Because really, let’s take this down another level. Let’s talk about how even if all of the above wasn’t true — even if obesity is the worst thing to happen to us and is terrorism and cancer and bringing your children to an 11:00 PM showing of an R rated movie all in one — can we collectively agree that calling my body a disease is a dick move?
Of course, this is overlooking the fact that several studies from totally disreputable sources like the American Heart Association have also uncovered what was coined as the “obesity paradox.”
While many may be incredulous, the largest body of evidence has found that fatness is not a risk factor for heart disease or premature death, even controlling for the effects of smoking. Ancel Keys and colleagues confirmed this nearly half a century ago upon examining 16 prospective studies in seven countries, as well as actual angiographic and autopsy examinations of 23,000 sets of coronary arteries which found no relationship between body fatness and the degree or progression of atherosclerotic build-up. And the most careful studies ever since have continued to support these findings.
True story. Being fat in and of itself is not in any way an indicator that you’re at a higher risk of heart disease. And fun fact, Ancel Keys? The inventor of the Body Mass Index scale, which was then sold as a way to determine someone’s health more cheaply and more quickly despite the fact that the formula he used was never intended to be used to determine health at all.
obesity = disease of humanity, as in significant lack of.
Fat does not equal unhealthy.