A recent WSJ article headlined itself: Ozempic Settles the Obesity Debate: It’s Biology Over Willpower. This is absurd on it’s face and unhelpful to say the least.
Absurd: First, there will never be a single answer this topic, or nearly involving biology. It isn’t even clear if WSJ believes their headline, the final two paragraphs:
“Hard to prove” is a long way for definitively settled.
Unhelpful: there are real people where biology 100% holds them back and willpower cannot be enough. It might be innate, in other cases there is a misunderstood disease or chronic illness. This should be unquestioned.
The absurd statement that the issue is “settled” with a drug easily leads to a couple of conclusions: if someone is fat it is either because they are too lazy to take a simple drug that solves everything, or the argument that biology is the driver should be thrown out because of the poor argument made in its favor.
Either conclusion undermines confidence and external perception of anyone who has a biological driver.
Second, in a super-sized country that has more obese people than anywhere else in the world, biology cannot be the only driver. Assuming that American biology has not fundamentally changed since 1960, there is a non-biological factor at work.
See the increase in obesity in America since 1960:
This accounts for the population between the ages of 20-74. The obesity category already includes severe obesity.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.Image from: https://usafacts.org/articles/obesity-rate-nearly-triples-united-states-over-last-50-years/
- Something obviously changed that isn’t biological.
And it isn’t like it is a mystery:
- US eating habits changed significantly
- Easily available food changed significantly, especially the advent of highly processed food everywhere
- General activity decreased, especially at work.
- There are geographic factors at play
- There are income factors at play
- There are racial factors at play
Simplifying the issue to “take a new pill” is laughable at best, and harmful to anyone everyone, both those to who it is a real answer, and to those that have other issues driving.
0 Comments