SURPRISE! Fat people can be healthy, too (No duh)

A study of the health of fat people sparks disbelief in writer David W. Freeman of CBS, who wrote an article titled "Obesity police busted? Study says fat folks can be healthy." This article asks "Can fat people be healthy?" and cites "surprising finding[s]" from a "provocative new study."

Can fat people be healthy? A provocative new study shows that obese people who are otherwise healthy live just as long as their slim counterparts.And that wasn't the only surprising finding. The study also showed otherwise healthy obese people are even less likely than lean people to die of cardiovascular disease.

Edmonton Obesity Staging System: association with weight history and mortality risk (Kuk et al) was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism and compared death rates of a slew of fat folk and a slew of thin folk. SPOILER ALERT: The mortality rate of fat people wasn't any higher than that of thin people. What's this mean? That--Surprise, surprise!--fat people can be healthy too.This is no surprise to many Size Acceptance and Fat Activist communities. Many fat people have been fighting the unhealthy diagnosis for years. The Health at Every Size movement is "peace movement" that encourages people to stop fighting the "war on obesity" and instead look at ways in which bodies of all sizes can be healthy. A good start, definitely. And this study is another tool in the peace arsenal.But beyond health, there is a greater need to be focusing on how society dehumanizes fat people. Health should not be a determiner on whether or a person deserves dignity or respect, and neither should a person's size. To start towards breaking this oppression we must become advocates and allies, and to do such it is imperative to build your base of understanding. Start with the Fat Studies Reader. available from IndieBound, a book source for independent book sellers, or Amazon.com (where you can save paper (and money!) by downloading it to Kindle).