Well, Be Good

Which is why I get really nervous about people wanting to redline "fat can be healthy" and "fat people are not necessarily donut-stuffing couch potatoes" talk. It's all well and good to say, "Well, who cares if we're donut-stuffing couch potatoes or not, we still have rights," and of course we do. But in issues where our health integrity is directly challenged, I think we HAVE to answer it. "We must get the children slimmed down for their HEALTH HEALTH HEALTH" is a dangerous meme coming from a major insurance company, and it's directly tied to the image of the donut-stuffing fattie and the donut-stuffing fattie parent. The meme needs smashing, not ignoring.

How healthy we are depends probably more on what we do for ourselves than what the health care system does for us," said Dr. Richard Gayes, a medical director at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.

Really? Cause that's pretty much the exact opposite of how I see it.

But yeah, I guess if your salary depends on how little health care you dispense to people, that whole health meritocracy thing is suddenly going to sound pretty good, social determinants of health be damned.

Wellness is the new codeword for "not fat"

Well said and sadly true.

I didn't think wellness was a new codeword for not fat. I've been hearing about wellness since early high school (10 years or so ago).

In the past, the company has focused most of its charitable giving on the uninsured and to organizations that help people who lack medical coverage.

Which makes it all the worse that they are now redirecting money which would have funded treatments for genuinely sick people into being seen to jump onto the obesity bandwagon. The sad thing is that given the difficulties in accessing treatment in the US there are many people who'll probably do exactly what they're told to by this private corporation in order to qualify for assistance with healthcare.

And as someone who'd be considered a 'bad fatty' (I drink lots, don't work out, eat takeout several times a week, etc) I do worry that the movement is increasingly focusing on those who can demonstrate they are fat *despite* living the socially-approved healthy lifestyle at the expense of those who've made the choice (and I know it is a choice, because I enjoy those things) not to partake. I understand how important it is to destroy those stereotypes but in doing so I wouldn't want to see 'fat acceptance' diluted to 'acceptance for people who exercise and eat right and whose various numbers are within the 'healthy' ranges, but who are still fat'.

That's exactly what I was thinking, MichMurphy! That is the classic approach in shifting the blame: "It's all about personal responsibility." Focus on the individual and not on society and the roots of our problems. It's not like class or race or discrimination or our shitty health care system have anything to do with it. And when they invoke "personal responsibility for the future of our children and our world," someone better help us...and the children.

Not surprising that Blue Cross is doing this, considering the amount of people they turn down for healthcare based on their BMIs, despite them being what we consider healthy.

And I'm tired of the "please won't someone think of the children" argument. It's nothing more than another attempt to blame a part of the population and use it as an excuse to discriminate.

Don't get me started on insurance. Without going too far off topic here, I'm currently trying to get a supplemental health insurance company to "get" that the mere fact I have a high BMI does NOT automatically put me at a higher risk for illness or disability. I got back a letter that informed me of all the "risks" associated with "obesity." Because, ya know, I couldn't possibly have known that. It's blared at me from the TV every single frickin' night, but I'm just a big, dumb fattie. Then, though they said they "appreciated" my comments about my overall health and good lab work (code for: we don't believe your big fat ass), my build was "significantly" above their acceptable range.

They were totally missing my point. Which was their very rule about BMIs is what is flawed, because it ASSUMES health based on size. Also, I wasn't asking them to reconsider, so that part of the letter was totally irritating.

The news about Blue Cross is disturbing and, yes, their shameless manipulation of the "won't someone think of the children" idea is disgusting (and, indeed, trite).

And I was especially struck by Richie's point. We can't let them divide us into "hostiles" and "friendlies", or along the lines of which of us exercise and/or eat "sensibly." It does not hurt to point out to bigots (like the insurance company!) that they are in fact judging books by the heft of their covers, and that fat people have individual habits, the same as anyone else. But we shouldn't fall prey to the old "I'm fat, but I..." trap, either.

Great, I was about to enroll for health coverage with BCBS. Might have to rethink that now.....

but it bears repeating.

The US health care system MUST MUST MUST be separated from the health insurance industry.

I've worked in the insurance industry for almost 20 years, but I'll be darned if I can think of one thing that health insurance companies do that benefits patients (or most providers, for that matter). They cause providers to incur additional costs (my OB-GYN employs more staff to deal with insurance administration than he does nurses), refuse to acknowledge that the decisions they make about coverage have an impact on care ("just because we won't pay for it doesn't mean you can't do it") and engage in "cost cutting practices" to reduce the claims they have to pay that actually add more costs to the system (like paying third parties to send out letters to make sure a claim for an ER visit shouldn't have been submitted to a workers' comp or auto insurer). Something's got to give.

Personally, I'd like to see a return to non-profit medicine. Nothing good happens when greed is allowed to dictate "care."

I don't think children should be fat. Isn't it naturally quite rare for children to be fat? However, all bets are off when puberty hits. Both my brother and I got fat around puberty and lost the weight shortly after when our bodies adjusted.

My concern is that thyroid and endocrine issues should be more taken into account when it comes to adults (and some children). Because you can move it! move it! and the weight won't budge if there is another underlying factor.

Puberty should be taken into account with children. It's a sensitive time for EDs, too.

I just wish people acknowledged the complexity of the matter.

Also insurance companies have always focused on "health" and not "health care." People who are really sick have to fight for good care so, of course, the companies all hope you are healthy. That is nothing new.

I think more doctors should be trained to do diagnostic tests for things such as thyroid issues and people on medication sometimes have to deal with weight gain as a side effect.

"I don't think children should be fat. Isn't it naturally quite rare for children to be fat? "

I think that children, just as adults, come in all shape and size, and as long as they're healthy - not thin, healthy -, it should be no reason for concern.

Let us also not forget that the fat-related hysteia is leading to alarming situations such as more and younger people suffering from eating disorders, children as young as five saying things such as that they'd rather loose a limb than be fat, and frankly insane ideas like leptin-laced formula to make sure that babies don't get fat. Hallo? Babies need fat for the development of their brain and as a means to keep warm, since the heat-regulating mechanisms don't develop fully till about two years of age. This is basic physiology and there's no excuse ever for a doctor not to know such facts, but the overriding fat-related panic is going more and more against common sense, with results such as the ones I've outlined. And recently I've read articles where "a high birth weight" was listed as a "health concern". To the best of my knowledge, I've always heard doctors talk about *low* birth weights as a concern, befoe the "obesity epidemic" scare kicked in.

So, I do think that fat children do exist, just as thin children, tall children, short children, and all of them are better off left alone and without their head stuffed with anti-fat nonsense.

" I think also that some children will never be athletic (no matter their size) and that shouldn't be a reason for widescale discrimination. "

Of course it should not!

"any wellness initiatives should be more complex"

I totally agree with you.

Thanks for your clarification. I was not mad at you, btw - but at the idiots who tout the "let's get the children slimmed down no matter what" trumpet.

I was a fat child who turned into a moderately fat adult. The ONLY problem I ever had with my body was
other people's reaction to it. I was quite healthy, in fact, didn't get any of the childhood diseases. Also did very well in school. Some children ARE meant to be fat!

As far as blue cross/shield, they suck as always. One day, the public has to wake up and see through all this corporate b.s. I am so glad I gave a huge thumbs down to the BS float in the St. Paddy's day parade. Along with all floats from MSM!

It's not always such a wonderful thing to be a skinny kid, anyway. I was really really skinny - I was also really pale with bad dark circles under the eyes, very weak (too weak to ever do well in gym or any kind of vigorous activity) and prone to constant bronchial infections. The fat kids I knew weren't weak or sickly. Well, except for one but it was some kind of leg deformity and she had to wear a brace; she might not have been too healthy or strong. But she looks pretty good now.

With nutrition I'm coming to believe too much is better than too little. (That's what they told me about magnesium in the hospital when I was very sick.)

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley

My hubby was a cute, chubby little kid (and healthy, lively, and smart) and I can see now the harm that was done to him over the years by other people making him feel substandard.

GenXer

"How healthy we are depends probably more on what we do for ourselves than what the health care system does for us,"

This kind of thing is a very dirty game. They daren't take on the pharmaceutical corporations so going for the path of least resistance they want the public, especially fat people and others they deem undesirable to bail them out of the endless problem of sprialling health costs.

By using the politics of stigma, they want us to cower in the corner rather than using medical services according to our need, whilst what is causing the problem continues unabated.

Just like the economy the government (read taxpayers) has to bail out the private institutions that got themselves in a mess through their own shenanigans or we may all go down.

People have always tried to take care of their health, they don't need lectures from hypocrites, just accurate and truthful information. I really hope they do not get away with this nonsense.

Fat people to the back of the bus!!
Oh my...how much longer before fat people start getting forcibly segregated from thin people? I've read through page after page of this blog and the news is terrifying! Don't serve fat people at eateries, take fat kids away from their parents, deny fat people medical care and health insurance... How much longer before fat apartied shows up and we see signs that say, "This water fountain can only be used by thin people!" and "Fat people use the back door!" I always thought that anti-fat was a childish thing promoted in high school locker rooms ~ I never realized that it had become such an issue of morality! Forget giving to the poor and helping the widow ... you are only a good person if you engage in ritual starvation so that you can do your bit to purify the Race! Modern eugenics right before our eyes.

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~Mother Teresa