Saturday, May 2, 2015

Fat Shaming Doesn't Work

Last week on Dr. Oz, I watched an interview of a man, *Roosh Valizadeh, he is a self proclaimed fat shamer. His belief is that making women feel badly about how they look, will make them want to change. Dr. Oz strongly disagreed with him, and even had plus size women on his show to confront Valizadeh. I agree with Valizadeh that obesity is unhealthy, and dangerous for children. I even believe that there should be more done about, I am not quite sure what. I do not believe however, that you can insult or humiliate someone into being slim.

Judging heavy people isn't just what too many of us do in private. It’s increasingly what some do openly; what some feel urged to do officially. Doctors are told not to be afraid of the word “fat”, to stop muttering about body mass index and start telling it like it is.

Tougher economic times, meanwhile, have only encouraged the sanctimonious and slim. Why should they hire someone who’s vastly overweight, when he or she may need more time off sick? When obesity costs the US billions a year, aren't they entitled to have a go at self-indulgent fatties, gorging themselves on all our taxes?

There’s just one big problem with all this shaming of over weight people: it’s wrong. Not just morally, but scientifically. Research published today by University College London suggests that people who felt discriminated against because of their weight – who had been the butt of jokes, patronized or hassled or given worse service in shops and restaurants – were actually more likely to gain weight.

They ate more to comfort themselves; became too ashamed to go to the gym and risk ridicule. Those treated kindly, meanwhile, tended actually to shed pounds. Give it long enough, and it’s not hard to see how a plump but sensitive teenage girl grows up into an obese woman.

This isn't a call for fat acceptance, or tactfully adjusting to a new norm. The lesson drawn by researchers was that doctors should continue to try and get patients to lose weight, but by presenting obesity strictly as a health risk – something that might give you diabetes or a heart attack – and not as some kind of moral failing.

Skinny people, wondering loudly in public how anyone can let themselves go like that, aren't part of the solution but potentially part of the problem.

Where obesity is a risk to health then it certainly needs to be tackled in partnership between patients, trained professionals, and loved ones with a legitimate interest – backed up by manufacturers recognizing their responsibilities and not loading food with sugar and fat. But what it can’t become is a free-for-all, an excuse for the rest of us pile in gleefully and wag the finger.

It is not the heavy people who should feel ashamed, but those of us who point and judge. Be the best you that you can be. Encourage those around you to be active, and eat healthy.

Dr. Oz

*Roosh Valizadeh

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