Obesity

[Jazzy]

Statement: Obesity should be labeled a disease.

Do you agree or disagree with the statement and why?

 

[Tulipbee]

Statement: Obesity should be labeled a disease.

Do you agree or disagree with the statement and why?

Ah, the weighty matter of labeling obesity! Now, let's humorously weigh in on this. Picture this: "Calling obesity a disease is like saying my love for pizza is a medical condition – tempting, but a bit of a stretch, don't you think?" But hey, let's delve into the complexities with a touch of Calvinistic wisdom – because sometimes, even our appetites need a bit of divine guidance!

 

[Forgiven1]

No. There are people who are considered obese who are physically fit. Morbidly obese, I can see the argument for calling it a disease.

 

[Josiah]

Well, it depends on how you define "disease." IF it's a negative medical condition, then yeah.

But I think that there's often a desire (human, fallen nature!) to excuse wrong behavior... to make it not our fault. SURE, sometimes, this is an unavoidable medical condition that has NOTHING to do with one's diet or lifestyle, our choices. But I don't think this is true 100% of the time. There probably ARE psychological issues often at play (so a mental disease?) but I'll leave that to Dr. Phil.

I think it's healthy (in many ways) to accept accountability and "own up" to our choices - however difficult those might be. There will be little in the way of healing until we do.



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[tango]

I think saying "obesity is a disease" as if it were that simple gives obese people a free pass to not change their lifestyle. I say that as one who was considered obese with a BMI only marginally under the level to be considered morbidly obese. There was nothing wrong with me aside from that amount of junk I stuffed into my mouth and my inclination to sit in my recliner for extended periods. I swapped the junk for less junk and the sitting on my rear end for getting up and moving and miraculously much of the excess weight went away.

I don't doubt there are people who have genuine medical conditions such that they could consume nothing but water and still struggle to lose weight. That said the overwhelming majority of people I've seen out and about who are visibly morbidly obese are the ones either stuffing their faces with junk food, or stuffing shopping carts with sugary soda, pizza and other dietary garbage. When I see someone who is so overweight they are unable or unwilling to walk and so use a mobility scooter there's no way of knowing whether the weight caused mobility issues or the mobility issues caused the weight gain, but what I can figure is that eating your own body weight in fried food isn't going to help.

It reminds me of the story of the man who told his doctor "obesity runs in my family" and the doctor replied "your problem is that nobody runs in your family".

It might be difficult for someone to take regular exercise based on their circumstances but that doesn't make being massively overweight into a medical condition. There might be all sorts of reasons why it's difficult for someone to find healthy foods to eat but that doesn't make excess weight a medical issue either.

 

[Stravinsk]

Statement: Obesity should be labeled a disease.

Do you agree or disagree with the statement and why?

Sure, but only when it's accompanied by:

...and alcoholism is a disease
...and gambling is a disease
...and wasting time playing video games to the neglect of one's responsibilities is a disease
...and nicotine addiction is a disease

so on and so forth, so everyone knows the meaning of "disease" in it's proper context here.