The wrong form of gluttony
As certain people of the medical persuasion continue to focus on our “obesity epidemic” as one of the worst horrors the human world has ever faced, the diet industry is making billions of dollars a year and funding the very studies that these “scientists” quote.
We are more than willing to criticise Western culture, but for one and only one thing: how fat we are. Forget the fact that the US alone (5% of the world’s population) consumes 25% of the world’s resources; forget that we throw tons of food waste into our dumps every year, forget that we are destroying entire ecosystems and promoting disease, starvation, and environmental catastrophe. Forget that our entire system is based on the flawed assumption that humans are naturally rational creatures who are competitive and out for profit, and would destroy our fellow human anytime the opportunity arose.
So yes. We are rational creatures. Except for the fact that we are too stupid to understand that the food we eat is killing us and making us fat ugly slobs, according to the media.
I’m not sure that a claim to rationality on the part of human kind has ever been substantiated. Rather when stated we all simply agree, because we have a “stake” in that claim. You are right though, the media does distort messages. Problematic for healthcare is the media’s short attention span for a consistent message. I’m sure you’ve heard people say “what do the doctors know, they’ll say the opposite in a few years”, this message comes from the media’s ever changing commentary. Should we eat low fat, low carbs, all meat or only gluten free? The lie in this is that the actual message from scientists (actually doctors, scientists are all about fact finding, not giving advice) is quite consistent for any issue over large span of time. Sure, studies are always being done to expand our knowledge. Sometime this adds new dimensions to our understanding of healthcare, things that seemed very good previously now may have added dimensions of concern. But, given consideration of all that we know, medical advice is quite consistent. It is the media which would have us think that medicine is in a state of undecided flux, and this is simply not true. We do have an obesity epidemic, and it is a problem for the whole world, not just for overweight people in rich countries. Obesity related diseases will undoubted have lots of money thrown at them in the years to come. These diseases are quite unique to the problem of obesity, and the knowledge gained from research in this area will not be of any use to people in the third world. This is a real tragedy, medical knowledge should be shared and applicable to all humanity, not just those in the position to do unconsidered harm to themselves in the first place.
The “Homo Economicus” model, the very foundation of modern economics, was what I was referring to with regard to us being “rational” creatures.
No disease is unique to the problem of obesity. Hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, etc. can all be found in non-”overweight” people. The link between obesity and many of those diseases is up to much debate. What has been ignored, of course, is the danger of being too thin. Being underweight is also linked to heart problems, for example.
In addition, there is no universally recognised definition for obesity, which is absolutely ridiculous. How can you compare studies or repeat an experiment if the criteria for what you’re studying varies from study to study.
True, no disease is unique of obesity (except obesity itself) , but the range of diseases given rise to by obesity IS unique of itself. Very true, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease can all be found in non-overweight people. However, these people are the exceptions rather than the rule (even though they may still comprise a very large absolute number of people). Being exceptions, they must in the light of a world of limited resources not unduly monopolise health resources. This is the true test of healthcare. Anyone can be a champion of the minority, in essence all is requires is a genuine desire to do good (which is the absolutely best quality), combined with a lack of appreciation of scarce resources (catering to your economics bent!). What defines a true practitioner, is the ability to make hard decisions. These can only be made in the context of evidence based medicine (or suggest an alternative?). This is by nature aimed at the “average” person, who (for different philosophical reasons), doesn’t exist. None the less, for most people, advice and treatment on this basis will be of more harm than good. It is not ideal, no one in any real educated position of responsibility claimed it to be so. However,it is the best we have-of course open to alternatives?????
This ties back into obesity insomuch as it IS a cause of a large number of conditions, well and above the ethologies of those conditions unrelated to obesity. The targeting of obesity in addressing these conditions is a simple application of wanting to do the greatest good, while allocating scarce resources. Agree to pay more in taxes, and we’ll do more.
Sitakali, while the excesses of the West and drive for profits have clearly laid the foundations for the obesity epidemic, they’re not *directly* responsible.
Mankind fucks up all the time, unknowingly. When it comes to diet, every time we dabble in overprocessing foods, we get nutritional diseases – be they obesity or wasting diseases due to lack of specific nutrients. This time is no different, just on a bigger scale that’s all.
As for the definition of obesity, it *is* well defined, as a BMI of 30 or more. Sure, that measurement has its flaws, but it’s a global reference point that shows the world – and not just the west – is currently suffering from a global metabolic meltdown.