I'm a big loser who did something about it The insidious trend to mollycoddle the overweight is galling Shelley Fralic, Vancouver Sun Published: Monday, February 11, 2008 Much like reformed smokers, who cannot abide the taste or smell of nicotine and who annoyingly never let you forget they have defeated their demon, reformed fat people are just as sanctimonious about their new-found virtue. They especially have no patience for the current trend in which over-eating is regarded as a disease, or the non-stop testimonials about the wonders of gastric bypass, or the courtship of societal sympathy for the obese in television shows like The 1,000 Pound Man, Big Medicine and The Biggest Loser. I know this because I am one. View Larger Image Much like reformed smokers, who cannot abide the taste or smell of nicotine and who annoyingly never let you forget they have defeated their demon, reformed fat people are just as sanctimonious about their new-found virtue. Rod MacIvor, CNS Files A big loser, an unsympathetic former fatty who took the cottage cheese butt and double chins by the horns six years ago, after KFCing my sad-sack self-pitying self into a dangerous supersize 230 pounds on a five-foot-eight-inch frame. I did something about it; stopped eating junk, counted smart calories, moved a little more than usual (okay, really, not much) and in less than a year went from a size 20 to a size 12, where I've stayed. It wasn't easy, because the girl likes her food, but it was necessary, and it was certainly doable. Not that I'm anything special on this front: millions of people are looking in the mirror and seeing their life pass before their eyes, surprised to find they have entered the territory where too much weight not only looks awful but is a portal to early death, or at the very least exposure to a list of grave health issues as long as a chubby arm. So they do something about it. Which is why this insidious trend to mollycoddle the overweight, who gained that poundage by choice, is so galling. The latest irritant is the study published this week by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, which maintains that health care professionals are biased toward the obese, deliberately ignoring the needs of the 59 per cent of adults considered overweight, and the 23 per cent who are obese, those figures courtesy of the most recent Canadian Community Health Survey. Millions of our children, too, lacking parental tutelage in healthy eating choices and exposed to the cheap fast food nation, are also shockingly overweight, prompting health care officials all over North America to sound the alarm. And, yet, this study takes the medical profession to task for not being respectful of fat people, for not having armless chairs in waiting rooms or "weight-sensitive" reading material or floor-bolted over-sized examination tables and plus-size gowns, for having scales that don't go over 300 pounds and for not weighing fat people in privacy. All of these things, the study says, contribute to isolation and can lead to depression, anxiety and low self-esteem for the obese. Well, boo-hoo. It's one thing if a doctor is purposely overlooking fat women when it comes to screening for breast and cervical cancer, as the study suggests. That's unconscionable. But it's another, is it not, for fat people to expect their own weigh-in room? Or, for that matter, a free second seat on an airplane, which became a national regulation last month when the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled that airlines must accommodate the disabled, a decision that translates into providing an extra free seat on domestic flights for the obese or those in need of a companion caregiver, thereby equating obesity with multiple sclerosis. But why, if the vast brain power and resources of medical expertise have determined, through actuarial charts and body mass index magic, not to mention the relationship between a clogged artery and a coronary, that being fat can kill, and that we need to eat right and exercise in order to live long, healthy lives, why oh why are we asked to empathize with those who don't care enough about themselves to heed that advice. This is not about people with mental or glandular afflictions whereby excess weight is a unwitting byproduct, people who truly need help, but about those who choose Lay's over lettuce. In the TLC show Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, the doctor who runs the New York facility for the clinically obese spends much of his time counselling 600-plus-pound patients not to cheat. After being told they are thisclosetodeath if they don't stop eating, they secretly order pizza late at night, trusting that gastric bypass, or liposuction, will save them. How, exactly, does coddling fat people help them? And are we really expected to categorize obesity as a disability, like breast cancer or autism? If one is choice, and one is fate, why should we treat them equally, which is what fat people seem to be asking us to do? Instead of looking inward and changing the changeable -- addictions to food, liquor and drugs are said to be the only "diseases" that one can cure just by waking up one morning and deciding to stop -- they choose instead to look outward, to society, for solutions. Maybe we should treat overeaters the way we do smokers. There was a time when millions of cigarette smokers were bamboozled by tobacco firms, lobbyists and tax-collecting governments into the misguided belief that inhaling tar and chemicals through a sexy little paper tube wasn't really bad for us. But the truth won out, and millions of smokers quit, even though it was hard, choosing life over death by tobacco. No one feels sorry for smokers these days, because they know the consequences of their addiction and because they have the power to heal themselves. Be fat if you want. But own it. And don't expect special treatment. As I said. There's nothing worse than a reformed fatty.

I have to agree with the article...harsh as some may think it is...it's true! coddling those who are overweight only enables them. I used to BE one of those people, too! I used to carry almost 235 lbs on my 5'9" frame. I had high bp/cholesterol. I looked and felt like crap and had no energy. I finally joined Weight Watchers and have lost 81.2 lbs and have normal bp/cholesterol. I am a food addict! like so many alcholics who still attend AA after they are sober, I still attend WW every week for support and motivation! It helps keep me focused and keep me under control. I realize there are some people with health issues or medications that cause them to gain weight. But if they are overweight simple because they eat whatever and don't care...and then want special treatment because they can't be bothered to take care of themselves...I'm sorry, I just don't have any sympathy, either!

Ouch...I find it harsh. She is correct when she stated there's nothing worse than a reformed fatty. We don't have to "mollycoddle," but we don't have to bully either.