And makes people more vulnerable when they contract other diseases. COVID hits harder if you are diabetic and/or obese, for example. The people who try to promote body positivity are doing a disservice to the overweight. You cannot be healthy and fat, and we should not pretend otherwise to spare hurt feelings.

Body Positivity movement started out with a good goal, but went off the rails with the obesity == healthy BS.

However if you want to solve obesity, especially the morbid obesity shamming will never resolve that as chances are the obesity is cased by an underlying metal or medical issue. most often an anxiety disorder of some kind, and socially shaming someone that suffers from anxiety is not going to cure them, and in fact will most likely make their eating disorder worse.

The primary cause of obesity — in my experience, as a midwesterner — is a lack of access to affordable, healthy food. What people can afford (in terms of money/time/opportunity cost) is primarily overprocessed garbage. It’s mostly impossible to maintain a healthy weight in such an environment.

Yes, I’m aware of the twinkie diet guy. Most people aren’t the twinkie diet guy.

I don't buy that. The vast majority of people would save substantial money by eating better--either by cutting out fast food or by avoiding junk food.

Convenience/time is a big issue, but its not like the upscale versions of fast food are really that better for you.

It's a cultural thing. Nobody eating a big mac for dinner every night would switch to kale salad from Whole Foods if they got a raise. America never had a good food culture and what little we even had was based on stay-at-home wife.

Money isn't the reason why lower class Hispanic and Asian areas can support grocers with quality produce, but white lower class areas don't.

Half my families "recipes" originated on mass produced canned/boxed food labels. My grandmas chicken and rice dish calls for cambells and uncle bens. Regardless, I love it anyway.

Most Midwesterners have access to cheap, healthy food like frozen chicken, canned vegetables, potatoes, apples, and eggs. Especially if they get on SNAP (food stamps). The real problems are more cultural. A single large soda or a few cookies can contain more calories than a whole meal.

In my experience as a Midwesterner, that also has traveled to almost every states in the union, there is no problems with access to affordable healthy food in the Midwest, Large cities have more of this problem than the Midwest, Meijer, Kroger, Walmart, etc are full of healthy affordable food. In fact in many instances the junk processed food mid-westerners buy are MORE EXPENSIVE than the fresh produce

Also my experience as a Midwesterner, is the people of the Midwest enjoy sugary beverages far too much (I say that as someone that should be drinking water but instead am enjoying a glass of very sweet tea). I would say if the average Midwesterner cut out 60% of the sugary drinks the obesity problem would take a big hit.

So I disagree that we in the Midwest lack access to affordable, healthy food

>What people can afford (in terms of money/time/opportunity cost) is primarily overprocessed garbage.

I've heard that, but I'm not necessarily sure it's true. All of the lower socio-economic areas I've lived in (in Melbourne, may be different in the US) have had an amazing selection of dirt-cheap fruit, vegetables, dried legumes and fish that are easily accessible in the main shopping area.

Often we're talking "cash only" businesses that avoid tax in order to lower the prices further, and they're always offering a ridiculous deal on in-season produce. We're talking, in AUD, $5/kg for fish, $2/kg for vegetables, $1/kg for fruit. The dried stuff doesn't go on special, but it's usually dirt cheap anyway ($15 for a 5kg bag, once you rehydrate it you get something like 20kg of chickpeas or lentils).

Lack of access to these markets is something I miss now that I'm no longer so close to Dandy/Sunshine.

Rice and beans are cheap everywhere. It’s our culture that is the problem. Look at immigrants who come here, they are often healthy when they stick to their ethnic traditional food but as soon as they start eating an “American” diet they gain weight. American food is very indulgent. We even feed kids shitty over-processed food in schools. In contrast, most of Europe feeds its students locally sourced and fresh food for much cheaper. America is on the dark side of capitalism where profit motive drives everything to excess.

> You cannot be healthy and fat, and we should not pretend otherwise to spare hurt feelings.

I think I’d say more that you can’t be morbidly obese and healthy. Fat people can be healthy (just probably less likely to be healthy than someone at a “typical” weight.

Too bad this podcast’s website is crap for linking to specific episodes. Check the ep from a few weeks ago: Is Being Fat Bad For You?

https://www.maintenancephase.com/

You also cannot be healthy and dead from COVID-19. Everyone preaching healthy eating instead of vaccination during the pandemic is doing a disservice to humanity.

Why not both? Adults are capable of parsing two noncontradictory messages at once.

The topic here is COVID-19. Juxtaposing healthy eating with a vaccine is downright evil considering how many people such a suggestion has killed.