Is "healthy at every size" still a fringe movement, or is it gaining more social acceptance?
If the United States ever moves to a public-funded healthcare regime, it will also be more expensive and destructive to care for from a government budget perspective.
Unhealthy people are great for saving money. Health care costs are disproportionately skewed towards end of life care. People who are unhealthy die younger and more quickly.
Edit: Here you go. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748...
Considering they result in chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension and require things like heart bypass surgeries, I doubt it.
Additionally, while end of life care for the elderly is one significant contributor to health care costs, managing patients with multiple chronic healthcare conditions actually is the single largest cause of healthcare spend. If we want to be blunt, your assumptions are wrong: Fat people typically don't die suddenly while young, they die slowly after battling chronic disease, and they rack up costs while doing so.
> However, making people people believe that they can eat whatever they want, can be obese and still healthy doesn't help at all... it is very destructive and unhelpful in the long run.
First of all, I can’t think of a single body positivity activist who says “you can eat whatever and you’ll still be healthy.” It doesn’t really help your argument when the first target is a preposterous strawman!
More to the point: body positive ideologies might be damaging in the long run. But it might not be! You have absolutely no evidence either way - nor could you, even in principle! - and it’s extremely irritating to see such strongly-stated ignorance.
One of the major impetuses for the body positivity movement is the incredible danger of anorexia nervosa, which is the most lethal mental illness and has been spiking dramatically since the 80s. And as an unambiguously psychological disorder, nervosa rates are much more easily understood as a consequence of societal views of body image than obesity rates.
To be blunt: although there isn’t extant data, I strongly suspect that body positivity saves more lives than it loses. There will be many more women discouraged from starving themselves than women discouraged from moderate exercise and reasonable diets.
Regardless, obviously the body positivity movement has nothing to do with the 21st century rise in US obesity rates (not to mention Mexico). The problem in both countries is much more agricultural/economic. And it strikes me as a bit ridiculous (or dishonest) to suggest that marginalizing body-positive ideologies can reduce the obesity rate.
Prevalence:
* There are 2 biillion people overweight and 650 million obese globally [2]
* There are only about 3 million people with anorexia nervosa [3].
Nevertheless, people should not be treated like children. You can be positivie and empowering without telling them that they shouldn't even bother to try. Help people change their life and get healthy, that is how you build self esteem.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity#Effects_on_health [2]: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and... [3]: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...