09/27/2023
There is a misguided concept in the healthcare community that calling *besity a disease makes it less stigmatizing.
"Person first" language, where instead of saying *bese person, one might say "person with *besity" doesn't really make it any better.
The reason we don't spell out the full word is because the word itself is pathologizing.
It is defined by BMI, which is flawed in oh-so-many ways. Someone's body size alone does not indicate the presence of a disease.
Sure, people can experience disease at high weights, but they also experience them at low weights, and "average" weights and everything in between.
Calling a body size a disease is weight stigma, in no uncertain terms.
Because we know that weight stigma harms health, calling *besity a disease does NOTHING to actually improve the health of the people the healthcare system claims it wants to "cure".
But it does create more space for drug companies to come in with proposed treatments...
Treatments that interfere with someone's normal, healthy biological functioning, all in the name of reducing the impact of *besity.
It doesn't make sense.
Your body is not a disease.
We won't treat it like one.
