What We’ve Become
Okay, I know this will be controversial but it is what it is. We are a fat country. From the CDC:
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 36.9% of American adults age 20 and older were obese based on 2015-2016 data. 37.9% of men and 41.1% of women are considered to be obese in the United States. This is twice as many as three decades ago. Approximately 15% of children and teens are overweight, three times as many as there were in the 1980s.
But we are blind to it. It is so common that we accept it. This is not about aesthetics. I could care less. It is about health. And yet the woke will try to cancel anyone who brings this up. Take this article:
But that is just a celebrity discussing it. How about physicians?
Obese patients are ‘weight-shamed’ by doctors and nurses: study
You see, it is the doctors’ fault.
I do NOT condone shaming any patient. That isn’t my point. We have done this to ourselves. We have pointed out in this blog that hunger issues became food insecurity because it just never made sense that our poor are the fattest in the world. Cheap, processed, high-caloric food is TOO available and almost every fast food company pushes their product during every commercial.
Now to the picture above.
This is Chauncey Morlan. He was the “World’s fattest man in 1890” and was large enough to be considered a “freak show” in the circus. At the turn of the 20th century, Chauncey Morlan traveled in a circus sideshow as a “freak.” Referred to as the “Human Freight Car,” people came from all around (and paid money) to see him. Today Chauncy might not be the fattest guy at your local Walmart on any given day.
This is a very touchy subject in current society. Other than motor vehicles, I do not think larger size is for the good- unless we are trying to treat some disability- presbyopia in my practice with large print and large TV’s. I guess the orthopods are happy for the increased business as are Big Pharma. There is NO drug that will cause weight loss while maintaining health. Our society has become increasingly sedentary and I do not think anybody really cares. Wait until airlines start charging you by your weight………..think of the uproar! What if health insurance companies added BMI as a risk factor (like smoking), then all we would have is more uninsured patients!
One of the big reasons I don’t press my patient’s weight is I’m overweight. My BMI just hit 31. I struggle since I grew up very thin with a lot of food insecurity. I also think we would help by shifting the normal values. There are no verified health risks with a BMI between 18-30. I think 16-18 should be considered underweight. 30-35 overweight and 35-40 obese, over 40 morbidly so. These tables were set in a very different America – my understanding was it was set in the 70s using a heavy drug using population in the 70s in California. Telling a person with a BMI of 40 they have to get to a BMI of 25 to be healthy usually means a weight they passed in 5-8th grade. Might as well tell them they have to get to the moon. Tell them 30 and it’s at least feasible.