A disease that demands treatment

Harriet Brown wrote the article How Obesity Became a Disease for The Atlantic. She reviews the long history of the claim that fat people must lose weight for health reasons. I've written about this claim here. Much of the treatments are more harmful than helpful and very few of them work for the long term – which means a built-in supply of repeat customers.

At the end of this recitation Brown reports a troubling step. The American Medical Association, against the advice of their own Committee on Science and Public Health, overwhelmingly voted to classify obesity as a disease. This isn't saying obesity is a factor in many other diseases, but is itself a disease that demands treatment.

Why take this step? Especially with their science committee giving lots of reasons to not do it? Simple answer: money. The declaration prompts Medicare to consider doing the same, which means doctors would be reimbursed for treatment. Reimbursement could go up if doctors just mention that weight should be treated. Alas, nearly all those treating and researching weigh have been compromised by the Weight Loss Industry.

Part of Brown's travel through history includes a gruesome catalog of treatments. Melissa McEwen of Shakesville notes that out of concern for our health fat people are being tortured – by medical professionals.



Research is showing weight discrimination is linked to lower quality of life (any discrimination leads to a lower quality of life!). The primary symptom is depression. I've commented before about doubts that high weight means poor health. This study shows that while weight may not be damaging to health, weight discrimination is. Which means weight-shaming in an effort to get someone to lose weight is causing more harm than good. And, yes, there are parallels to shaming gay people to get them to try to become straight.