Down With Fat Shaming Up With Peloton

While fat shaming is wrong, so’s normalization of obesity. Especially as Pediatricians now warn 20% of US youths way overweight & push need for “intensive action,” incl surgery & meds. No, exercise ain’t racist.

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham recently called out “the Left’s mission … to glamorize obesity” & Dr. Nicole Saphier’s op ed argued it has to stop “for the sake of our kids.” The MD was referring to the American Academy of Pediatrics release of new guidelines for treating childhood obesity for the first time in 15 yrs & the picture the experts paint ain’t pretty. Cited, e.g., are CDC stats from 2017-2019 estimating that about 20% of kids were obese, not just overweight. That’s a lot of kids carrying a lot of worthless if not harmful weight. Worse: “Kids gained weight at an increased rate during the pandemic, esp those who were already overweight. Over the past 3 decades, childhood obesity rates have tripled in the US [so that] today, one of three children is overweight [if not] obese.”

As Dr. Saphier notes, abusive fat shaming in recent years caused many physicians to use PC-altered lingo that avoids words like “overweight” or “obese” & say things like “achieving a healthy weight”. MSM & social media, she says, “are promoting “self-love” positivity that includes being overweight while celebs & influencers “cultivate a platform to promote plus-sized bodies.” The problem with all that positivity, argues Dr. Saphier, is that “the messages being delivered” often go overboard & can be misleading; some have gone so far as to suggest “discussing weight is bad & [even] exercising is racist.” The better message she concludes shouldn’t be about “fat vs thin,” but simply “lowering the risk of preventable chronic conditions associated” with excess weight, such as heart disease, diabetes, joint issues & cancer.

Davd Soul