- Oct 14, 2012
- 2,757
- 3,196
Haven't really read this thread, so I could be totally off base as to what is being discussed.
The thing with obesity is that there's plenty of people who do eat normally or even relatively clean yet are overweight or obese. Yes there are people that are overweight or obese simply because of their eating habits and/or lack of activity. However, there's also a huge chunk of people that just can't lose weight due to a multitude of medical reasons. Weight is controlled my multiple systems in our body (our Endocrine system and Nervous system come to mind). Some people don't produce the proper hormones, some people don't respond to the hormones that our body produces that control appetite, weight, etc. The medical field always debates if obesity is a disease. It's trending to accepting obesity as a disease and having insurance cover certain medications that can alter hormone production such as insulin to regulate weight. There's been a lot of relatively new drugs that have shown a significant amount of weight loss. However, once these patients come off these medications they regain the weight, even if they keep a clean diet.
What's interesting is if you want to be PC in the medical field you are taught to say someone has obesity instead of that he/she is obese. By wording it this way you treat obesity as a disease rather than defining a person as obese.
The thing with obesity is that there's plenty of people who do eat normally or even relatively clean yet are overweight or obese. Yes there are people that are overweight or obese simply because of their eating habits and/or lack of activity. However, there's also a huge chunk of people that just can't lose weight due to a multitude of medical reasons. Weight is controlled my multiple systems in our body (our Endocrine system and Nervous system come to mind). Some people don't produce the proper hormones, some people don't respond to the hormones that our body produces that control appetite, weight, etc. The medical field always debates if obesity is a disease. It's trending to accepting obesity as a disease and having insurance cover certain medications that can alter hormone production such as insulin to regulate weight. There's been a lot of relatively new drugs that have shown a significant amount of weight loss. However, once these patients come off these medications they regain the weight, even if they keep a clean diet.
What's interesting is if you want to be PC in the medical field you are taught to say someone has obesity instead of that he/she is obese. By wording it this way you treat obesity as a disease rather than defining a person as obese.