theinbetweenie:

Fat phobia, the “obesity epidemic” and the medicalization of inequality

creatrixtiara:

liquornspice:

Holy shit, this blog looks amazing!  A doctor who puts the “obesity epidemic” in historical context and shows how “health” is politicized?!  ::singing:: LOOOVES IT!!!

A sampling of awesome. (All emphasis mine.)

Despite the focus on evidence-based medicine, much of the “obesity science” is arbitrary. Gerald Reaven, a leading scientist on insulin resistance, exposed the pseudoscience behind the metabolic syndrome, especially its inclusion of waist circumference:

“Not only are the cut points for the five chosen criteria arbitrary, there is no reason to believe that the individual elements of the metabolic syndrome are equally reflective of either the presumed basic defect or the risk of cardiovascular disease…although being overweight/obese increases the chances of an individual being significantly insulin resistant, by no means are all overweight/obese individuals insulin resistant, and, of greater clinical relevance, weight loss in overweight/obese individuals who are not insulin resistant does not lead to substantial clinical benefit.”

[…]

Last month, Scientific American published a study on the “diabetes belt” through the US: 

“…the 644 counties in the diabetes belt match up to known risk factors for the disease, including: a high obesity rate, sedentary lifestyles, lower education levels, and more non-Hispanic blacks…”

But there is a clear marker, almost universally ignored, that matches both diabetes and those “risk factors”: poverty. These 15 states include 11 states with the highest poverty rates:

[…]

…many studies on obesity take these conditions for granted, controlling for differences in race and occupation—either explicitly, or implicitly by enrolling white middle-class people. This means filtering out the health impacts of racism and class, two of the most potent determinants of health. The premise is that these are natural and unchangeable, and should be eliminated from analysis, and that instead we should blame the difference in weight amongst ourselves… While this perspective is not medically useful, it serves economic and ideological purposes.

[…]

The obsession with measuring people’s waists in order pass to judgment on them is reminiscent of the early pseudoscience of phrenology, which measured people’s heads as a basis of justifying social inequalities. Almost every oppressed group has at one time in history been blamed for an infection disease: First Nations blamed for TB, European Jews blamed for chlamydia, Mexican-Americans blamed for typhus, African-Americans and sex-trade workers blamed for syphilis, Haitians and gay men blamed for AIDS. Homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disease until the Gay Liberation Movement. Transgered people continue to fight against being pathologized. People with disabilities call for a broader definition of health instead of mainstream medicine’s desire to “fix” them. Muslims are resisting attacks on civil liberties that use the language of “public safety” in order to restrict their rights to movement, attire, athletic competition, occupation, and voting.

In all these situations the “target of intervention” has been the supposedly monolithic and deviant behaviours of oppressed groups rather than the social and economic conditions that place them, and others, at risk. The results have been social stigma or repressive laws, rather than accessible health care, better housing, and higher wages.

And from the comments section, Dr. J lays some more knowledge on us:

As you’ve both outlined, this has imposed a very real experience on the majority of people who are forced to eat unhealthy food while immersed in toxins in the environment/food/workplace. As a result there’s an epidemic of diabetes, as well as cancer. (Americans are also an inch taller than they were a generation ago, but this deviation from “normal” is praised because it conforms to the current standards of beauty).
While the cancer epidemic is being ignored, the diabetes epidemic has been personified as the “obesity epidemic”. This depoliticizes, fragments, and individualizes the causes of the health crisis, leading people to blame certain people’s bodies instead of the collective conditions we need to change so we can all live healthier lives.

Holy shit, I never thought about that! If we’re getting taller AND more cancerous and diabetic, why isn’t height a “risk factor”?!?!?! ::Mindfuck::

Reblogging because all of it is awesome and many of you will love it, but the height thing surprised me too!

Interesting stuff.