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Author: Ken
Date: 08-04-04 03:50
Fat activists protest diet industry
Monday, August 2, 2004 Posted: 10:42 PM EDT (0242 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Unashamed of their size, fed up with fat jokes, and angry at the national obsession with dieting, overweight activists are mounting a feisty protest movement against what it calls the medical establishment's campaign against obesity.
"We're living in the middle of a witch hunt and fat people are the witches," said Marilyn Wann of San Francisco, a militant member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. "It's gotten markedly worse in the last few years because of the propaganda that fatness, a natural human characteristic, is somehow a form of disease."
The association, known as NAAFA, holds its annual convention starting Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey, bringing together activists for social events and workshops on self-acceptance, political advocacy and the "fat liberation" movement.
"I hope we can be a viable force of sanity in the midst of hysteria," said NAAFA spokeswoman Mary Ray Worley of Madison, Wisconsin. "I've found allies in all kinds of unexpected places, but overall there's a lot of animosity. Some people act like obesity is the next worst thing after terrorism."
The convention comes as the movement is scrambling to counter federal government pronouncements that obesity is a "critical public health problem" costing more than $100 billion and 300,000 lives per year.
Jeannie Moloo, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman who counsels overweight clients at her nutrition practice in Sacramento, California, empathizes with the activists' fight against bias, but says they should be wary of oversimplifying obesity-related health issues.
"Some people can be overweight all their lives and not end up with diabetes or heart disease or hypertension," Moloo said. "But the majority are probably going to develop one of these life-altering conditions."
Fat-acceptance groups were dismayed when federal officials announced last month that Medicare was discarding its declaration that obesity isn't a disease. The policy change will likely prompt overweight Americans covered by Medicare to file medical claims for treatments such as stomach surgery and diet programs.
"Obesity is not a disease," insisted Allen Steadham, director of the Austin, Texas-based International Size Acceptance Association. "All this does is open the door for the diet and bariatric surgery industries to make a potentially tremendous profit."
Most fat-acceptance activists endorse the concept of eating healthy food and exercising regularly, but they oppose any fixation on losing weight and contend that more than 95 percent of diets fail. They also decry the rapid growth of stomach-shrinking surgery; the number of such procedures has quadrupled to 100,000 annually since 1998.
Wann depicts bariatric surgery as "stomach amputation" that imposes anorexia on patients and exposes them to long-term risks. Kelly Bliss, a self-described "full-figured fitness instructor" from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, predicts that future generations will disapprovingly look back on stomach surgery as "comparable to lobotomies."
Bliss, who coaches clients by phone and in fitness classes, subscribes to a philosophy called "health at every size" -- preaching that health, fitness and self-esteem can be achieved independent of weight.
"There's a war on obese people, and I'm treating the casualties - people whose hearts are being ripped out," Bliss said.
NAAFA and others have tried to combat what they see as rampant discrimination against fat people, but progress has been sporadic. Southwest Airlines, for example, resisted protests targeting its policy of requiring large passengers to purchase a second ticket if they can't fit in a single seat.
"People want to fight for their rights, but there's a lot of shame involved," Steadham said. "It takes a whole lot of determination to stick through it to the end."
A few cities, including San Francisco, explicitly outlaw weight discrimination. Michigan is the only state to do so, but its Civil Rights Department said only five of 1,696 job discrimination complaints filed in 2003 involved weight.
Walter Lindstrom, a San Diego attorney specializing in weight-discrimination cases, said overweight plaintiffs usually must prove that acts of bias against them are covered by federal laws prohibiting discrimination against disabled people.
"These cases are more difficult from a proof standpoint, and also because you're dealing with a very unpopular class of clients," Lindstrom said. "Juries are generally disgusted with your average size-related plaintiff. You have to get past that, and have them see the plaintiff as someone with a true medical problem."
Many fat-acceptance activists were heartened by this year's publication of "The Obesity Myth" by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, who contends that diet promoters, drug companies and weight-loss surgeons have whipped up an irrational panic over weight.
Campos shares many of the activists' views but says their effectiveness has been limited.
"The movement has found itself marginalized by drawing its membership and leadership from the far extreme of obesity," he said. "It will be more successful if it can attract the two-thirds of Americans who are being told by the government that they weigh too much -- the I-want-to-lose-20-pounds crowd who are starting to feel a certain amount of resentment from the constant haranguing they're getting."
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thoughts?
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I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.
Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852)
working to do a little bit of good in this world.
Started May 1, 2003
367/314/250
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Author: GymmyMac
Date: 08-04-04 06:23
ahhhh only in America....i can hear the rest of the world saying that to this article....fat activists teehee....but seriously, lets not kid ourselves their is predjudice against overweight people...there always will be really...as unfortunate as that is, i guess its how society has learned to react to an overweight individual - to treat them as a lesser being...now not all people do this obviously, nor is it justified by any means....but lets flip the coin for a second....your kidding yourself if your obese and believe you will skate through life without any obesity related diseases...its dangerous to be large lets not sugercoat it....i think if there is any ''áctivism'', it should be about treating obese people with the same respect as thinner people, but it shouldnt disclose that being obese is no big deal as it kind of sounds as though these people are trying to make out.
~Short, sharp and intense = results~
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Author: Doug
Date: 08-04-04 07:21
Check out the message boards on the naafa.org website sometime. Some of these guys are real masters at denying reality. There are people there that believe you can be 150+ pounds overweight and as long as you exercise a very little bit there will be no health risk. This is despite other areas in the message board dedicated to obesity related disease.
Doug 272/164/170
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Author: miranda
Date: 08-04-04 07:40
It's interesting that Paul Campos, the author of "The Obesity Myth" referred to in the article, is a law professor, not a doctor. I believe there's some truth in what he says--sometimes it seems like the government and media are playing a game of "Let's scare the overweight people out of their minds" without distinguishing between those who are 15 pounds overweight from those who are 150 pounds overweight--but you guys are right, significantly overweight "fat acceptance" people are in deep denial. Take Doug's suggestion and take a stroll through their website, naafa.org.
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miranda
230/169.5/145
"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway."--Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
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Author: Don
Date: 08-04-04 07:51
I agree with the article regarding the surgery. I feel it is making a permanent and drastic change to the body without the proper tools to fight the cause of obesity. Those here on the forum who have lost weight and maintained, can attest that it takes a lot of mental work to adjust to maintenance at a lower weight. Surgery by-passes that mental work or tries to take short cuts. That is why you hear so many stories about people who have had the surgery and then gained all of the weight back.
Let's face it, everyone is looking for an easy solution. There is a simple one, just not an easy one (I think that is a quote from Ronald Reagan). Move more, eat less -- simple.
As far as people who want to put their head in the sand and believe that they have no reason to fear health problems with obesity, all I can say is I feel for them. They are kidding themselves. Very few of obese people will avoid health issues.
Our high tech society contributes. Do you remember when you had to get up and walk across the room to change the channels? Or, you had to walk to the end of the curb and pickup the morning paper instead of getting all of your info on the internet? Or, meet someone face to face to play a game? All of these things that make life so convenient are contributing factors to us not moving more. Ever see a fat Amish person?
Don
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely
in a well preserved body, but rather to skid-in-sideways,
totally worn out, shouting... "holy **** what a ride!"
232/166/166
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Author: Lady
Date: 08-04-04 09:08
One thing stood out to me whenI read this.
"People want to fight for their rights, but there's a lot of
shame involved," Steadham said. "It takes a whole lot of
determination to stick through it to the end."
If they took that same determination to lose the weight they wouldn't be in this situation. This bothers me bacause I'm looking for determination and motivation, they have it and are misusing it!!!!
Lady
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Author: Gary
Date: 08-04-04 13:07
If a person chooses to stay fat, that is their choice, but they should not try to convince others that there is no added risk from being overweight.
Obesity is not a disease, with the very rare exception of a medical condition like a thyroid problem that might cause weight gain, I would venture to say that 99% of obesity is simply from people eating more calories than they burn, either they eat too many calories, or they don't exercise enough, or it's usually a combination of both.
Now modern technology, non-labor desk jobs, high-calorie processed foods and high-calorie fast-foods, surely have not made it any easier to stay trim, but the ultimate responsibility belongs to the individual, the individual chooses to eat or not eat high-calorie foods and chooses to exercise or not, so it would seem that in 99% of the cases that obesity is a result of the choices an individual makes and it is not a disease.
Now having said that, it still might be good if individual employers offered incentives to employees to lose weight, after all, a healthier employee is more likely to be a more productive employee with less sick leave taken,
perhaps they could offer employees $2 per pound they lose, but they must keep it off for at least a year before qualifying for the bonus.
Choose to be healthier - choose to lose weight - by choosing to
eat lower-calorie foods and exercising more :-)
Gary
http://home.earthlink.net/~gklentprs/360to180.html
Gary 360/175/175
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Author: sg
Date: 08-04-04 13:46
I read the front page.. something about how we shouldn't diet because 95% of diets fail.
diets fail.
diets fail.
and people aren't held accountable?
what about people failing?
I can see why there's a support-for-fat-people thing going because people can absolutely be cruel. I took the snide comments and used them as fuel for fitness but that's just me. I agree that there's a lot denial floating around on that webpage.
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Author: NancyB
Date: 08-04-04 15:48
By all means, be against dieting. I agree with that. But to be pro-obesity is ridiculous.
There is prejudice everywhere, against everyone. I have been discriminated against for being female, for being over 40, for speaking English, for you-name-it. It's a way of life and we all deal with it. Everyone here can cite situations of discrimination for one reason or another. And if we're honest with ourselves we probably discriminate against others, too.
If I had to state my opinion, there has never been a "better" time to be overweight. Go to the mall and watch the teenagers walk by with their considerable bellies hanging out--literally hanging-- between their low-cut jeans and cropped tops, usually with a tattoo or a piercing to call your attention to their midriffs in case you hadn't already noticed. They exhibit no shame; on the contrary, they seem very body-proud and they usually have a boyfriend by the hand. This is the new norm.
I very rarely witness discrimination against fat people, and never experienced any when I was heavy myself.
I agree that this is a smokescreen sent up so that the health issue doesn't have to be addressed. Meanwhile, I have a friend with a 9-year-old boy who is going into premature puberty because of his obesity, and whose parents have been warned that he is a very good candidate for childhood diabetes.
Discrimination!
NancyB
160-135-135
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