Keith Jantz
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Concern should be well placed, meaning one should not express concern unless they understand the entire situation. Expressing concern for someone who has metastatic lung cancer is appropriate in that the gravity of the situation remains severe with life ending consequences looming in the near future.

On the other hand, fat shaming is often misplaced as your comments suggest. But the public fails to understand some other nuances of the obese condition. People, particularly women, who carry most of their excess weight below the waist line are much less susceptible to adverse health conditions and don’t warrant being “preached” to about health. Also, African American women who are obese carry NO increased risk for heart disease, stroke, or shortened longevity in general, assuming they don’t have comorbid conditions like diabetes or hypertension. Their weight does NOT impact their lifespan.

Your comments also mention all the fad diets and weight loss programs tried and failed. An excellent medical study demonstrated that 95% of all people nationwide who attempted any of those fad diets or weight loss programs (Slim for Life, Jenny Craig, etc.) returned to their previous weight within the next 2 years. Yet the media barrages us with ads promoting these programs which in reality are simply revenue generating businesses for the owners and provide no health benefit to individuals or society in general. This charade needs to be controlled and the public should be informed. Also, if you failed many of those programs, it simply places you with the other 95% of people with the same experience, which means you’re NOT the exception as shaming would suggest.

Finally, all of us are pelted with psychologically designed advertising promoting consumption of extremely unhealthy foods and our government does absolutely nothing about it. Television networks claim they’re working “for us” to make our lives better, then secure millions of advertising dollars from purveyors of extremely unhealthy foods. And again the government does absolutely nothing about it.

)