Smoking vs Weight Loss | Salty Talk 025 | THRR

The Healthy Rebellion Radio

Salty Talk is a special edition of Healthy Rebellion Radio. Each week on Salty Talk Robb will do a deep dive into current health and performance news, mixed with an occasional Salty conversation with movers and shakers in the world of research, performance, health, and longevity. For the full the video presentation of this episode and to be a part of the conversation, join us in The Healthy Rebellion online community.

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SHOW NOTES:

https://www.mdedge.com/familymedicine/article/28906/health-policy/five-models-assess-readiness-change-behaviors

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5636087/

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/82/1/222S/4863393

This Salty Talk had two main inspirations: When we posted an image on IG saying "Make your health an act of rebellion" we were taken to task as being "ableist." Right around this time a new member here mentioned that in her RD program, the professors suggested it is generally not recommended to talk to people about weight loss as "most people do not succeed and it just makes them feel bad about themselves."

I've noodled on this a lot and a few things struck me: A doctor would NEVER take the position that folks should not try to stop smoking. It's bad for them, society etc, has low success, but yet, still, we try. We MUST try.

Why not with weight loss?

There is an interesting double standard emerging here, one that (IMO) is an outgrowth of what we might call "woke" culture. I suspect some of this positioning started from a place or compassion and concern...it's NOT ok to run people down about their weight (political affiliation is apparently open season!) but this is presented as if there is no cost associated with doing nothing for health regarding weight. If someone is on fire, do we not say or do something as it may hurt their feelings?

How about infectious disease? We can dictate all manner of behavior change, really do some epic virtue signaling around that, all in the pursuit of "saving lives" and "not overwhelming the medical system." Close to a half million Americans die every year from obesity related problems. And do you know why our medical system is ALWAYS tettering on the brink (and has been well before COVID)? It's due to largely preventable, obesity related issues. AND smoking.

I'm not sure what the perfect answer is to all this, likely looking for readiness for change is an important way to triage and allocate resources. Folks who are ready to change are relatively easy to help. But if there is no will, there is literally, no way. All that said, doing this ridiculous mental gymnastics of suggesting there are no reasonable bounds for an average human to live, is not just mean, it is homicidal. If a planet cannot be "healthy at any temperature" then a human cannot be "healthy at any size."

How ethical is it to know there is something that can be done to help a person, yet we make platitudes to make this information and motivation unavailable?

Sponsor:

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