News from Obesity Epidemic Front

Dearest medGadget,

Thank you for the visual. I am so glad I ate extremely healthy foods today (with the exception of a Dr. Pepper at lunch), ran 50 minutes and swam 42.

I am not obese now, and if I can have more days like today than like the one depicted in the photo (yuck!!!), I never will be obese.

Can a whole cake really taste THAT GOOD?

Comet

PS - What, are we now measuring things in terms of "iPod" units?

PPS - Notice the study had no participants with a BMI over 35. I think the cake lady is over 35.

That picture is incredibly offensive, and just supports the view that medical professionals have tremendous bias towards fat people. I suggest you remove it. I mean, if you honestly think that obesity is a serious problem, and something that requires the sensitivity of the medical profession, you wouldn't post a picture that's clearly trying to make people say "ooh, gross!" Think about it, if it were any other medical issue (anorexia, cystic fibrosis, cancer, etc) would you post a picture making fun of the victims?

It did not take long before someone accused us of "tremendous bias towards fat people." I think that an anonymous poster clearly has a bias and does see something funny in an unfortunate situation illustrated above. Why else would s/he see some hidden ideas and jokes in the picture?

You think that a nearly-naked person eating an entire cake would be a normal picture in any other situation? You think that is what most, or even a tiny minority of, fat people do? You'd never show someone else in a denigrating situation like that.

Dear Anonymous,

Medgadget would have no problem posting a photo of a depraved drug addict in the process of killing herself by sucking on a crack pipe. In the same way that that crack kills its user, that cake will contribute to killing that poor woman.
I'm not sure why you would so readily assume what our editorial policies are. We try to give our writers the most latitude possible in their posts. As such, as long as the material is on topic and factually correct, we are satisfied. This allows the personality of the writers to come through.

Haha ! That picture is soooooo funny ! Fat people are to blame for their own misfortunes and I laugh and point at them when they're out in public.

Eating a cake has nothing to do with this article. The picture is not only inappropriate, it is irrelevant. A more neutral picture of an obese person would have been suitable in this case since this is scientific research that details an obese person's response to pain and not their dietary habits (which the photo seems to suggest).

Anonymous,

I completely agree with you that the photo had nothing to do with the article and was likely used to lure readers. A chart comparing the pain tolerance of the obese versus the non-obese would have been more appropriate, as would have a photo of someone actually doing the test. However, the photo is what prompted me to go straight to this article, so it's difficult to deny the fact that obesity is somehow fascinating.

Let me reassure you that not everyone is as insensitive as you may think. This photo made me sympathetic to the overweight woman, and I was not always as tolerant of overweight people. I used to think, "Why don't they just stop eating?" and grumbling that they're disrespectful of the bodies that house them. Photos like this, however, serve as a reminder that obesity is a disease.

In my mind, this photo would be comparable to an annorexic person heaving into a toilet or a lung cancer patient smoking outside of the hospital. It's a strong reminder that we need to start thinking about obseity as a disease instead of just laziness or poor eating habits. Hopefully photos such as this will help us to be more empathetic. Can you imagine what it would feel like to lose a mental battle to a cake?

I second everyone who felt the photo was inappropriate and exploitive. This is the first and the last time I'll ever click over to this site.