FOLLOW THE MONEY BEHIND THE OBESITY ‘’DISEASE’’

Is obesity a disease? We refer you to an excellent analysis on the issue as published in the International Journal of Obesity .

Real life observations and many studies including the latest one that found that overweight and obese children can improve their health even if they don’t lose weight, make of us firm believers that obesity is increasingly being qualified as a disease for the only purpose of serving corporate agendas.

This dated article (hot links no longer function) in the Center for Consumer Freedom website, gives us the history of how Medicare in the U.S. has agreed to recognize obesity as a disease and the key players that persistently lobbied government in that direction.

One of the key players lobbying was the American Obesity Association (AOA), a pressure group heavily funded by pharmaceutical and other connex corporate interests. From their own website we can read the following:

AOA is a non-profit tax-exempt educational and advocacy organization with approximately five hundred members, both professional and lay. Our financial support comes principally from pharmaceutical research and development companies as well as other companies in the weight management field including Abbott, Amylin, Aventis, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Ethicon-Endo Surgery, Eli Lilly, Glaxo Smith-Kline, Pfizer, Merck, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi-Synthelabo, Weight Watchers Intl. Inc. and Wellspring Camps. I also serve as a consultant to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc.

But similar to the smoking issue, the most influential player in the creation of the obesity hype seems to be none other than the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the charitable branch of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals who much like they did with the anti-smoking campaign for the last decade, they are funding in the order of millions the anti-obesity campaign which more than serves the bottom profit of their corporate affiliations. Read: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Announces $500 Million Commitment to Reverse Childhood Obesity in U.S.

In partnership with the American Heart Association, they released a joint report on the obesity epidemic in the U.S.A.: A Nation at Risk – Obesity in the United States

There are many more instrumental players causing our children to be stigmatized as ‘’sick fatsos’’ in schools and society in general, albeit they are perfectly healthy and lead happy fulfilling childhood lives and a google search will yield more results than is required to convince you if you read the findings with a critical mind.

And by the way, the next time your pediatrician suggests that your child is sick because he’s over the ‘’ideal’’ limit these alleged do-gooders have set for your child, ask him/her to do some research and use some critical thinking him/herself before suggesting diets or treatment that can cause more psychological and emotional trauma to your child than the few extra pounds he may be healthily and cheerfully carrying around!