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- There is no proven safe, effective method of permanent weight loss
- a. Results from 1992 NIH study have never been challenged.
- b. Over 95% of all weight loss attempts result in eventual regain of all of the
lost weight.
- c. Concerns remain over safety issues with WLS and drugs. Note Phen/Fen
settlement and loss of life and mobility from WLS.
- Fat people are already deluged with information and misinformation about their
weight, especially from health care professionals and the popular media.
- a. The incident of anorexia in the United States is also on the rise, and it is at
least as devastating from a health perspective as the supposed dangers of
obesitiy.
- The health hazards of obesity are greatly exagerated and ill supported.
- a. Due to point 1, there is no study ever conducted that shows that weight loss
improves health. Showing that a person who has been fat all their lives has
health hazards a person who was born thin does not have is not the same
as proving that weight loss will improve someone's health. It may be that
the health issues remain uneffected by weight loss, and only coincidently
occur in naturally heavy people. That is, just because you lose weight does
not imply that you are still not naturally heavy.
- b. Most studies implying a relationship between health problems and weight
have dubios controls, and even more dubious funding, as they are often tied
to weight loss companies and organizations.
- As a matter of principal, tax payer money should not be used to underwrite a private
industry, particualarly one that is already successful. The commercial weight loss
industry make billions of dollars a year. They can do their own advertising, without
help from the US Congress.
- Interventions are of dubious value, particularly in the workplace.
- a. This leads to an even more hostile and prejudicial environment for fat people
in the workplace, and one already exists.
- b. This is arguably a medical condition. Workplace harrasment is in direct
conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- c. Since the incidence of overweight varies with both gender and ethnic
background, workplace harrasment represents both ethnic and gender
discrimination.
- d. Taking into account point 1b, what is the hoped-for result of an intervention?
Even with the best efforts, there is a 95% chance that the person will remain
fat, or return to being fat.
- e. Taking into account point 1c, will the employer become liable for
consequences of an intervention?