1y ago

Overweight people more likely to take sick leave, European study finds

www.theguardian.com

Economic impact laid bare by findings has implications for UK where about two-thirds of people are overweight or obese

Archived version: https://archive.ph/H65uz

7 comments

People with underlying health issues more likely to run into health problems. Amazing journalism.
- Like spam emails, it worked. People have likely clicked, and here we are talking about it. As long as it continues to work, they will remain in business... :-(
  What bugs me about it is that it's The Guardian, from which I tend to expect better. Therefore, I went ahead and clicked it, and am tremendously relieved to see that mostly it's just an overly simplistic title - it would have read much better as something along the lines of "measuring the economic impacts of obesity" imho - though the article itself is still somewhat slim.
  Globally the costs of overweight and obesity are expected to soar from $1.96tn in 2020 to $4.32tn by 2035, according to the World Obesity Atlas published last year.
The way I see it, us non-overweight people need to get a better work life balance and take more sick leave!
Because the obesity and their bad health likely has a single cause. Whether it's neglect, bad mental health or something else, it all increases the likelihood of obesity and being otherwise unhealthy. This headline seems to paint the fat people as leeches of the system, while they are often already sick and obesity just one of their symptoms.
- Conflating fat people with bad people is pretty standard fare unfortunately.
  I’ve struggled with my weight my entire life; I have a long history of being physically active while also being overweight. For example: I have a black belt in martial arts, which means I spent a decade of my life in a dojo three to five times a week exercising… while still fat. I don’t eat terribly either. My body just holds onto every fucking calorie.
  But many many people have made shitty assumptions about me based entirely on my weight. The “personal responsibility” people are particularly obnoxious.
  I was a kid in the 90s when every TV show had a stupid lazy fat guy as a cheap joke factory. That was super cool for my self esteem.
  
  Taking BMI as gospel is another problem, to be considered in an ideal weight, I'd have to weigh as much as when I was 17 and that was when I was the most active in my whole life (walking to and from school, PE at school, going outside with friends daily, etc.) No chance I can cut to that weight at 35 in a healthy way.
- It is my opinion this article is a symptom of the current culture that being fat is some sort of moral failing. The fact that they can tie it to some vaguely tangible monetary cost is the justification.

7 comments