless you have another prescription, I’ll assume you agree.
Well, recall this page where Weight Watchers boasts it’s #1 status. What’s missing? Meaningful stats, right? Some kind of success rate? Some evidence besides the article which named them #1?
Let’s check and see what’s out there. Oh yes, CBS News has some “good news for Weight Watchers.” What could it be?
Just half of their customers who actually stuck with the program for five years were able to maintain a 5% weight loss from their original weight. I weigh 260 pounds (5’7″, which gives me a BMI of 40.7, and puts me on the cusp of morbid obesity), so a 5% loss for me would be 13 pounds, making me a whole 247 pounds. Now, I’ve been paying $39.95 per month for five years (60 months), which comes to a grand total of almost $2,400 (not including tax, if any), or $185 per pound.
Now, if you can provide better evidence that long-term (five years or more) weight loss is not a complete and utter sham, I will gladly delete Fierce, Freethinking Fatties from the internet upon verification and never speak of the futility of dieting again.
The ball’s in your court.
Peace,
Shannon
I am obese. I am almost 55 yrs old, and I have two - and only two- health issues. 1. I have slightly high blood pressure - which runs in my family, both thin and not-thin people, and yes, if I lost 50+ lbs my high BP MIGHT disappear, but then again it might not.
2. I have the early stages of arthritis, which also runs rampant on both sides of my family for both thin and not-thin people. But other than those two issues, I’m healthy- my cholesterol is PERFECT, my blood work all normal, I have no diabetes, and no liver, kidneys or heart issues.
I don’t over-eat on a daily basis, hell, not even on a weekly basis. I don’t over-do on junk food or desserts, and I love a variety of veggies along with meats and salads.
I’m sure you’ve heard this from lots of fat people; but I honestly eat way less, and way *healthier* than many of my thinner friends and family members. I can tell you that most of the people you may hear this from are telling the truth…
Barbee, it must be nice that you can prove things that even the medical and diet industries have been able to. Even the highest statistics show that less than 5% of diets work for most people (work = keep the weight off 5 years or more).
There are healthy overweight people, and overweight people who eat healthy. Also, statistics show that overweight people tend to live as long, or longer than people of low or average weight. Plenty of us are productive as well, and tend to face more productivity issues from appearance-based discrimination and biased attitudes than from the health problems everyone assumes we have.
You claim not to be against fat people, but your post shows you have bought into that stigma that you talk about and you seem pretty biased. If not, then you wouldn’t consider it sad that America is a “fat nation”; could you imagine someone being “sad” that Africa is a black nation, yet claiming not to be racist/biased? Also, by assuming that anybody overweight is unhealthy and should just “implement healthy eating”, or else we are unproductive and will die early is pretty biased in itself.
For the record, I have been obese or morbidly obese for most of my life. Even strict diets, including two of the those where you buy prepackaged extremely low-calorie foods, and the “under 1000 calories a day” plan that ended up with me in the eating disorder unit of a hospital with severe nutrient deficiencies never got me under 240 pounds, and probably contributed to me gaining even more weight in the long-term. I am just now getting back into an exercise routine, but I don’t see that resulting in a huge weight loss either, and I’m OK with that. I was 273 when I ran my first marathon, and that was after close to a year of training and running 3-4 times per week. The sad thing is that two members of my family who had weight loss surgery are not even able to do that - both of them have had health problems relating to the surgery itself and now have very low energy. Neither one exercises at all (and were worn out and having to stop on a 3 mile hike up here that I do often with a 30 pound baby on my back), and both eat pretty unhealthy, but I guess that’s all OK and they are really the “healthy” ones because of their BMI.
I do love those ‘unbiased’ people, especially the ones who are so obviously concerned about our health. From my own research to get the best possible information, I have found that over 90% of the fat people in this country do not now have diabetes, & more than 75% of us never WILL have it. And, yes, indeed, people of all sizes do become diabetic, & Type II is even more genetic, more hereditary, than Type I, despite the fact that virtually everyone tries to label it a ‘lifestyle disease’ that we bring upon ourselves. And my ears always prick up when yet another savior comes along claiming to have found the answer to permanent, healthy weight loss…healthy being the key, being able to exercise normally but not obsessively & eat normally, not having to live on 1000-1200 calories per day for the rest of your life. In many cases, not even doing those things brings a lot of weight loss or the maintenance of it, &, if you do have to live that way, it is not a normal or ‘healthy’ lifestyle.
Ironically, the lowest mortality risks are shown for people with BMIs (& I have no faith in BMI, believe me) between 25 & 35, which our lovely culture classifies as being ‘overweight’ or ‘Stage I obese.’ Genes also play a huge factor our overall health, as well as longevity. My relatives on my mother’s side are long-lived; many of them are/have been also fat & not inclined to live what is these days called a ‘healthy lifestyle.’
My husband is nearly 68. Neither of us has ever had a license, we have not owned a car, so we walk almost everywhere. He is retired now, but for nearly 50 years of his life, he did hard physical work, always working on his feet. We are both fat & have been most of our lives. Since he hit 60, every time he goes near a doctor for any reason, tests are run, sometimes run 2 or 3 times, TRYING to find diabetes, since a fat man his age MUST be diabetic; well, despite their best efforts, he is NOT diabetic, a fact most recently established within the past three days. He doesn’t smoke, he does drink some, & he eats what he wants, a decent variety of foods from all the food groups, plenty of whole grains, fiber, etc., but also a pretty much ‘typical’ American diet overall. His health has always been very good, except for a couple of episodes of blood clots in his legs, caused, his doctors believed, mostly by years of standing/walking on cement floors.
I have cerebral palsy & arthritis, neither of which is caused by fat; my worst pain & disability from arthritis is in my hands, upper arms, & shoulders, & I guarantee you that I do not & never have walked on my hands. I have all I can do to walk on my feet, but I do, still do, even at 61, with chronic pain & increasing disability; I have walked well over 60,000 miles in my life for exercise & transportation, have survived several long periods of compulsive exercise which resulted in little weight loss, but notable weight GAIN, & am adjusting to the changes of aging & menopause, the trip from hourglass to apple, the slow but steady loss of mobility which may one day result in using a mobility device. However, my overall health has always been excellent & I spend little time around doctors, take no prescriptions,, & have had 4 hospitalizations, two for childbirth, one for surgery related to the CP when I was 4, the other for a smashed kneecap (caused by the CP…I fall easily & often). My average-weight daughter-in-law, on the other hand, has been in & out of hospitals, on various medications, through numerous surgeries, & has battled cancer most of the time for the past 10 years.
Please do not presume to know the answer to weight loss or to know that being thinner is possible for everyone or even healthier for everyone. Do not assume we are going to die young or have more health issues than anyone else. As far as I am concerned, the only thing my size definitely means is that I need to buy a larger clothing size than someone else might. It doesn’t say a thing about my health, my worth as a human being, or my life expectancy.
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/12/bariatric-surgery-doesnt-help-obese-live-longer-study-says/
I saw this on CNN today. I think people need to pay more attention to articles like this. But the comments at the bottom drive me nuts. Read the comments on the bottom of an article about how it reduces diabetes and you’ll see everyone praising the surgery and how it is going to save lives. See an article which says the opposite and everyone denies it or says that the surgery will improve quality of life.
I’m surrounded by idiots!
man I wish I didn’t read those comments at the end of that article. So depressing to see the number of people still clueless fat-haters and those all about getting sliced and spliced to engage in a starvation “diet” to improve their lives….
Holy crap, this is huge.
EXCELLENT FIND, Kevin. This is… fuck… 6.7 years followup? Outstanding!
I would love to see how this compares to HAES and Biggest Loser.
Thanks for sharing!
Peace,
Shannon
“Diabesity” is the title of a book published around 2006, and the term was invented a few years before that (around 2000) as part of the Shape Up America! campaign.
Kevin - good article! I wish they had a similar study on fat women.
A way to lose weight with a higher success rate - cancer! Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to improve your health.
If weight loss surgery does work to cure diabetes, boy have I got a sensational cure for sexually transmitted diseases!