Everybody knows what’s at the heart of
the obesity epidemic: Fat people just
need to eat fewer calories and burn off more calories. It’s science. The science of thermodynamics.
Calories In – Calories Out = Body Weight Lost
or Stored
The science of thermodynamics is all
about making engines more efficient and understanding how heat gets transferred
into work. It’s a good science* that’s
at the basis of a lot if not all of our modern life.
But applying the thermodynamic model
to weight loss has one big problem: OUR
BODIES ARE NOT MACHINES. Our bodies are wonderful,**
adaptive, living organisms. How they use
and store energy is a thousand times more complex than how to power a steam
engine.
Lots of doctors assume overweight
people just don’t understand thermodynamics.
We just need more labels to tell us how many calories are in those mega-fries,
more gadgets to tell us how long to stay on that thigh-ab-glute-cruncher, we just
enjoy eating too much, or we have an eating disorder. To be
less politically correct: Many doctors
think we fat people are just stupid, lazy, gluttonous, or crazy.
I’ve just finished watching a TED Talk
that’s given me hope in the medical community:
Dr. Peter Attia challenges the common
beliefs that obesity causes diabetes
and that fat people just don’t care about their health. Almost more importantly (for me at least) he
admits that as a young doctor he had contempt for fat patients who had
diabetes. He appears ashamed of how he
treated a young woman whose foot he had to amputate. Not how he treated her as
a surgeon but as a human being.
I hope more people will watch Dr.
Attia’s TED Talk and that it will start a revolution: More doctors will actual look at the causes
of obesity AND treat fat people like me with respect.
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*Bad sciences would include phrenology and eugenics. And don’t get me started on badly done
science. That’s a whole ‘nother kettle
of fish.
**Okay, some more wonderful than others. For instance Joe Manganiello.
Shirtless of course. But I
digress.
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