Posted by Mike on March 10th, 2008 in biology

Some Experts Doubt Obesity Epidemic from PhysOrg.com

(AP) — Go on, have another doughnut. According to some experts whose views are public health heresy, the jury is still out on how dangerous it is to be fat. “The obesity epidemic has absolutely been exaggerated,” said Dr. Vincent Marks, emeritus professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Surrey.

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Gosh, just when I was getting ready to hit my 6 mile daily run (HA) I came across this great tidbit of comfort. It seems that the brouhaha about being fat may be less brou and more haha. From the article we learn that certain short sighted obesity researchers are now upset that much of the research into the ill effects of obesity have been paid for by “DRUG COMPANIES”. Why, what a surprise! That the good folk at Abbott Laboratories and F. Hoffman La-Roche would be interested in furthering the hysteria about about how fat kills, and might have an interest in promoting the obesity hysteria is such a big ass (sorry) surprise!! Oy, what a revelation!

Having been technically obese a good part of my life, I thought that I was being saved from ruination and slow death by the my Alli pills, Nutrisystems, Slim Fast, the South Beach Diet, Jenny Craig, Nautilus, and even Tony Little only to learn that maybe being a bit chubby is not such a bad thing. Maybe the preoccupation with obesity is just MARKETING! Maybe it is our preoccupation with eternal youth. Maybe it is our preoccupation with Hollywood, Californification, with breast augmentation. Maybe it’s our preoccupation our forlorn, insignificant, humdrum lives, with being someone we are not….

Ok, let’s try to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is no doubt that I should lose weight (a 42 lb lose will get my BMI below 30). But there many more factor in determining what constitutes “health”; more than the BMI, more than what Jenny Craig says and more than what you see on “House Calls” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Health is a very personal, very complex phenomenon. Way too complex to just listen to drug companies.

At my body mass index of 35 I am obviously seconds away from a heart attack. I do have Type II diabetes, as did my mother, who died at the age of 72. But, I have no oncogenes, my father is soon to be 87 and could live to be 107, my mother’s obese, sightless sister lived to be 87 and was brilliant until the hospital managed to do her in, and I am a relative happy, moderately intelligent tech wonk, who has 5 kids, 2 grand kids so far (keep going Lulu!) who has been happily married for more than 30 years. What does all that count for? Does that contribute to my health?

Therein lies the lesson these researchers are trying to get across to us. Weight is ONE factor in one health, not all of the factors and certainly not the most important…