This is baffling to me. So… It’s not the things making people obese that are the problem. It’s the obesity itself. Huh.
The AMA pretty much gave people with weight problems all over the country to say “See? I can’t lose weight. It isn’t even worth fixing, this is just the way I am.” …never underestimate the human ability to rationalize. I’ve said this very thing myself, because of my PCOS diagnosis. Totally believed it, too. Nevermind the fact that I never really changed my diet, and I only exercised for 2 weeks before giving up. That has nothing to do with it at all.
Identifying obesity as a disease may also help in reducing the stigma often associated with being overweight, said Joe Nadglowski, president and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition.
Aaah yes. Reducing the stigma. Because that’ll motivate people to change themselves. You’re a perfect flower, exactly how you are.
“Obesity has been considered for a long time to be a failure of personal responsibility — a simple problem of eating too much and exercising too little,” he said. “But it’s a complex disease… we’re hoping attitudes will change.”
How the hell is it a complex disease? The treatments they’re talking about in this article, the treatments for the “complex disease”… Are proper nutrition and exercise. So…. Let me quote that again, with the next paragraph:
“Obesity has been considered for a long time to be a failure of personal responsibility — a simple problem of eating too much and exercising too little,” he said. “But it’s a complex disease… we’re hoping attitudes will change.”
Nadglowski thinks the AMA’s support is also an important step in helping people gain access to obesity treatment. Most forms of insurance do not cover obesity alone. For instance, an obese patient cannot hire a nutritionist or a trainer and have it covered by his or her plan simply to lose weight.
I get it, insurance companies won’t pay for these things… But should they? What’s stopping these people from researching these things in their own, in this glorious world of Internet and Books? Perhaps…. Personal responsibility?
“Obesity has been considered for a long time to be a failure of personal responsibility — a simple problem of eating too much and exercising too little,” he said. “But it’s a complex disease… we’re hoping attitudes will change.”
Feel like I’m going crazy here.
