1 new of 41 responses total.

I will agree with Mary that fat people simply do not get as good of
medical care as thin people for various reasons from prejudice in the
health care community against fat to the technology and techniques being
generally focused on people of more normal weights. As the average
weight is increasing though, I suspect that the technology will catch up
and there will be better machines for diagnosis and better treatments. I
also hope that once people start talking about fat issues some of the
negative feelings about fat people and just fat in general will go away
which would certainly address the issues with medical professionals and
any care differentials that they might give. 

But as usual, I will invite anyone to answer a question:

1. What is the risk of being 100 lbs overweight? 

Is it as bad as tobacco where 50% of smokers will have smoking related
illnesses that will shorten their lives by an average of 12 years? 

The best answer I have gotten is that being 100 lbs overweight for a
woman doubles the chances of death at any given time compared to a
normal weight woman. Being 10 lbs underweight is even worse. But that
statistic has lots of flaws because it doesnt control for anything. It
counts all deaths for any reason and doesnt even mention what the risks
of death are in the first place. So it is double of WHAT? I could go on
but I wont. I have also heard that a morbidly obese woman's chances of
dying are about the same as a normal weight man's chances of dying. 

Anyways, my feelings generally are that I try not to judge other
people's choices about what they do to their body or what they eat even
when I dont agree with them. I think that Americans get really moral
about food and bodies and such and I just dont like that. I have nothing
against anyone's decision to go on a diet or to lose weight. Well, Ok,
I'll admit that whenever someone tells me they are going on a diet, I
think that it is a shame because they are almost certain to fail and
then will feel bad and I will admit that I have to bite my tongue so I
dont point that out to them. I am always happy when folks do lose weight
and keep it off if that is what they wanted to do. 

I also dont like that "health" is often an excuse used to discriminate
against fat people. That statistic I have heard that a morbidly obese
woman has the same chance of dying as a normal weight man really brought
a lot of the fat prejudice home to me. Because no one is saying that men
need to be become women for their health in the same way that people
insist that fat people become thin people. If health were really the
issue, then men should be treated the same as fat people. I dont expect
to see a special male-to-female sex change hospital to open in our area
any time soon in the way that an entire hospital in Ypsi is devoted to
bariatric surgery. 

And fwiw, I am not happy being at my weight either. But it isnt for
health reasons. It is pretty for the same reason that I am glad I am not
a Mexican illegal alien or a black person or Asian or gay. It is because
being in a class of people who are discriminated against and judged all
the time really sucks. It is stressful. 

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss