Obesity is a multi-factorial disorder

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The Star Wednesday 31 July 2013

Along The Watchtower By M. Veera Pandiyan

The Fight against Fat-And-Fat bias

            According to Prof. Dr. Mohd Ismail Noor, president of the Malaysian Association for the study of obesity, there are strong links between under nutrition and obesity with both occurring in low income households.  The American Medical Association has declared obesity a ‘disease’, giving rise to assumption that people had no control over the condition.

            While obesity is linked to risk for diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, there is much bigotry against people who are overweight than most of us care to admit.  The ideal type for women during the Victorian era was plum, fleshy and full-figured.  But today’s fashion industry disclaims women in the same size.  Dr. Denise Cummins, a prominent “fatness expert”, wrote in Psychology Today, saying that the relationship between food intake and energy expenditure is far more complex than the simple “calories eaten, calories burned” equation which doctors and personal trainers would have us believe.

           Obesity is a multi-factorial disorder in which environmental and genetic factors interact to yield a disorder of energy balance.  Dr. Linda Bacon, famous fatness activist, in her book, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight has provided a compelling research results showing that overweight people tend to live longer.  In short, it says fat is simply not the kind of killer it had been portrayed to be.