You Ought to Read This
April 8th, 2004Sandy Szwarc is incredible. Read this amazing evisceration of the 400,000 obesity deaths per year statistic and obesity “crisis” propaganda in general.
A quick point from it: since my BMI is over 30, if I die today after being hit by a car, my death is considered a death related to OBESITY, and counts toward the 400,000 statistic put forth by the CDC that you will read in every single study out there.
If Mary Jones, 87 years old and fat, dies tomorrow because she’s 87, her death will count toward those 400,000 “obesity” deaths.
This is junk science, and it’s making a lot of people a lot of money.
Thanks for dropping by. I'm Meg, and I write offbeat stories about media and the culture that shapes us.
Thanks for sharing your latest readings – I needed some suggestions.
Also – I want to see a pic of this sexy, new hair cut!
The BMI is so full of shit. My friend, female and 6’2″, has a large frame. She falls into the “obese” category on the BMI, yet her body is proportional and average. If she weighed 182, which is the MOST she should weigh according to the BMI – she would look emaciated. Her weight range for “normal” starts at 144! I mean come on! You saw pictures of me at 144, right? I’m 5’10″ and I looked like I was anorexic when I was that weight. And to think that if I wanted to model, I’d have had to lose another 20-30 pounds. Fat chance.
I love Sandy’s attitude & her courage & the work she is doing. I know that she has to fight a great deal to get anything published, that there is always a lot more to the story that is cut out, & it means a great deal that she puts herself out there & fights for us. I want to nominate her for President…or, failing that, for Tommy Thompson’s job.
Ah, junk science, and its meaningless statistics. They make me furious. Have you reaf The Culture of Fear? I feel like I pimp it out ot everyone I know who has a brain, so I am sure I mentioned it to you. If not, check it out. It’s not obesity-specific, but it’s all about exposing junk science and media witch hunts and the like.
I love the way some goverment organization can fiddle with numbers and suddenly thousands of healthy people are being told they are obese. My SMIL was told by her doc to take weight loss pills – she’s 5’5″ and maybe weighs 130. I was flabbergasted. Thankfully my doc hasn’t said word one about my weight – he knows not to obsess about numbers, and judge health based on the overall picture.
Great column! I better stay fat then, since the government won’t allow me to die then.
Actually I have been exercising regularly for the last month and a half and eating better too. Rock on, eh?