In an article about new weight loss drugs, Dr. David Edelson, a weight-loss specialist in New York says:
“We’ve got to think of obesity as a disease, with 400,000 preventable deaths each year,” Edelson said. “This [a combination of phentermine and an anti-seizure medication that supposedly increase weight loss] is a great tool.”
Too bad for Dr. Edelson the CDC had to retract the 400,000 number, as obesity actually only contributes to under 30,000 deaths per year. It doesn’t even necessarily cause all of those deaths. Oops?
Obesity is not a disease. It may, for some people, be a symptom of disease, but it is not one in and of itself. Treating it simultaneously as a disease and as a deficit of will power on the part of obese people does nothing but stigmatize people who already face huge amounts of prejudice.
But I’m worried about you. Oy.
The gross and horrible thing I don’t get is why that 300,000-400,000 number wasn’t retracted by news media all around the world. IT’S STILL USED! EVEN IN AUSTRALIA!
This is one of the things that makes me so incredibly angry.