Anna Leask and Geraldine Johns, New Zealand Herald, May 31, 2009
A leading expert in human nutrition has caused outrage by calling “over-fatness” a self-inflicted burden on the taxpayer.
Professor John Birkbeck, adjunct professor in human nutrition at Massey University, said anti-obesity efforts won’t work until society refuses to accept the condition as normal and healthy, as it has done for smoking.
The 76-year-old, who moved into semi-retirement this week after 50 years in his field, rejected the notion that some people will get fat regardless of their efforts to keep weight down.
While acknowledging that some may have a genetic propensity to obesity, he said: “You can’t get over-fat without eating more calories than you expend.”
Birkbeck even cited concentration camps to illustrate his point.
“You do not see fat people in concentration camps. Why? Because they get hardly anything to eat and they have to do a lot of work.”
Birkbeck also said “over-fatness” was a bigger problem with Maori and Pacific Islanders than Europeans and an emerging issue with Asian migrants.
His comments outraged groups working to reduce the obesity rate.
Maree Burns, coordinator of the Auckland-based Eating Difficulties Education Network, said they were “flagrant”, “inappropriate”, “intolerant” and “offensive”.
“Shaming and blaming people has never been effective. This is the worst example of fat phobia and doesn’t achieve anything except building discrimination,” she said.
“People that are bigger already experience profound levels of discrimination and feel like health pariahs and social outcasts without these kinds of attitudes. With comments like that I am glad he’s retiring.”
She was particularly upset by his race-based comments.
“Maori and Pacific Islanders have bigger bone structures and bigger bodies. To use BMI and make comparisons across ethnic groups is inappropriate.”
Birkbeck caused further outrage by saying methods used to reduce obesity rates had failed.
“In a dictatorship, you say ‘everybody that comes back in a year’s time with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 30 will be shot’—and you’ll find hardly anyone has a BMI over 30.
“But you can’t do that in society, so what we have to do is find a way to cajole and coerce. And I don’t think they’ve done enough of that.”
Burns said that some people were destined to be fat and were “perfectly fine” at their body weights.
She said a lot of people were overweight as a result of constant dieting, which was unsustainable because it led to cravings and binge eating.
The way to curb obesity was to encourage a lifestyle change—which groups like hers were working to do.
Obesity Action Coalition director Leigh Sturgiss said the condition should be blamed on environment rather than the individual.
“While there is some aspect of people making choices for themselves, we do live in an environment that doesn’t promote healthy eating,” she said.
“I am quite surprised he is saying these things. I would have thought we were past these kinds of positions. He’s quite controversial.”
Original article
(Posted on June 1, 2009)
Comments
Calories do not matter. They have you counting calories when you should be paying careful attention to the ingredient list.
I try to avoid MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and soy. Soy actually damages the thyroid. Aspartame has a bad effect on me…I was on medication for anxiety and depression, and once I stopped drinking diet pop, I was fine. HFCS can cause diabetes.
Polyunsaturated fat is not good for you—I am not kidding. Saturated fat will help you lose weight. Yes, I know the “experts” tell you the opposite…but see what’s happening. If a recipe calls for shortening, I use olive or coconut oil, depending on what I’m making. (Coconut oil has a thermogenic effect, meaning it revs up your metabolism.) Avoid vegetable oil (olive oil is okay, though—it’s monounsaturated).
What’s really making people fat is disinformation, ignorance, and apathy. People eat what they want, then take medication to take care of the symptoms instead of getting to the root of it all. How well do you expect your car to run if you put sugar in it? The same goes for the human body—if you put the wrong things in it, it’s not going to work well.
Here is some information from the Weston Price Foundation on fat: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
As a former fatty myself I know he is right! I can put on lots of weight real easy - genetic predisposition no doubt - but I don’t have to eat more than I burn!
QUOTE: “To use BMI and make comparisons across ethnic groups is inappropriate.” Interesting statement, usually we are told that we are all the same regardless of ethnicity. May be were are not?
Now even this causes “outrage?” For Heaven’s sake, obesity is no mystery - you eat too much and exercise too little! I don’t care what your supposed genetic predisposition implies - if you are so disposed, then you evidently need to eat even less and exercise even more don’t you?
We really are too stupid to survive much longer…
“Birkbeck also said “over-fatness” was a bigger problem with Maori and Pacific Islanders than Europeans and an emerging issue with Asian migrants.”
What does he mean by Asian? Real Mongloid race Asians from EastAsia? Or just about any dark haired White person whose ancestors are from the Meditterean, middle east, North Africa, Central Asia or anywhere south of Rome?
He who tells the truth gets stoned. That’s the real malady of our society.
Why is this article posted on this site? What does BMI have to do with our racial interests as white people?
I wear a size 16. Does that make me less white?
“A leading expert in human nutrition has caused outrage by calling “over-fatness” a self-inflicted burden on the taxpayer.”
It’s not just fatness. There are plenty of skinny people who eat very unhealthy and have clogged arteries and high cholesterol which leads to heart disease and cancer and is also a burden on the taxpayer. This is a proven fact. What about them? Also, some ethnic groups do have different tendencies towards weight gain.
To everyone reading this post, please do either one, or both, of the following:
Go to Amazon or eBay and try to obtain a copy of the 1982 book “The Dieter’s Dilemma” by William Bennett, M.D. and Joel Gurin.
And/or put these words into any internet search engine like yahoo or google, “dieting does not work”
You will find out that dieting does not work because based on what genes you inherit, your body has a setpoint that it will fight to maintain, no matter what you do.
When an unfortunate fat person falls for a scam like Weight Watchers, T.O.P.S(Take Off Pounds Sensibly), Jenny Craig, or Nutri-System, is well self-disciplinced by following the diet and exercise program every day, that person will at first temporarily abate probably about twenty pounds. But even if he, or she, stays with the dieting and exercise program, all of the lost weight will eventually creep back on, every last ounce! That person, without knowing it is not his or her fault, will go into self-blaming depression, will face discrmination and persecution from employers, schools, their own family members, and even their own doctors who may not be aware of the medical facts contained in “The Dieter’s Dilemma”, for failing to lose weight and keep it off!
Simply put, the body outwits the dieter by slowing down the metabolism until the genetically set point of weight is brought back.
On the other hand, there are model-trim people, who everyday eat to what amounts to a chocolate-covered elephant each day and never gain a single pound because they are fortunate enough to inherit the right genes!
There is, at this point in time, only one way to be thin: have thin parents.
It very deeply disturbs me how the majority of people are totally, and often at times willfully ignorant, of these scientific facts. People are not fat or thin, by how much, or little, they eat. That dieting is a medical and scientific fraud, is what the dieting industry wants you to be an ignoramus about, so that the dieting industry can wrongfully and unethically make billions in profits, while obese people suffer pain and misery, by being unaware it is not their fault they are fat!
If the general public were aware of these true facts about obesity, perhaps the dieing industry would go bankrupt like it should, bigotry against fat people would sharply decline, and there would be charities for the purpose fo finding a real cure obesity, just there are for aids, cancer, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, etc.
If there were telethons to fund medical research to find a real cure for obesity, Oprah Winfrey would be the perfect TV personality to host it!
When I was young ,and that was in the 1940’s there were hardly any boys in my school that were fat. I can only remember one and he had been fat from birth. Even then plump boys would hardly be called fat now.
“anywhere south of Rome”
There are big differences between north and south Italy but I’ve never heard confusion over whether they were Asian.
“I wear a size 16. Does that make me less white?”
Very good post, but I must say, it certainly makes you less likely to have a baby. Unless you’re really hot.
“Ross” Are you serious??? You simply CANNOT be seriously suggesting that fat people have NO control over the situation and will be fat no matter what they eat or do? What you are saying is as prepsosterous as it is demonstrably false!
“People are not fat or thin by, how much, or how little they eat?” Oh really? And this is all just a conspiracy by the “dieting industry??” I am quite certain I have heard it all today!
Whatever one’s genetic make-up, if you eat a healthy, reasonably portioned diet and exercise a sensible amount you will NOT be obese! We have generations and generations of generally slim and fit ancenstors to prove this. When I grew up, truly fat or certainly obese people were RARE…yes, rare!!
Peoples’ lack of self discipline and sense of self worth and dignity is amazing. It is not hard at all to lose weight. All you have to do is burn more calories than you take in. The easiest and most natural way to burn calories is by walking a lot. I did this and lost 20lbs. Everyone wants to play the victim. Obese people disgust me. Maybe he stumbled on a good idea.. create a national health program putting morbidly obese people in concentration camps working on civic projects until they are healthy… that way do good for themselves and the country, instead of ruining both.
9 — Terrymac wrote at 8:54 PM on June 1:
How very true Sir.
I remember a boy I knew in school, Lou L. He was heavy. He told me he was going in the Marine Corps upon graduation (he was a year older than me). I asked how he could get into the Corps because he was fat. He said the recruiter told him the Corps would take care of that. When he got back on bootcamp leave, we were all amazed. He was slim and trim like anyone else. He was so happy and vowed to never ever be fat again in his life.
The next year, I went into the Corps just like Lou, a few days after graduation. When I got to Pariss Island, i saw what they put the fat guys through. It was really tough, but you could just about see the fat falling off their bodies. Everything they did in the South Carolina sun was done in full sweatsuits. I don’t guess they dare do that to a young guy today for fear he’d fall over dead.
People live differently today. They’re not the same as years ago. Even people who are in “shape” today tend to be heavier. you seldom see a young man with a classic muscular build anymore. If they’re in shape today, that usually means they’re weight lifters. They don’t have that lean look to them that young men had in the past.
tom Iron…
Actually, I do believe that a lot of the chemicals we use in our foods causes obesity. A lot of our meats have growth hormones in them to plump up the cattle. We have asperatane and other types of chemicals as well as artifical sweeteners which can increase hunger levels not to mention bad types of fat used in frying. People in the past often ate big, fattening meals but you saw little obesity. I think because the food was natural and didn’t have all these hormones and chemicals in them. I also feel we have become obsessed with being abnormally thin which causes people to diet and leads to deprivation which leads to overeating and obesity. We expect grown women to be a size 2 which in abnormal. Marilyn Monroe today would be considered “plus sized”. Also, some people are plump, not fat but plump by nature and that is fine.
To Sofita:
This article was probably posted here because there is much evidence that differences in obesity levels among the races is at least partly due to genetic differences in metabolism rates.
Of course there are also cultural factors like exercise and eating habits- blacks, Polynesians and hispanics consume a lot of high-fat junk foods.
Folks, could I suggest that the truth lies somewhere in between? Certainly, the amount of calories you take in has something to do with how fat you are. However, if calories are the only thing that matters, then why did I start gaining weight after the age of 30, even though my diet and activity level stayed exactly the same? Certainly, metabolism has something to do with it.
Ross is wrong. If one loses weight from carefully watching their diet, exercising and then maintains the exercise regimen and diet, they do not get fat again. People lose weight, then slack off, hence the return of excess adipose tissue.
I cannot believe some of the posts here, and I read this thing daily. Some people blame fat on everything under the sun except themselves. Dang!!
Fat is self-inflicted. A calorie is an calorie is a calorie—a unit of heat energy—period. The body doesn’t recognize a “good” calorie from a “bad” one. You could lose weight eating junk everyday—if one consumed the proper caloric intake—but probably not a balanced way of going about it.
As for Marilyn Monroe being “plus-sized” in today’s terms, this is simply untrue. While she was indeed a size 12, it was a 1950’s size 12!!!!!!!!! It would be equivalent to a modern-day size 4.
A size 16 may not make you less white but it does make you heavy. Plump is a euphemism for fat, along with “curvy” and “BBW”. It’s all gross.
Dear Kitty,
That’s funny. My husband doesn’t think I’m “gross”. I was thinner ten years ago, but he’s just as, uh, interested as he was back then!
Dear Anonymous,
Actually, I just had a baby. Soon, my husband and I will get to work on another. I think its cute that you admit that a size 16 can be hot. Some guys only like really thin women, but not all are like that.
“I cannot believe some of the posts here, and I read this thing daily. Some people blame fat on everything under the sun except themselves. Dang!!”
I’m not saying that calorie intake has nothing to do with it. Of course you’re correct that how much a person eats along with their activity level determines this regaradless, though some people are definitely more prone to gaining weight due to genetics or age. However, growth hormones in the meats as well as other chemicals do contribute to weight gain and often sugar substitutes in sodas can trigger hunger. In countries where people eat natural food, people weigh less even taking in the same number of calories and there is not much obesity.
“A size 16 may not make you less white but it does make you heavy. Plump is a euphemism for fat, along with “curvy” and “BBW”. It’s all gross. “
It depends your height and build. A size 16 is heavy if you are 5 feet tall but not 6 feet tall. Plump is not fat, it just means a round and a little overweight but not obese and yes, some people are naturally plump. If you think it’s “gross”, that’s YOUR opinion only. I’m not overweight but I don’t really understand the upset over some people that are fat, who cares.
“Obese people disgust me. Maybe he stumbled on a good idea.. create a national health program putting morbidly obese people in concentration camps working on civic projects until they are healthy… that way do good for themselves and the country, instead of ruining both.”
Really why are you so upset if someone is obese? It’s nobody’s business but their own. Who cares. As far as unhealthy, what about all the skinny/average people that eat at McDonald’s or eat unhealthy? Their arteries get clogged and they post majorly increased health risks and their are a LOT of these people. What about the many guys that knock back a lot of beer? Very unhealthy.
“As for Marilyn Monroe being “plus-sized” in today’s terms, this is simply untrue”
It is true. Today, the fashion industry has size 0,2 or 4. Children’s sizes. Size 12 which was normal than is considered overweight or plus in the fashion world and Monroe would be considered too thick by today’s standards.
“This is the worst example of fat phobia”
Hilarious. Political correctness has advanced so far that even completely voluntary self-inflicted unhealthy conditions cannot be condemned.
Why are so many writers here deliberately marginalizing other Amren readers who are in complete agreement with them philosophically and intellectually as racial attitudes go (which is, in fact, our REAL problem, not body size) simply because they are bigger than some prefer?
“Obese people disgust me”? Why not save that disgust for something that matters, like discrimination against white people?
I’m a size 16 woman. I’m on YOUR side, which is why I come to Amren. Why the hostility? We’re all in this racial situation together, y’know?
I’m going to throw in my two cents on the question of whether obesity is genetically determined or a result of our choices.
The answer is that it is a combination of both. My whole family is chubby, but I could be thin if I really wanted to. As I see it, I have the following choices:
(1) Exercise a lot and be thin. (This is not going to happen. I work full time and I have a family. I am not going to spend a lot of time exercising.)
(2) Go hungry and be thin. (This is also not going to happen, as I need my energy to live my life.)
(3) Eat boring diet food and be thin. (Nope. I enjoy eating, in moderation, and I am not going to give up the foods I like.)
(4) Eat the foods I like and be chubby.
I consider #4 my best option. If some people think I am too fat, I guess I just don’t particularly care. If you think I am costing you money by using more health care, go tell Congress to allow insurance companies to charge us more. Of course, they would probably require you to prove that being moderately overweight is a health problem, which you won’t be able to do. There is simply no evidence that being overweight is a health risk unless you are obese.
Mr. Taylor, if you really care about white solidarity, I advise you to leave this issue alone. Things like this very seriously undermine white nationalism, because it makes white people like me very nervous that this movement will wind up eating its own, turning against those of us who fall short of certain people’s ideals.
The truth is, we fat people have our own ideals. I, for one, think that every cultured person ought to be able to play a musical instrument and speak a foreign language. I’m sure many white people don’t live up to that ideal, but I am not going to bash them for that. They simply have other values and interests, and I respect that. If white people turn against their own, this movement has no future.
