Hacker News Reader

Comment by ykonstant | Hacker News Reader

> I realize obesity is a major problem, but so is obsession about health and weight.

The scales of the two problems are not even remotely comparable.

I don't think this is true at all. Peoples' obsession with solving obesity as a cure-all for human health deserves pushback. There's also a concerning degree of moralizing it that has no place in our culture but has taken firm root.

In 1990, no US state had more than 20% obesity. In 2018, no US state had less than 20% obesity.

[0]: https://obesity.procon.org/us-obesity-levels-by-state/ and https://stateofchildhoodobesity.org/data-by-policy/

Obesity has been linked to a huge number of health harms and they've been known for decades.

[1]: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/obe... and https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-manageme...

I think you may be right that there's room for nuance about obesity, especially moralization about it, but you simply cannot deny that it's a huge problem in the US

> I think you may be right that there's room for nuance about obesity, especially moralization about it, but you simply cannot deny that it's a huge problem in the US

Of course not. I just don't like how most conversations about health get subsumed into the much less productive conversation about how destructive obesity is.

I mean obesity slowly kills you. It's no different than being an alcoholic or a smoker. There's really no healthy way to be those things, the thing itself is destructive.

The reality is, to me, obesity is born of addiction. Which is why ozempic is exciting. Because it's not a solution that relies on moralizing or fatphobia or shaming.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com