Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic
Product Description
Our government is telling us that obesity is a major health crisis, that sixty percent of Americans are “overweight” and that one in four is obese. But how true are these claims? In Fat Politics, Eric Oliver unearths the real story behind America’s “obesity epidemic.” Oliver shows how a handful of doctors, government bureaucrats, and health researchers, with financial backing from the drug and weight-loss industry, have campaigned to arbitrarily misclassify more than sixty million Americans as “overweight,” to inflate the health risks of being fat, and to falsely promote the idea that obesity is a killer disease. In reviewing the scientific evidence, Oliver shows there is little proof either that obesity causes most diseases or deaths or that losing weight makes people any healthier. Our concern with obesity is fueled more by social prejudice, bureaucratic politics, and industry profit than by scientific fact. Such misinformation, Oliver argues, is t… More >>
Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic
Tagged with: America's • Behind • Bureaucratic Politics • Deaths • Diseases • Doctors • Epidemic • Eric Oliver • Government Bureaucrats • Handful • Health Crisis • Health Researchers • Health Risks • Killer Disease • Losing Weight • Major Health • Misinformation • Obesity • Obesity Epidemic • Overweight • Politics • Product Description • Proof • Real • Social Prejudice • Story • Weight Loss Industry
This new book claims the “obesity epidemic” that is so widely accepted by people as a fact is nothing more than a clever marketing scheme orchestrated by the government, health and weight loss industry, and the media to keep a multi-billion dollar diet and fitness economy alive and well.
That’s the premise behind a new book by University of Chicago political science professor Eric Oliver called Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic.
Oliver is the epitome of an anti-politically correct skeptic who doesn’t accept the definition of words that are too often throw into the public eye without a definitive meaning. Words such as “overweight” and “obese” are so easily manipulated, Oliver contends, that they have lost their meaning altogether. That’s why he feels the “obesity epidemic” is just a ruse and there is no real threat to people’s health as a result of them being either “overweight” or “obese.”
This is some radical stuff, Mr. Oliver. Your ideas are rather bold, too, considering all the proven weight-related and preventable diseases that Americans suffer from each and every year, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and even death.
But Oliver just shrugs his shoulders at the supposed relationship between weight and health. In other words, he doesn’t buy into it as fact.
Instead, Oliver says being fat and having a disease such as diabetes or metabolic syndrome is simply a coincidental association and there is no evidence that one has anything to do with the other.
“There are only a few medical conditions that have been shown convincingly to be caused by excess body fat, such as osteoarthritis of weight bearing joints and uterine cancer that comes from higher estrogen levels in heavier women, although this can be treated medically without weight loss,” Oliver claims. “For most medical conditions, it is diet, exercise, and genetics that are the real causes. Weight is merely an associated symptom.”
With all due respect to a fellow political scientist (I have a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Public Policy), you could not be any more off base with your theory, Mr. Oliver. Not only do obesity and health problems have an association, but recent studies have shown that the health risks of carrying around excessive weight, especially in the abdomen, can lead to a breakdown in many essential bodily function. This is proven scientific fact, Mr. Oliver.
Additionally, obesity-related health costs have risen to $36.6 BILLION as of 2002 and the trend is on the rise. One study warns that if nothing is done to curtail obesity, then we will reach 100 percent obesity by the year 2058. You may scoff and ridicule such statements, but the gravity of the obesity problem is no laughing matter.
But Oliver is oblivious to these very clear statistics that stare us in the face. He believes it’s all one big conspiracy to scam the American people out of their money when no real threat exists to their health.
“Weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry in America, and this industry is trying to put a health spin on what is a largely cosmetic product,” Oliver maintains.
As someone who successfully lost over 180 pounds in 2004 (read about my weight loss story in the book “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb”), I can appreciate the sentiment that Oliver is expressing in his genuine cynicism of the health and weight loss industry. I am quite sure many of the companies who are pushing useless products like diet pills, weight loss cookies, getaway structured weight loss vacations, and even a stomach pacemaker are smiling all the way to the bank because of the perpetual perception that tells people the “obesity epidemic” exists.
But what if it’s not just a perception, but a reality? While it may be hard to put an actual number on the people who are overweight or obese in the United States, most people will agree that there are still a lot of people who need to lose weight. Even if the number is significantly less than the “two out of three” mantra that is often repeated, there are plenty of people who need to get serious and lose a lot of weight.
To me, it doesn’t matter what the exact number of overweight or obese people are because there are millions of people who desperately need to do something about their weight. When I weighed 410 pounds, I had a HUGE problem (literally!) that needed to be taken care of. The government wasn’t going to lose weight for me and my friends and family couldn’t shed the pounds off of me either. It was MY responsibility to take personal control of my life back by doing what I had to do to melt the fat from my body and get healthy.
Thankfully I found the low-carb lifestyle and it has been a godsend for me. Livin’ la vida low-carb literally changed my life completely and I will never be the same again. I get e-mails all the time from people who visit my weight loss blog ([...]) thanking me for being an inspiration to them regarding their need to lose weight. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that others are being helped by my success in their personal journey over a lifetime of weight problems. I’ve been morbidly obese and overcame it, but it is still having a direct impact on my life through my family.
My stepfather just buried his 30-year old nephew who weighed in excess of 500 pounds and died of a heart attack last weekend. My brother Kevin checked himself into the hospital recently and had several clogged arteries where he had previously suffered a series of heart attacks. The doctor has given him one year to live if he doesn’t do something about his obesity. He weighs close to 600 pounds!
These may just be anectdotal examples of obesity’s impact on our society, but they are very real and undoubtedly replicated in family after family across this nation. Mindlessly stating that there is no obesity epidemic is intellectually lazy, Mr. Oliver.
Again, while I can appreciate where you are coming from with your thesis for your book and I actually agree with parts of it (namely your contention that anorexic supermodels are propped up as the ideal body type), I believe you are doing an even greater disservice to the American people by telling them they don’t need to worry about their weight. That’s puts even more people at risk of damaging their health even more and possibly leading them to an early death because they may think everything is fine with their health because you say there is no “obesity epidemic.”
That is irresponsible as someone who purports to care about the health and well-being of the general public. I would hope you will continue to examine the evidence that is coming out from reputable researchers that underlines the very real problems that obesity causes. It’s only going to continue to get worse and worse until people get serious about dealing with their weight.
Two quotes from the last paragraph of Oliver’s book sum up his premise:
1)”We have no clear evidence that excess fat is, by itself, harmful for most Americans. Indeed, about the worst thing that comes from being heavy is that it puts great pressure on people’s joints and inhibits their ability to exercise.”
2)”The best way we can begin to solve the obesity epidemic is not by trying to get everyone to lose weight, but by no longer making weight a subject of official concern.” (This is the last sentence of the book.)
In other words, the large number of obese Americans isn’t a problem. We should all just quit worrying so much about it and have another slice of pie.
I can agree that excess fat, by itself, may not be doing much damage. However, the fat is a byproduct of a lifestyle that is indeed doing an enormous amount of damage to all of us via increased demands on our health care system. As if an inability to exercise will have no impact on our health!
I disagree with Oliver that it is in our best interests as a nation to remove weight as a subject of official concern. It is affecting all of us, every day, and getting worse with every bite.
Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic shows you a reality about fat industry who everybody should know, it has been easy readable and open your mind to hte true behind obesity. Strong recommended
In the opening chapter of this book Oliver shows just how unclear and arbitrary are notions of what it is to be ‘fat’ or ‘overweight’. This will be the first step in making the argument that the present hysteria over the ‘overweight epidemic ‘in the United States is just that ‘hysteria’. He will go on in the book to confute the notion that overweight is the main factor in most major illnesses. He will make a strong argument that vested economic interests, including drug and insurance companies have promoted the ‘America is Fat’ campaign.
He too will make the case that a more critical health factor than one’s weight is one’s physical fitness, dependent in good part on the way one exercises.
All of this is in one sense very convincing. And yet there are clear signs and statistical evidence indicating that Americans have in the past ten years alone become considerably heavier. Oliver acknowledges that being very overweight does contribute to arthritis , aching joints, and makes physical activity more difficult. Moreover feeling overweight and feeling pain because of it connect very probably with an increased level of individual depression .
I am not a specialist in any of these areas, but my overall feeling is that while there may be much exaggeration, panicking, idiotic worshipping of thinness, futile and even damaging dieting, there is also a lot of illness and sorrow which comes from being overweight and worrying so much about it.
Oliver is probably right that this is not as massive a problem as it is being made out to be. But I do not think he is right to by and large deny its existence.
As someone who does a lot of reading on this topic, I don’t agree with everything in this book. However, I appreciate the amount of research the author did before writing it. The book is informative- just don’t let it be your only source of information on obesity as it is definitely biased.