Study shows 'being fat in today's world' invites social discrimination

Obese people feel "a culture of blame" against them, which they say has been made worse by media reports about the health risks of obesity, a new study from Australia found. The results will be presented Tuesday, June 17, at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne conducted one-hour personal interviews with 76 obese individuals (62 females, 14 males), ranging in age from 16 to 72 years. The aim of the study was to better address issues of concern to obese people, in an attempt to improve interventions for the increasing epidemic of obesity, said the lead author, Paul Komesaroff, MD, PhD, director of the university's Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Society.

The authors found that the messages from media and health care professionals to engage in healthy behaviors, such as physical activity and eating healthier, may actually be doing more harm than good, Komesaroff said.

"Obese people frequently feel overwhelmed and disheartened by the publicity about their condition," he said. "They often feel disrespected and not understood by medical practitioners. Our participants express the view very forcefully that they feel victimized by current social attitudes about obesity. To be told that, in addition to the problems that they recognize only too well, they are now regarded as 'sick' is unlikely to assist them to find a solution."

Study participants said they find it difficult to act on the health messages about obesity, he said. Most participants reported that they had tried weight loss remedies that their physician recommended and were generally dissatisfied with the help doctors provide.

Health care providers' efforts to convince overweight patients to lose weight are largely unsuccessful, Komesaroff believes, possibly because they do not understand the key issues that obese people face.

"The experience of being obese is often painful," he said. "Many obese people have major social and psychological issues that doctors and public health policies [often] do not address."

Nearly 50 percent of the participants (37 of 76) described poor mental and emotional health, including depression, related to their overweight, study data showed. Nearly all (72 of 76) said they experienced humiliation and discrimination regarding their weight, either in childhood or as adults. Twenty participants—more than 25 percent—regularly tried to lose weight quickly by going without eating anything for periods—essentially "starving" themselves.

"Our preliminary results indicate that health care providers should do a more thorough assessment of the needs of individual obese patients based on a sympathetic and nonjudgmental appreciation of their problems," Komesaroff said. "Responses may include the setting of reasonable targets with respect to disease risk factors and a closer attention to social and psychological issues."

For practices and policies on the prevention and treatment of obesity to be effective, he believes it will be necessary to include obese people in the development process.


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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...es-ss061008.php

Regina, you are really posting some good ones today. I mean, we're all just shocked by this finding, aren't we?

They failed to mention, at least in this reporter's version, a few little factors like obesity = sick IS COUPLED WITH obesity = gluttony and obesity = a choice.

I still want to meet ONE obese person who chose to be obese.

Yes, they do not understand METABOLISM and NUTRITION. Those are the key issues.

Gee, PJ, ya think???

Wait, you do think. Maybe we should take up a collection of brain cells to donate to these researchers.

No, can't. The brain needs 130 grams of carbs a day to function, remember? We don't have any cells left to donate. Mine all asploded eons ago.

Rachel

Here you go.

OMG!

Holy ....! "Gay chubby dating" was the featured ad at the top of that site when I visited. That may be the most hilarious ad I've ever seen. I didn't realize 'feeding / stuffing / fattening' was a fetish thing! My gosh. It takes all kinds, right?!

Okay, you got me -- I know about feeders. I guess I should have said "I have never met anyone who is not mentally disturbed who chose to be obese." And yeah, I do think anyone who ritually engages in behavior that in the end kills one of the participants is mentally disturbed.

my banner ads were of some naked chick... gabi, i think. i don't know what disturbed me more about that site... that banner ad, or some of the pictures in the gallery of people showing off bodies that i would never in my wildest dreams consider obese.


you mean nobody ever stopped to think that the all-encompassing, broad-sweeping message of "eat less, exercise more" might not be the right answer for everyone? that for those of us for whom low-fat/low-calorie dieting doesn't work, the message of "you're just not doing it right" might possibly be demeaning and de-motivating?

gee... ya THINK?

I think when someone eats 'well' according to standards, exercises at least somewhat, is obese, doesn't lose weight on a high carb diet, and then is told, 'eat well and exercise', it's just insulting and demoralizing. Obviously if that's all there was to it they'd be thin, and obviously also, if they tell authorities they DO that, and they're still obese, and the authorities respond with that, it's rather like, "Heh heh, yes yes, well we both know you're lying, and that the only reason you're fat is because you're lying on the couch eating bonbons all day, so let me just repeat it for the record, eat well and exercise ok?" I think that's how it comes across no matter the words used for it.

Damn, Kvon, you weren't doing it right! You were supposed to be 100+ grams of fat on that low fat diet. What is wrong with you?

This idea that people who are overweight are simply gluttonous and lazy reminds me of the quote from Alice in Wonderland:

speak harshly to your little boy
and beat him when he sneezes
he only does it to annoy
because he knows it teases

The thing that really gets me about this kind of thinking is the undercurrent that we, the fat folk, are somehow wantonly making the fit folk's lives worse by stubbornly choosing to be (lazy, lying) fat folk. I mean isn't the one who is carrying the weight pretty much the one who suffers most for it (airplane seats aside)? And we won't even go into thin, unhealthy people, let alone fat, fit ones. Don't we all know that thin=healthy=morally good?

ooooooooooh... so that maximum level of 2 tablespoons of fat daily was just mentioned so that big weight-watching brother could laugh his not-so-big ass off while i jumped through the hoops of impossibility? right... gotcha.


heh... got a few weeks while i compile the list?