I know that there are some who will be thrilled to hear that the American Medical Association has declared obesity a disease.

The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a disease, a move that could induce physicians to pay more attention to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for treatments.

Ted Grudzinski/AMA

 

In making the decision, delegates at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago overrode a recommendation against doing so by a committee that had studied the matter.

“Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans,” Dr. Patrice Harris, a member of the association’s board, said in a statement. She suggested the new definition would help in the fight against Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which are linked to obesity.

“Dr. Patrice Harris said the diabetes definition would help in the fight against heart disease.”

I’m no M.D., but obesity is now a disease, like…seriously??? By making this declaration, I’ll bet my love handles that this will cause our fat society to abdicate even more personal responsibility for what goes into their bodies. If you have a disease, then you can’t help it if you eat a pint of ice cream with a Twinkie chaser every night. You’ll now go to the doctor and, because obesity is now a “disease,” he or she might recommend surgery as a FIRST option, followed by fat-blocking drugs that make you poop your pants. And of course farmers and food manufacturers will be off the hook for literally poisoning us with aisles and aisles of processed foods available at your local Stater Brothers. People will call in sick and their bosses will have to give them extended time off for McDonalds hangovers. Employers will have to be forced to hire the morbidly obese and then cause everyone else’s health premiums to go up.

Think I’m just being bitchy? Well…

“[Critics] say that “medicalizing” obesity by declaring it a disease would define one-third of Americans as being ill and could lead to more reliance on costly drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes. Some people might be overtreated because their B.M.I. was above a line designating them as having a disease, even though they were healthy.”

Don’t you get it? Doctors declaring fat as a “disease” spreads that diagnoses far and wide to the MAJORITY of the United States population. So now, the MAJORITY of people are now…DISEASED. Here come the pharmaceutical companies to the rescue, with the doctors in their back pockets. Let me call my broker so that we can pour our entire retirement in Abbott Laboratories.

All this could be solved by the MAJORITY of overweight (overweight is not “obese” but you’re on the fast track for sure) people if they ate cleaner and moved more, and if we demanded through our dollars for less processed and sugar-packed foods.

For those struggling with weight, I do understand what a challenge it can be. Sugar is truly addictive, as is other simple carbohydrates like white bread and pasta. Many of us suffer from anxiety and depression that literally feeds these addictions. But instead of getting to the ROOT of the problem of WHY some of us are eating ourselves to death, we sit on our hands and allow doctors and pharmaceutical companies to tell us that obesity is the source, not our psychic pain or mental illness.Why would they do that? Because they’ll make more money cutting everyone up with surgeries and subsequent pill popping.

You know why farmers, doctors and pharmaceutical companies want us to buy this “Look! Over there!!” okey-doke? Because the solution for MOST obesity problems–reduce your stress, get a good 8 hour sleep, dump the sugar and white stuff, exercise 20 minutes a day, seek a good therapist–doesn’t line their pockets nearly as well. If the whole country did this, trust me, the Triangle of Conspirators would be shaking in their boots. You won’t FEEL good just because you cut off half your stomach and take a pill. There are always side effects. The only side effect to eating clean and seeking therapy is that you’ll feel KICK ASS. The Evil Trifecta can’t have that, can they?

Are you truly okay with doctors telling you that fatness is a disease that you have no power to control? Do we really want life to be that easy? Sure you might get skinnier, but I bet you’ll still feel like shit.