Books Jan 27, 2023 at 11:11 am

“I Hope This Is a Book That Becomes Obsolete Very Quickly.”

Aubrey Gordon will be in conversation with Lindy West at Town Hall Wednesday, February 1. AUTHOR PHOTO BY BETH OLSON CREATIVE

Comments

1

Not even one or two of the 19 to tease us Matt?

Unfortunately, Type 2 diabetes is no myth.

Rubenesque delight is one thing, but let's not go anti-science on this and be in the same league as the MAGA anti-vaxxers.

2

Obesity is unhealthy. Period. Increased risk for heart disease, cancers, diabetes, liver disease, etc. Let's not sugar coat it. But also, lets treat people with respect.

3

Would Aubrey Gordon grimace over someone making a crack over Donald Trump's obesity?

4

@2 Why not sugar-coat it? Is sugar-coating things bad in some way?

5

Kind of a puff piece here Matt. Did you think about doing some of that journalism stuff so you could ask her some hard questions or was your plan all along to be a cheerleader?

Number 2 above kind of says what many of us think.

6

Please don’t health shame me. When was the last time you saw any obese people older than 70? There aren’t any. When you are obese your blood gets thicker. For sone their blood has the consistency of ketchup. Your heart isn’t made to pump that. It’s why heart disease happens.

7

Fat is gross. Fat is unhealthy. No amount of rationalizing is going to change that. We all eat too many calories and have too little physical activity. I saw a photo series of people back in the 1970s recently and was struck by how much skinnier everyone was just 50 years ago. It's a collective sickness. We don't need more rationalizers.

8

Fat acceptance is right up there with normalizing Fentanyl use by trying to normalize obesity. It won't fly no matter how much effort is expended by those like Ms. Gordon, to redefine reality.

The issue of stigma is a tough one. Few people find fat attractive, or want to deal with the demands to accommodate fat people when they are sitting next to one on a plane and flowing into a neighbor's personal space (all the while demanding that they be given larger seats for no extra charge). And we know that obesity was a major comorbidity that killed many with Covid due to lower lung motility and other factors. Obesity is a preventable condition but it may be too late for many. The American Academy of Pediatrics this week came out with guidelines that place an urgency on addressing childhood obesity quickly and energetically, rather than hoping one will outgrow it, which is generally not going to happen.

I am seeing a great many similarly pushing back on the progressive orthodoxy on the trans debate, demanding restraint and constraints on interventions by and for minor children. This is reflecting a rapid and urgent response by many in health care and concerned parents who advocate for understanding, not medication and/or surgery.

Some views are irresponsible and dangerous, and clearly not supported by the evidence.

9

@8
Lots of folks smoked back then. Nicotine works as an appetite suppressant. Not to mention the oral fixation that cigs fullfiled is now replaced by cheep crap food.

10

It's not surprising the usual fat phobic and equally gynophobic trolling incels would go ballistic.
Get over it, chickenshits.

11

when Despair over winner-take-all Capitalism
leaves one searching for Comfort some find
solace in drugs some in hugs
some use the booze
& many choose to
lose themselves
at the table if
they're Able

when the Capitalism fails
and the grocery stores have all
sailed you'll likey Wish you'd stored
up some calories for the Armageddon.

12

@10: If you don't support Donald Trump, you're fat phobic yourself auntie.

13

Based on comments you can see who takes walks and who skips them on their drive to McDonald’s.

14

@12 Based on her comment, I think we can now guess the BMI of auntie. North of 30 is a starting point.

15

ah the 😢 Fatshamers
Neolibs and Cons*
have Struck again
tho Earlier than
Expected.

*is that
Redundant?

16

@15 - Then there are the skinnyshamers. Remember the wrath that Twiggy got? We need to have a frank discussion about bulimiaphobia.

17

@10 -- Assuming you're including me in those epithets, FYI, I'm quite happily sexually active, not an incel at all. Even normal people, even liberal Democrats can't help but notice that we're all fatter than we used to be and shouldn't normalize that, as it's quite literally killing us.

18

@10 - I don’t want anyone to feel bad, shame, etc but it’s simply not healthy to be overweight not to mention a massive drain on healthcare resources, driver of insurance prices.

Also, still not a peep from TS regarding the elimination of slog PM? Weird.

19

@6 while being obese is correlated with chronic illness and increased mortality you are clearly a fucking moron, which is also a risk factor for an early death. I have cared for plenty of fatties in their 70s and 80s and even some in their 90s. If you make it to 70 there is long term benefit from being overweight even, it can help you have more reserve to recover from illness. Fat people have thick blood? Like how fucking stupid are you?

Go have a beer.

@18 while it is not healthy to be obese the people who live the longest in this country fall into the “overweight” category. Look it up. There is controversy as to why but it is fact.

Dewey why are you just trolling and not raising some genius counterpoint? Isn’t this board some place for rigorous debate and instruction? Fucking idiot.

20

Also being obese is just as healthy as being normal weight. Being morbidly obese is as unhealthy as being underweight. These are all clinical terms that you idiots are throwing around like you actually understand them.

We all have the same mortality rate, some of you may live longer than others but most of you who post on here, especially the ones who come to pick on other the authors and subjects of these articles, will end up dying after living a pathetic and unloved life.

Drink, smoke, eat, hike, lift, whatever up idiots. Whatever you do get a fucking life besides trolling on stupid message boards.

21

@14 I bet aunties BMI is within 5 points of both your own as well as your IQ you clearly self loathing moron. Why don’t you and Dewey exchange emails and actually form a friendship so you can have something better to do than come on here to hate on people?

22

@21 - The only hate here is from you, as nobody else is hatefully spewing profanity and calling us morons and idiots but you.

23

nah
dewey
there's plenty enough
fear & self-loathing to go around

if only the Good
die Young you'll
likely be darken-
ing these pages
for the duration

24

@23? If?

I suggest you go see "Everything Everywhere All At Once".

(note I didn't insult you back)

25

I do not understand the Stranger’s obsession with normalizing unhealthy lifestyles. Living outdoors in urban environments is not healthy. Heavy drug use is not healthy. Selling “flipped merchandise” at 3rd & Pine is not healthy. Chronic obesity is not healthy. Pretending the only problems with all of the above come from shaming the persons who do them is not healthy. There are real persons hurt by these behaviors, and the harm comes not merely to the immediate actors, but to nonconsensual bystanders, friends, and family members. Persons with serious medical issues need serious treatments, not encouragement to think they’re ok without it.

26

(decent of you)

it was a little
Snarky. A-
Pologies!

27

accepted

28

Tensora again with the best comment of the day.

30

@25 the moron who thinks heart disease in morbidly obese people is caused by thickened blood thinks you are a genius. If a moron thinks you are brilliant then what does that say about you?

Subship: stupidity is as lethal as anything else and you have a terminal case.

31

@30: Subship182 did not write that I was a genius. Read harder next time.

You’re free to engage with any of the points I made @25, and with my larger point, of the Stranger repeatedly normalizing unhealthy behaviors. You have chosen not to engage me on the substance of what I wrote. Instead, you made bizarre, second-hand personal attacks, based upon your misreading of another’s comments. From this, I conclude you have nothing of value to say on the substance of this headline post, or my comments.

How do I feel that you don’t like me, can’t answer me, and can’t do anything about either? Great! Thanks for asking. We now return you to your hateful ranting against pseudonymous strangers on the internet, forever in progress.

32

@29: "ideology that is harmful to entire groups of people"

What happens, they break out in hives? Have trouble breathing?

"I just hate you and like getting under your skin."

Classic definition of a troll. You keep torpedoing your credibly with every sick and hateful babble you post.

33

@30 Yes obese people do have thicker blood. It’s easy to look up. Being obese means you have more blood to support all the fat cells. All that extra blood has more cells to feed all that extra tissue such as white, red, and platelets which all makes the blood thicker. Also known as blood viscosity.

34

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23455838/#:~:text=Whole%20blood%20viscosity%20significantly%20increases,vs%203.29%20%C2%B1%200.09%20mPa.

Thicker blood in obese. I learn something every day.

35

@34: And it’s not as if the ill effects of obesity on the circulatory system was any kind of secret. Making the heart work that much harder won’t end well, but will tend to end sooner. Shoobop was stupidly arguing over the details, and even then, he got himself burned.

Again, I do not understand the Stranger’s obsession with normalizing unhealthy behaviors.

36

@34 and 35 That study cited above was refuted and the authors followed up with a re analysis that concluded this: Interestingly, hematocrit is rather related to shape (even within a normal range of body size) than the extent of abdominal fatness, and is not related to whole body adiposity.

The study you cited is stretching the definition of viscosity by including red blood cell aggregation and other not viscosity related factors associated with the function of blood. Hematocrit is viscosity and shape, not adiposity or BMI or other fat related terms, determines Hematocrit along with other factors left out of these two small to be conclusive studies.

You guys remain hateful and stupid. BMI is inherently flawed and has no inherent value or meaning except in the extremes. Of course one should not be super huge if they want to increase their odds of a long and healthy life, but nothing is guaranteed. Idiots who spend all day at their desk arguing in an echo chamber are just as unhealthy as happy active fatties.

You would have to understand how to look at a study to know if I got burnt, and fortunately you all are too stupid to understand how these studies are used to draw conclusions to know that the one you cited is fucking useless. Keep trying.

Blood viscosity is not what kills fat people. Its much more complex than that. So complex you idiots could never hope to understand.

Fucking morons.

37

@36- yes, BMI is very flawed. By failing to account for body composition it gives misleading results for those with large muscle mass as well as those lacking any real muscle. Using BMI to decide who’s unhealthy is inherently inaccurate. It would be far better to use body fat percentage if you must put a number on it. But most people, including doctors, can tell who’s unhealthily obese on sight. We could tell who the fat kid in class was before anyone ever came up with BMI. The problem now is that most people fit into that category. There’s lots of causes, including lack of rigorous PE classes in school (if they require it at all) and a general lack of activity in people’s lives. But it’s clear that we have an epidemic of obesity and that is not good for people in general.

38

Shocking how human physiology has changed so much in a mere 40 or 50 years.

39

@36: “That study cited above was refuted…”

By what? The study you haven’t cited here? The same bitter denial which drives Aubrey Gordon? The voices in your head?

“You would have to understand how to look at a study to know if I got burnt,”

We’ve all read every study you’ve here cited.

In full.

A billion times.

“Blood viscosity is not what kills fat people.”

Let me guess — the same study you haven’t cited says this?

Look, your endless quibbling about a few obscure details of just exactly how obesity cripples and kills does absolutely nothing to subtract from the reality that obesity cripples and kills. Likewise, choosing to remain in denial about obesity crippling and killing does nothing to prevent obesity from crippling and killing. Helping obese persons remain in denial thus does not help them, and might even help obesity to cripple and kill them. That’s all you’re doing here — if in fact you’re doing anything at all, beyond amusing those of us who actually know how to read studies.


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