Dear Guardian,

[sebastienne]

Your headline had the word "obesity" in it, so I knew before I clicked the link that I'd be seeing a Headless Fatty.

Your byline was "Figures show large jump in obesity as well as drink and drug-related deaths, although life expectancy continues to rise". This would tend to suggest to me that "obesity" is not the OMGTIMEBOMB that it's been cast as. Indeed your article spectacularly fails to mention rises in diabetes, heart disease, and other attendant OMGTIMEBOMB horrors that we've been told will accompany the DEATHFAT. Could this strange statistical anomaly have anything to do with the fact you note - that "we eat more fruit and vegetables and consume less sugar"? Could it be, in fact, that a better and more health-giving message to send might be "well done, Britain! Keep on eating well!"? Of course not. You'd rather keep disembodying me and portraying me as everything that is evil. The thing that happens to people if they're too "naughty" in their food and exercise choices. (Food does not have moral value, y'all.) Apparently, my body is a thing to be feared more than alcoholism or drug-addiction. Y'know, those actual, damaging, deadly medical conditions.

I'm sick of being told, implicitly and explicitly, that my body is a health crisis. I'm sick of waiting 'til I'm feeling strong, and know I have some free time, before posting like this - because I know that someone will want to tell me that my body is a health crisis.

Comments

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Yep, everyone knows that US FATTIES WILL EAT THE WORLD.

[necaris.livejournal.com]

So they wrote an article that basically says:

People are living longer and longer. They might also, on average, be fatter during their long and healthy lives. Therefore THE FATTIES ARE COMING OMGNO!

???

[sugar-and-space.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that your lifestyle is /far/ healthier than mine, you eat more healthily, don't smoke, and drink far less, yet no-one's ever targeted me with the same OMG shit.

**hugs**

[sugar-and-space.livejournal.com]

Also: i note the absence of headless drinkers or headless drug users...

[dreamstothesky.livejournal.com]

Smokers get _plenty_ of OMG shit, I promise :)

[sugar-and-space.livejournal.com]

Heh, wanna bet i smoke more than you? ;)

I've honestly never had even half the shit directed at me that you see for 'obesity timebombs' and stuff. (I confess, i'm always intrigued by the idea of an obesity timebomb. i imagine it being the next step up from carpet-bombing with cheesecake.)

[andustar.livejournal.com]

The headless fatty thing is just O.O. Once someone points it out you realise just how universal it is. It's awful.

[ayaron.livejournal.com]

:O(

[dreamstothesky.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to be intentionally offensive here, and feel free to disregard my post if you aren't in the mood for debate - but I don't quite understand your objection.

The article (if you can call it that) isn't just about obesity, it's about various factors which affect our health as a nation. For all else that it is or isn't, I think it is pretty well established that being obese is quite likely to be detreimental to your health. Of course, so is drinking, smoking etc..

I am by no means judging those that choose to live a lifestyle likely to result in obesity. I smoke, and so also indulge in similarly self destructive behavior for irrational reasons that I can't explain or justify. But the facts stand that both behaviors (and many others) are, by and large, rather bad for you, and should as a general rule be discouraged.

My understanding is that lifespans are increasing largely due to better healthcare and improved support for the elderly.

All the things mentioned in the article appear to be either common knowledge or common sense - I don't quite see what it is that you object to.

I think the 'headless fatty' pictures that have become so common are just a way of portraying what the article is talking about without distracing you with a face. You'll see articles about binge drinking which just picture some empty pint glasses, or about smoking with just a full ashtray; I am not sure there is much more to read into it than that.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I think it is pretty well established that being obese is quite likely to be detreimental to your health

My point is that the article seems to contradict that implicitly, by noting a rise in "obesity" without a rise in any of the health problems commonly linked to "obesity"; and indeed a rise in life expectancy.

I'd also like you to cite any sources for your assertion - sources that would satisfy Ben Goldacre. I'm not very down with things which are "pretty well established" when they come from prejudice, and from consistently bad science. Reading this article (http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CADA2.htm) may explain some of what I'm assuming my audience to know, here.

An empty pint glass is not part of a living, conscious human being. An ashtray is nothing like a person who finds their body dehumanised and turned into a bogeyman. You even *explain why it is so wrong* - "a way of portraying what the article is talking about without distracing you with a face" MEANS a way of villifying certain types of body without forcing your reader to confront the fact that they are a person just like you. Have you even read the link?

There are two prongs here:

1 - People deserve the same level of respect, whatever their life choices. You seem to recognise this, and I'm glad.

2 - You can't tell anything about somebody's life choices from their BMI. You can make guesses, but they're no more use for interacting with people that "girls like pink" or "boys like beer and football". When talking about health consequences, you get better science out of saying "people who eat a lot of junk food do x" or "people who do no exercise do y" than you do out of using the clumsy and oppressive shorthand of "obesity".