Fatshaming

[travelinterest]

After a conversation with friends, and with obesity (especially in young people) becoming a bigger crisis than smoking in our society, am I unreasonable to think that as we villanise smoking and drinking, should we fat shame more to encourage people to change their lifestyles. It's certainly worked with reducing smoking rates. Don't attack me (I've lost 2 stone). Just wondering why we target smoking more than fast food?

I don’t know if the answer is high fat tbh. If it is then the planet might be in a spot (more) of bother when everyone starts buying even MORE meat, dairy and avocados!

And the obesity problems weren’t around when people had access to minimal meat.

gwen I was not party to the conversation. I was an impressionable tern at the time but I go remember my big sister coming home from work in tears because of what was said to her. Visits to the bathroom to vomit followed quite soon.
This is why I am ultra sensitive. Anyway that was just one example.
I am fairly sure I have read studies which suggest fat shaming doesn't work

Teen

"I think this is where this discussion gets confusing, because “fat shaming” to me is exactly this^^. If the op meant something else she shouldn’t have said “fat shaming” should she? "

I understand it as shaming the 'fat' itself i.e. the current obesity crisis and bad food, rather than fat people. In the same way that we are often negative about alcohol, but don't call people names just because they like to have a glass or two.

"Anorexic is very rarely if ever to do with loosing weight. For me it was about control when other parts of my life were out of control."

Would you agree with me then that one comment couldn't CAUSE someone previously emotionally and mentally healthy to become anorexic and that there would be some problems already present.

I've heard in South Korea very few people are overweight and if people start to put on weight everybody feel entities to comment. The low obesity rate is partly attributed to this.

It helps that the food there sucks, you don't want to eat a lot of it anyway. They also have a huge problem with drinking in the culture, particularly vodka.

Left - too much drinking makes you fat though.

Left - too much drinking makes you fat though.

Not if you don't eat a lot.

Gwenhwyfar I agree with you 100%, there is no way one comment causes an eating disorder, it may trigger but not cause. I also agree with your point on alcohol making you fat. I actually think alcohol is probably one of the bigger issues than food causing obesity.

don’t know if the answer is high fat tbh. If it is then the planet might be in a spot (more) of bother when everyone starts buying even MORE meat, dairy and avocados!

And the obesity problems weren’t around when people had access to minimal meat.

Firstly, the study which barfed out all the stats about cows and methane has been retracted and shown to be incorrect. Hasn’t stopped evangelical vegans using it for their own ideological purposes though

Secondly, humans have always always eaten meat. It’s how our brains grew. Your sentence should read “obesity wasn’t around when no one ate a predominantly carbohydrate diet”

I think most experts are now telling us to reduce meat and dairy consumption for the good of the planet. It isn’t just “evangelical vegans”. I’m not even vegan myself! But I’m aware enough to know that a diet which encourages stuffing your face with beef, bacon and cheese is bad news. And I’ve done lchf too, before I saw sense.

"Gwenhwyfar I agree with you 100%, there is no way one comment causes an eating disorder, it may trigger but not cause. I also agree with your point on alcohol making you fat. "

Thanks Tomatoes.
These threads are always difficult because you either have to bite your lip or say unpopular things and risk getting insults back.

@LeftRightCentre wtf are you talking about?!?! South Korean food is incredible. What a stupid, ignorant thing to say

Can we clarify what 'fat shaming' means then? I think pp are working off different definitions in order to answer the OP. From what I see online with the fat activists/body positivity people, it seems to be any mention of fat being bad or unhealthy. But I don't see how we can tackle obesity without mentioning it Otoh, if you just mean bullying and being mean to individuals I'm definitely not in favour of that, don't think it'd help anyway so why be mean.

"@LeftRightCentre wtf are you talking about?!?! South Korean food is incredible. What a stupid, ignorant thing to say"

She is allowed to have an opinion and she didn't seem ignorant of South Korean cuisine.

I think people pretending they don't know what fat shaming is are just being deliberately obtuse, being an arsehole to fat people!! With or without thin disingenuous veils of concern. It's not just saying its unhealthy

@Gwenhwyfar - there’s having an opinion and then there’s telling people as fact that the food there sucks!! It’s “i don’t like Korean food” versus “Korean food sucks”. Opinion versus fact. It absolutely does NOT suck in my view and the view of many others who love Korean food

I think we could all do with being a little kinder in general.

We have the highest level of people suffering from mental health issues we've ever had and a lot of the time i think the 'fatness' is simply a symptom of another issue.

I'm just stunned by the idea that fat shaming doesn't already happen. It does happen and has always happened. And when it happened to me it had no effect on whether I was thinner or fatter. What made the difference was when I had the headspace and encouragement to make a change. Actually, having someone help me meal plan and (crucially) eat the same food with me helped a lot.

Personally, one or two plus-sized models make very little difference and have little influence. The sheer amount of incredibly slender (and often airbrushed) presenters/actor/models/you-tubers are still enough to make young people feel bad enough about themselves without any further kind of shaming.

"I think people pretending they don't know what fat shaming is are just being deliberately obtuse, being an arsehole to fat people!! "

Nope. Read enough of these threads and you see countless examples of people claiming that doctors even mentioning their weight is fat shaming, claiming that BMI should be changed to suit them, etc. I saw someone recently saying the word 'obese' shouldn't be used for obese people. There have been people claiming that the Cancer Research advert is 'fat shaming'. I've been told off for just pointing out that sizes have got bigger.
Lots of people really do claim that they're 'shamed' by these things.

Fat shaming implies simply being rude for the sake of it which is never helpful.

However, the idea of loving your body whatever shape it is is harmful. Yes we come in different shapes and sizes but none of those sizes are morbidly obese.

The problem is that (a) we have a lot of overweight people in the UK so the answers will reflect that
(B) I think ‘fat shaming’ is a poor term to use

It resonates of bullying

It’s very noticeable here , especially when I travel and return back . We have a very poor culture on this issue characterised by many issues

A few government posters won’t change the issues . We do need a culture change but read any food magazine and walk into any supermarket and you see immediately the issue

I also don’t agree it’s 100% related to class either .
I see
Fat middle class people
Fat non EU immigrants
Fat EU immigrants
Fat poor people
Fat Arabs

Just came back from Japan the only fat people really were (rich) expats

It’s our heavy addiction to processed carbs and a culture that normalises having unhealthy snacks daily

I also don’t blame the food
Manufacturers totally . Supply and demand . If less people bought their product they will discontinue and make a new one

We are the problem

If we start shaming people, where will it end? It is not the answer.
Drink driving, smoking etc. we made socially unacceptable. Is it possible to do the same with obesity?
Someone mentioned poor people and suggest this is a cause of obesity. Are they poor because the spend too much money on convenience foods instead of cooking cheap healthy meals?
Education has to be part of the answer. Not just at school, but information aimed at parents. After all, they are responsible for their fat children. No easy answer.