‘But what the trolls don't realize—or they do and are too lazy to care—is that Gordon has built a career of debunking all the "proof" they offer to support their claims. If only they read one of her books or listened to her brilliant, hilarious podcast, Maintenance Phase, which she cohosts with Michael Hobbes, would they realize they've been tricked into believing dangerous, hateful lies for generations in part so the weight loss industry can continue raking in billions of dollars every year.’

I’ll reiterate here what I repeatedly wrote in that comment thread: I do not understand the Stranger’s insistence on normalizing unhealthy behaviors. Persons with medical problems need medical treatments, not false assurances that everything would be a-ok if they just remain in denial. Do you really believe there is no link between obesity and heart disease, or a host of other medical problems?

In your excoriation of the “trolls” in that comment thread, you somehow forgot to mention the only citation to actual medical research, which I’ll put again here.

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

“This study shows that fatness by its own is associated with increased red cell aggregation, that abdominal fat increases blood viscosity due to a rise in hematocrit, and that overall body size as assessed with the BMI is associated with increased plasma viscosity and red cell rigidity.”

In simple terms, obesity makes the blood thicker, putting more strain on the heart. Does that sound healthy?

@2: It’s not like there’s any real scientific debate over whether chronic obesity creates a host of health risks. Your quibbling about the details would look silly even if you could someday get one of them right. (At least you’re not ranting about decades of lies by the weight-loss industry. Yet.)

The Stranger’s obsession with normalizing clearly unhealthy behaviors doesn’t help anything in Seattle, either. Maybe that little problem might concern you more than your personal obsession with name-calling anyone who gets the better of you in an argument? That’s an awful lot of names to call, don’t you think? Of course not.

(Why is it persons who disagree with you and the headline poster here can provide citations, but all you two can do in return is call names? Doesn’t that pattern begin to suggest something to you?)

@2, @4: If the follow-up study you’re not citing is, “Are overall adiposity and abdominal adiposity separate or redundant determinants of blood viscosity?” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25062715/) then no, it does not in any way refute obesity causing thicker blood. Specifically, “…abdominal fatness expressed by WC [waist circumference] and whole body adiposity remain independent determinants of blood viscosity.”

Again, you’re quibbling over details. Contrary to the opinion repeatedly promoted here by the Stranger, obesity is unhealthy, and no amount of denial will change that:

“Obesity is serious because it is associated with poorer mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life. In the United States and worldwide, obesity is also associated with the leading causes of death, including deaths from diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.”

(https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/basics/index.html)

“The stranger staff sell an ideology of mind your own fucking business…”

Actually, they’ve advocated for not prosecuting theft and assault, and “beat and rob innocent persons with impunity” is pretty much the opposite of “mind your own business.” But given your apparent inability to disagree with becoming verbally abusive, I can understand how the Stranger’s policy of loudly advocating for unhealthy behaviors — and attacking anyone who dares to recognize these behaviors as unhealthy — appeals deeply to you.