Fat people should not be shamed. But neither should we ignore facts

People can live their lives however they like, but it doesn’t help anyone if we ignore the truth about the health risks of obesity, writes Louise Roberts.

Health is surely more important than bruised feelings but try telling that to the obesity apologists who are on the march again this week.

Self-proclaimed plus-size US author Lindy West had a TV audience eating out of her hand when she pleaded for the rest of us to “give fat people the permission to live”.

Shunned by society and picked on by haughty doctors who “judge” (aka diagnose) overweight patients, West argued that all the big brigade wants is to “live their lives and be happy”.

They yearn to “be vibrant and not think of themselves as a broken temporary thing — as a thin person who is failing every single day”, she said to tinkling applause on ABC’s Q&A.

Author and commentator Lindy West argues fat people should be free to live their lives without being shamed. (Pic: D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

But like most excuse-peddlers, West is on a low-fact diet wilfully ignoring the dire health implications of being overweight.

The big is beautiful hymn has hit a bum note. Ask yourself if you can honestly say you’re willing to trade your health and your life for the sake of wanting to stay fat.

Pushing the bandwagon that obesity is OK and an elegant step forward for body equality “as long as you love yourself” is not only arrogant but downright dangerous.

Good health is the nirvana of human existence. But incredibly West argues that people “don’t have to be healthy”. Meanwhile, the rest of us are fattist for pointing out that obesity kills.

I’m fed up with pro-fat bloggers and their thunderous overweight-is-never-ugly script, folk with fingers jammed in their ears about why they are fat when it’s usually very simple.

Weight can be dictated by genetics or illness but it is more often influenced by food and lifestyle. If you are fat, that’s up to you, but accept that poor lifestyle is your choice.

I’ve struggled with my weight — I’ve been both fat and thin since having kids and I know what version of me is healthier and more comfortable.

The Biggest Loser sees fitness coaches help contestants improve their health and self-esteem through exercise and diet. (Pic: Supplied)

As a colleague commented this week, it’s his choice to chow down on a wheel of calorific brie but he’s not going to bully me into a view that it’s healthy and wise.

We’re big and getting bigger, full stop, and so are our children — by the time they start school, one in five of them is obese or overweight. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says 63 per cent of Australian adults are the same. Obesity is a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease which is our biggest killer, it says. Then there’s a shopping list of gout, gallstones, blood clots and cancer.

Government websites groan with easily digestible morsels of advice on how to lead an active and healthy lifestyle yet when you look around, many people are still fat.

Smokers aren’t pandered to so neither should the obese. The jury’s out on whether taxes on any particular food drives behavioural change so here’s an idea — rediscover commonsense to avoid medical mayhem.

We need to tackle obesity with education and facts about diet and exercise, for our kids’ sake. (Pic: Luke Marsden)

I have a neighbour who lost three stone after dumping the “real women have curves” brainwash. She says her greatest light bulb moment was when her cholesterol and blood pressure returned to normal and she realised she was making herself ill with too much food. It was nothing to do with the victim-led “big boned” label she clung to for years.

On Q&A, West said “fat people get measurably worse care from their doctors because of assumptions like that, because of assumptions you can tell how healthy someone is by looking at them”.

But what do you want — your GP to lie to you? You go to the doc to get cured, remember?

All power to people for whatever size they are and being at peace with it but it’s not OK to make it a political thing and deny the facts.

Four years ago in a piece for Jezebel, West wrote: “Thin women: I’ve got your back. Could you get mine?” As if image and bitchy bickering was the thing to obsess over.

She went on to write: “Thin-shaming and fat-shaming are not separate, opposing issues — they are stratifications of the same issue: Patriarchal culture’s need to demoralise, distract, and pit women against one another. To keep women shackled by shame and hunger. To keep us obsessing over our flaws rather than our power and potential. To get our money.”

“’I’m proud to be fat’ is still a radical statement. ‘I’m proud to be thin’ is the status quo,” she added. Again, ignoring the obvious.

The fat is bad message has been clear for decades but logical thinking is the enemy of “personal rights” and nonsense feminism.

@whatlouthinks