"Health at every size" is dangerous nonsense

in #health6 years ago (edited)

I get annoyed by SJW's on a daily basis. I think that to anyone that follows me this becomes evident after just a few articles that I write that can be considered mildly political. However, I mostly feel as though the actions of these people that normally just create problems where they don't exist in an effort to virtue signal, there are a few "activists" out there that are definitely harming the people that listen to them. The "health at every size" people are doing exactly that.


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I can totally get on board with not being ok with bullying the fat kid at school but if you think a bunch of posters in NYC is going to in any way affect the politics of an elementary school playground, well you live in a very "special" world.

The Health at Every Size (HAES) people like to contend a few things that are psychobabble

  • Your body size is not an indication of health
  • Diets don't work

With rare exceptions, your body size absolutely IS an indication of overall health. It's nature's built-in mechanism of health-indication. I get it, the body image of everyone needing to look like a fitness model is unreasonable - I can get on board with that, but to suggest that exercise and diet do not work is dangerous and encourage people to do nothing and convince them that any efforts at change would be a waste of time.


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I am reminded of this episode of Southpark where Randy sees something on TV that suggest being an alcoholic is a disease that is beyond his control so he no longer has to feel bad about drinking.

In many ways I think loathing your own body might actually do some people some good. It worked for me when at nearly 240 pounds after spending all of my life up to about 25 being a pretty hardcore athlete I looked in the mirror and finally told the fatty in my reflection that I needed to do something. I didn't say "well, this is just how I am now and I am clearly healthy."

If getting your shopping done in Wal-Mart makes you sweaty and out of breath, you are not healthy at any size.

I find the diet comments by this group to be particularly disturbing. I agree that TEMPORARY FAD DIETS don't work and will almost certainly result in you getting bigger in the end. However, some of the activists in this troop suggest that you can just eat whatever you want and still be healthy and this is absolute nonsense!


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There's the ticket right there. A diet that takes all your joy out of eating almost certainly will eventually result in you returning to your old ways and depending on how long you "stuck" to the fad diet you may have actually damaged your metabolism in the process.

If you are fat (and I still am, a little bit, I'm working on it) then this is your body's way of telling you that you are doing something wrong. We don't all need to be skinny jeans wearing folks with 6-pack abs, but if you trouble finding shirts that fit you and are considering a motorized scooter to go shopping despite having no debilitating illness or injury... you are not healthy... and to create a movement of acceptance of this, is dangerous, dishonest, and dumb.


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WALL-E predicted the future!

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To be healthy you have to eat a balanced diet and exercise, this is an infallible double. The habit of eating well and motivating them to exercise should be instilled in children to avoid obesity problems at an early age. Nowadays, with so many electronic devices and videogames, the tendency is to be sedentary and there is nothing that does more damage to the body. It is necessary to keep moving and to eat healthy this is a recommendation for all. Greetings, dear @gooddream.

It's all about sugar. It's in everything, even if it has no business being there. And if something does need to have sugar, the key is to avoid the high-fructose sugars at all costs. The trick is to read the ingredients on food for common things like bread and yogurt. If it says "sugar" that's great. If it says fructose, HFC, or a number of other fake sugars, put it back on the shelf.

I've been doing this for years and, although I'm also quite active, I can't keep any extra weight on me no matter how much I eat. You'll be suprised how much sugar is in things you wouldn't expect. I've also noticed that companies are starting to add regular sugar back in to their products more and more, so it's getting easier to find food that isn't so toxic.

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This is good to hear but likely isn't true for many products in USA because of some reason or another like a tax on any imported sugar and hence the cheap HFC syrup. I noticed back when I actually drank them that Coke tastes significantly different outside of US because they use sugar and not fructose.

I think that if a majority of overweight people simply heeded your advice here, and did nothing else, they would see a dramatic change in weight and overall health. For me, giving up sugar was easy but i can understand why it would be very difficult for others.

I think it is wise to take into consideration the way that various chemicals and medications that have been introduced into our bodies that were never around before can impact this. For example back in the day I absolutely think that eating less and exercising more was the ticket to losing weight. I still think that is the case, but there are also instances where medications can impede that process as well as hormones that have been knowingly or unknowingly introduced to our food sources.

This is something that becomes very clear to you when someone close to you struggles with trying to get in shape and you see them start being more active and eating much healthier and they still don't see results.

i think that in many situations if someone close to you does those things and still doesn't lose weight they might be lying to you about what they are actually doing. There was this guy i knew Andy that was riding his bike HARD all the time, and claimed to be eating right but he was always at the bar drinking beer... not too difficult to understand what the real problem is there.

While I will admit there could be some isolated issues such as hormonal imbalances and certain diseases of the organs that could be the issue, for the most part this fat acceptance is dangerous because being obese is dangerous.

I'm not saying that anyone who is fat should be looked down upon or bullied... absolutely not. But to suggest that "it isn't your fault!" for 95% of overweight adults, is just a flat - out lie.

Thats a really good Blog. You have to listen to your body. Your body tells your evrything. And the problem in our society is we have less and less movement because of the modernization.

Another case of political correctness run amok. Then people come out of the woodwork and tell you being PC is just about being a decent human being. What an utter load of BS. Being "PC" causes harm when you tell someone who is morbidly obese that they are healthy and don't need a proper diet or exercise.

Body size is an important indication of our health.

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