I’m sorry, Cosmo, but this is NOT healthy
February’s Cosmopolitan magazine has been lauded by some as a watershed moment for celebrating the plus-size female body. It features cover stars of various body shapes showcased across different digital and print editions, including some extremely overweight women, accompanied by the line ‘This is healthy’.
Well, I’m sorry to say it, but I was far from impressed when I saw them. Horrified, more like.
Let me be clear: I don’t approve of body shaming. We all come in different shapes and sizes. but in the past few years something strange has happened. Fat has stopped being a description of someone’s body and morphed into an identity.
Being fat is now a choice that should be celebrated, a protected and revered characteristic that deserves respect and deference. suggesting otherwise — that, for example, being overweight is fundamentally unhealthy and something an individual should try to address — is considered ‘shaming’.
Obesity has been consumed by the twisted identity politics that have taken root in our society, and doctors are now warned against telling patients they are fat in case it offends them.
THE body positivity movement has gone from c hal l e ngi ng pernicious societal pressures to conform to the ‘perfect’ shape to simply insisting that being fat is healthy.
Being fat is not something people should be mocked or bullied over, and it’s right that we should recognise the diversity in body types. but, equally, obesity is not something that should be i gnored. and i t’s certainly not something we should pretend isn’t linked to a shortened life expectancy.
It seems bizarre that, as dangerous lifestyle choices like smoking become increasingly socially unacceptable, we’re expected to turn a blind eye to the waistlines of our patients.
Have we collectively taken leave of our senses? It’s madness that a doctor even needs to state that being overweight is unhealthy.
This doesn’t need a ‘ debate’, and it is emphatically not a matter of opinion. It’s a medical fact.
Obesity is linked to a host of conditions and diseases, from cancer and heart disease to strokes. I’m sure this is upsetting for some overweight patients to hear, but it doesn’t make it any less true, and it doesn’t mean t hat I, and other doctors, don’t have a duty to say it.
I think part of t he wariness of criticising obese people comes from america, where overweight people have adopted t he language of marginalised minorities such as gay or black communities to deflect criticism. They are now ‘ proud’ of their fatness and ‘celebrate’ it.
This ludicrous cult of the obese has spread over the pond and infected us, too.
but hold on, do people really think there i s anything to ‘celebrate’ about being so fat you need to wear special clothes and use reinforced ambulances to get to hospital? That there is any reason to be proud of the fact you cannot sit in an airline seat or walk without a stick?
And should you really congratulate yourself that you have eaten so much that the sheer weight of your body is gradually killing you?
Pretending otherwise is not just ludicrous, it encourages people to continue to delude themselves and prevents them from making positive changes.
Allow me to clarify for anyone i n any doubt: being f at is not healthy.
Yes, you might be overweight and still go for a jog or do yoga, but that doesn’t mean your body is fighting fit. Fat bodies are not healthy bodies. They are struggling.
In fact, some of Cosmopolitan’s covers seem particularly irresponsible, given they glamorise and celebrate obesity at the very time we are facing a pandemic of a virus that is particularly dangerous for people who are overweight. Obesity has been an issue for the NHs for years, but this has been brought i nto sharp focus by Covid-19.
Being overweight can raise the risk of severe Covid-19 by 40 per cent, while obese people are 70 per cent more likely to be hospitalised with the disease, according to a major study last year.
This led to an investigation by Public Health england, which said it found overweight people more than three times as likely to die of Covid-19 than those with a healthy weight.
So, overweight people with the virus are not only more likely to become severely unwell and need admission compared to people of a healthy weight, they are also more likely to die.
Losing weight is the single biggest thing that people can do to reduce their ri sk of complications or death from this virus.
It is a desperate public health issue.
Doctors and clinicians like me on the front line have been pleading with patients to lose weight, not simply for their long-term health, but because i t might be the difference between life and death if they catch Covid.
Yet a leading women’s magazine has decided to ignore this and perpetuate the lie that being overweight can be healthy.
I’m pleased to say the Mail is taking a different approach and t r ying t o help people l i ve healthier lives.
This is why I was so excited about the Mail’s health campaign — all this month experts, including me, are giving you guidance on how to have a happier, healthier 2021. We owe it to ourselves — and the NHs — to give it a go.
JOE WICKS broke down in tears and admitted to feeling ‘low’ after another lockdown hit. I know how he feels. But I’ve tried to employ CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and focus on the positives, such as the vaccine. It’s fine to have a wobble, but life is about picking ourselves up and getting on. It will get better.