To think Prejudice against fat people is NOT as bad as racism.

[goodnessgracious]

To think the article in the Times today claiming that prejudice against fat people is as bad as racism and that it is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice is ridiculous.

Firstly, obesity is normally caused by an addiction and has health implications for the obese person and further implications on society as whole. How can this be compared to racism in any way?

Also, it is not the last socially acceptable form of prejudice because I believe society is just as (if not more) prejudiced against smokers, alcoholics and gamblers and all people with addictions which have costs toward society.

AIBU to think that although it is not right to be prejudice against obese people it is ridiculous to compare it to racism.

Copied article extract below...

"Prejudice against fat people as bad as racism, say scientists "Dr Jackson said that prejudice against overweight people pervaded society and needed to be challenged. “People think it’s one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice. You just have to look at the comments section on media reports on obesity to see that obese people are subjected to labelling and even abuse and attack.”

Perhaps people might be scared into healthier lifestyles if we have a situation where large numbers of relatively young people are incapacitated by obesity related problems and health services just can't cope?

If being overweight and eating junk food became socially unacceptable then the tide might turn.

I can't see that happening because there are several powerful mechanisms that weave together to make chubby the new slim.

Greengrow didn't define average height. She made sweeping statements without defining her terms.

Why does she need to define average height? If I say something like "the average price home doesn't have a swimming pool", is that an incomplete thought?

I do worry about the NHS. For both obesity and alcohol abuse.

30% body fat 'normal'?
Like I said, chubby is the new slim

30% is not good.

Too much food and too much booze, toxic combination, poor livers just can't cope, women's livers in particular

body fat % charts - 30% is pretty much in the middle of average for women - see also the quote from the research paper that says that for women '21-33% is considered 'healthy'' and I think it is entirely possible to be fit at that %.

30% body fat is the very high end of normal (32% is obese) and would be something I think women should be encouraged to reduce if it is that high. I've lost 10lbs of fat in the last month but my overall weight has decreased by 7lbs as I've made sure to maintain my lbm - IMO those are the measurements we should be focused on. The problem is the difficulty of measuring body fat - I estimate mine with calipers and then check it once a month by using a bod pod but that's expensive.

Obesity is a very complex problem and how we move forward from here I don't know.

Obesity may well be a serious problem, but the Tories have got into bed with the fast food, fizzy drink and and confectionary industry, inviting them onto NHS and public health committees.

Oh please - blaming the Tories ...bit of a stretch, the problem began a while before they came into power!

who says there's any blaming? I am merely stating the facts. It is absurd that the government relies on public health policy partly drawn up by fast food/confectionary/fizzy drink manufacturers. Whichever party is in power, it's bizarre.

I am a great believer in children seeing activity and fitness as the most important thing for health and 'fit for life', with an 'everything in moderation' approach to food.

I hate that weight is given such prominence and the pushing of things being Bad For You, when it's just a chocolate bar ffs - if you want a chocolate bar, have on - just don't eat 3, you will not GET FAT if you eat a chocolate bar and your diet is otherwise healthy and you lead an active life.

It's the fizzy drinks and suchlike that are the devils work, and the fast food culture that we have become used to.

Primary school is where it should begin, with as much enjoyable PE as possible and being taught very basic health and nutrition, right through to secondary school where cooking affordable meals from scratch and a variety of different fitness and exercise types should be part of the curriculum (especially to engage the girls more with fitness).

My eldest stopped guzzling coke every day (his first taste of secondary school dinner money freedom!), when I filled a bowl with the equivalent sugar and put out the calorie equivalent in food, of a 2 litre bottle of full fat coke - he was horrified when he actually saw what his innocent drink actually contained.
If schools did something as some as that, there would be an impact imo.

We're all responsible for what we put into our bodies and our children's bodies...not the government and not the advertising industry.

It's the same with exercise and how much we do/don't do.

Sleep - even your own link there has 30 pc body fat at the very top end of "average."

As someone said upthread, chubby is the new normal. And as the definition of "average" gets fatter and fatter, what was once worryingly obese is now just "overweight."

One of the things that scared me when my BMI was tipping 25 was walking into a lingerie shop in Barcelona (Intimissi?? Is that right?) and picking up a nightie. I would have needed an XL, the glamorous and slim Spanish assistant told me.

In the UK I was a medium at that point, or a size 12. We really are the fattest country in Europe, and will only become more so if definitions of overweight keep going up and up and up.

We the people are just farm animals for govt and big corporations to extract a profit from (when we're not being used as cannon fodder that is, or pawns in world power games.

But I digress, if we get too sick and dysfunctional they may take steps to do something, but really a population zinging with vitality, upbeat and clear thinking, well I think that would make us too hard to manipulate.

Better keep us all sick and scared

Lol!

Read up on body fat - 25 to 30% is a healthy body fat for a woman.

Anything below 25 is usually the preserved of an athlete and 14% is very low and is what an elite athlete would be at the point of competing. Under 13% body fat is not enough for a woman's body to function properly.

Ignorance is abundant in the 'slim' as well as the 'fat' it would seem!

here - another body fat chart - its important to note how the bands change with age too.

Whatever party is in power - yes, that I agree with Edam, it seems to be a function of whoever wields the most financial power .

Scarlett - great visual demo for your DS - you should volunteer in schools!

30% is only the top end of average for a woman under 20 years old Mrs, rightly or wrongly I think most of us here are a little older....

Body fat technicalities aside, I think we can tell when we have too much body fat as the body goes all squidgy and soft and you can 'pinch more than an inch' or have a muffin top which is not caused by loose skin from a previous pregnancy.

5lb muscle and 5lb fat.

The muscle takes up less space - so if someone is 11 stone and very fit/muscly, then they will be physically smaller than someone who is 11 stone and unfit/less muscly.

It is extremely believable that someone of average height at 11 stone can be the same size and measurement of someone of average height at 10 stone.

This is why it is advisable to use all the charts etc as guides, and all as a part of the overall picture rather than as an absolute.

We are talking about women at the overweight/ just obese range. Quibbling at can you be healthy at 11 stone at average height. I am sure that the "fat shaming" and other reports are dealing with more than % here and there regarding body fat. We live in a country with children with body fat over 30% and adults with over 50% body fat. One size does not fit all and there is always exceptions, but exceptions do not change the fact of what is happening.

Adipose tissue impacts health differently depending on it's location, a slimish person with a belly will be less healthy (all other things being equal) than a person with more fat, but fat stored in the hips and legs.

What I notice lately is that even slim people have protruding bellies.

I hate that weight is given such prominence and the pushing of things being Bad For You, when it's just a chocolate bar ffs - if you want a chocolate bar, have on - just don't eat 3, you will not GET FAT if you eat a chocolate bar and your diet is otherwise healthy and you lead an active life.

Don't eat the large bars either as nobody needs that much chocolate in one sitting. Manufacturers price chocolate bars so that eg. A small 30g bar (which is perfectly okay to eat in one sitting without worrying about morbid obesity) costs around 60p but a large 100g bar costs £1. Too many people buy the large bar because it is better value for money but they don't have the self restraint to eat only 30g and save the rest for another day.
I am a great believer in eating everything in moderation but too many people are unable to moderate their eating. They buy all these treats and then can't help but eat them because they are in the kitchen cupboard and are therefore easily accessible. We need to stop seeing chocolate and other sugary treats as an essential part of the weekly shopping and just buy them as a single portion treat as and when we want it. It's amazing how things become less desirable when you have to go to the effort of making a special trip to the shop to get it.

And why is it okay for older people to have higher body fat? Just because that's what tends to happen doesn't mean that it is optional for health.
It happens because we have an obesogenic culture and the more time a person spends in that culture the more body fat they gain.

I think one of the major points is that the arbitrary, magical figure of "9 stone" that most women see as the holy grail is a major block to very overweight people though, that's my point.

If these women were aware that you could be fit for 'life' and old age even if you are not 9 stone, I believe that would start a shift.

For e.g., I have recently started my back to fitness regime following illness and major operation - I am currently just under 16 stone, but I am fully confident that I will be back to my 'normal' in however long it takes, because I know it to be achievable (and maintainable when I reach it); for this reason, I am quite happy to jump on my bike, go swimming or go out walking very day - even when the scales aren't shifting I know that my waist is shrinking as the muscle is returning.
I do not see it as a mammoth task because it isn't - but other women of my weight don't have the same mind set as me, because they are constantly bombarded with the bmi charts and their "ideal, healthy weight", which is like a pipe dream when you are this size.

I would like to see the health and fitness message start in primary school and be followed through - stop calling people "fat" and stop all the other nastiness, it's all about being healthy and fit, not thin imo.