What science knows about obesity

But doctors ... don't?

In case you haven't seen this piece in the Huffington Post titled Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong, you're going to want to check it out. (Thank you Jessa Crispin, host of the Public Intellectual podcast, for pointing me to this article.) 

In short, it reminds of us two very important things that much of the medical profession ignores: That dieting causes weight gain in 98% (or more) of cases, and that "ideal" weight and health are not the same thing. Often, they don't even correlate.

But what happens if you're visibly fat and you go to the doctor? As the article details,

1.  Most of the time, the doctor tells you to diet.
2.  In many cases, he or she may also chalk up whatever symptoms you have to obesity, and tell you to lose weight first. (See no. 1.) This can be true even when symptoms are caused by cancer or shingles or simply from the stress of being fat in a fat-hating society.

So diet culture hasn't loosened its grip much on medicine, but there are alternatives to dieting, if you want to change the way you eat and what you weigh, I hope you’ll keep reading this blog.