Fat Shaming and Victim Blaming Won't Solve the Obesity Epidemic

By Stewart Lonky, M.D.

Some people estimate that 90 percent of heart disease cases are lifestyle-related. 

What does that mean, exactly?

Well, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking are key heart disease risk factors. Almost half of Americans have at least one of these three risk factors.

Several other modifiable medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including type 2 diabetes, overweight, and obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity and excessive alcohol use.

However, when someone suffers a heart attack or coronary artery disease, we don't mock them for living an unhealthy lifestyle. We treat these people no matter the origin of their heart disease.

In the US, there are over 90 million adults with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30. Obesity strains our healthcare resources, with extra care needed for dozens of obesity-related conditions, including cancer. 

Obesity differs in one critical societal respect from other life-threatening illnesses. People suffering from other lifestyle-derived diseases aren't routinely mocked and insulted.

Though heart disease victims often bring the illness upon themselves, there's no cultural of ridicule around heart disease. People with atherosclerosis aren't mocked or scorned. They're treated with dignity and respect.  

The CDC estimates that at least 48 percent of all US adults have some form of cardiovascular disease. Heart disease is a serious illness, and society views it as such. However, 40 percent of US adults are classified as obese. Why are we making these folks feel bad about their weight? They already feel awful about something that isn't entirely under their control. And research shows the more obese people feel bad about themselves, and greater the toll on their emotional and psychological wellbeing. 

A study published in Obesity, the journal of The Obesity Society, led by a research team from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders found that above and beyond the effects of body mass index (BMI) and depression, higher levels of weight bias internalization were associated with increased risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

It's an amusing paradox that in a country where 70 percent of the population is overweight or obese, society perceives these people as lazy or lacking willpower. 

Obese people already live daily with anxiety and stress. Body shaming is a pervasive, yet subtle form of prejudice that often flies under the radar. Obese people are stereotyped as lazy, incompetent, unattractive, lacking willpower, and to blame for their excess weight. We shouldn't compound their problems. 

As I've said, again and again, obesity is a complex problem. It's a serious, life-altering illness that can't be swept under the rug. However, shame, scorn, and guilt aren't obesity magic bullets. There are no magic bullets for a problem that is often years in the making.

It took a long time to get us to this place, and it will take years to slim us down. 

There's no reason to make millions of people feel bad along the way. 

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