The Carb-Sane Asylum

This post was prompted by the following article on Medscape Why Aren't We Prescribing Pills for Obesity? It is written by Caroline M. Apovian, MD  I'd encourage you to read this whole thing first, as I'm genuinely interested in that response. Additionally I'm curious as to whether or not your response changes after reading this blog post (or other sources I'm about to link to).

R ecently (May 2018) comments about obesity at a Pediatric conference have made the rounds. Specifically: Obesity Is a Disease, Not a Choice, Experts Advise .  Here is link to the full text in   "print version" . The AMA classified Obesity as a disease in 2013. Five years later we've made little to no progress, likely because we've got "experts" pontificating and arguing over semantics and false dichotomies.  The false dichotomy of Disease vs. Choice is right out of whatever master playbook teaches that if you keep the "masses" arguing, they might not notice you're full of it.  It's really the only explanation I can think of for the circular arguments made with nary a tinge of irony on board straight faces. I have a bunch of stuff in the draft pile here on this topic, but cannot seem to organize it. I decided to start a series.  In no particular order.    This installment deals with the following statement from the 2013 R...

This series was inspired by my own "journey" through what I'm going to call disabilesity.   If you haven't done so and would like some personal background, read  Disabilesity ~ Part I: Intro and My Own Journey . This installment is about increased risks and rates of physical impairment, preceding and including formal physical disability, that have coincided with the rising rates of obesity.  A theme of this series is that unlike the chronic metabolic disease risks (diabetes, CVD, etc.), the impairment of physical ability is often overlooked.  In my opinion, this does a disservice, especially to younger obese individuals who are not properly educated/warned about these very real consequences.  Most people don't die of things like osteo arthritis, but quality of life can be greatly affected.