12.19.2006

So, wait... its not because of fat people?

A stunning development out of Canada over the weekend with regards to diabetes research. Now, I have to caution that while this is encouragine news, it is also still very early in the research process. That said, a team of Canadian scientists have been able to cure Diabetes in mice. Not manage, cure.

Their research looked at the nervous system instead of the body's immune system as most have assumed was the key factor. By counteracting damaged pain neurons in the Pancreas, they essentually jump start the body's insulin production and reduced insulin resistance. While its not a perminant cure, it was sustain for as long as four months. While treatment for Diabetes would still be ongoing, it would be vastly more effective and far less burdensome. They still have to show that the treatments on mice can work on humans, and that is a major jump. But this is an enormous amount of promise coming out of nowhere. It also sharply challenges the "weight control" means of "treating" diabetes. That may not even remotely be linked to the actual causes. At the very least, by challenging conventional wisdom, this research could lead to major improvement in treating a disease which does impact the lives of many fat people. I'm cautious, but hopeful all the same.

12.18.2006

How stupid do you think we are?

The answer out of the UK, apparently, being very stupid. Yet again, the anti-fat crusaders have demonstrated their complete inability to understand reality. Again, we are told that the problem is that fat people just don't know that they aren't supposed to be fat. The remedy for this non-existant problem? Warning labels. No, not on food, though that'd be pretty stupid. No, its been suggested that we need warning labels on our CLOTHES. It reminds me of the suggestion (I think by infamous hate-mongerer Mikey Fumento) that plus-size clothing stores were the moral equivilant of crack houses.

This goes beyond the foolishness of the anti-fat people movement positioning themselves as the new anti-smoking (and demonstrating their lack of understanding of the differences between the correlations in both circumstances). Labeling clothing is a mean-spirited suggestion with no chance of success. Its only being made to generate press attention, but I don't think its fair to dismiss it out of hand. What it shows is that for all of their constant screaming in the media, for all the billions of dollars spent promoting weight loss products, for all of the petty insults fat people endure in their lives, the message from the anti-fat camp is that they think we just don't know any better. It is patronizing and insulting, and betrays the motivation for their scorn for fat people.

To them, its all very easy. Just don't be fat. They really seem to think its that easy. To them, anyone who hasn't just stopped being fat, they must be a fool or absurdly lazy. They think we're either too stupid to lose weight or too stupid to know we should. Either way, the depth of this contempt is alarming.

Fat people know we aren't "supposed" to be fat. We know we're supposed to lose weight. We know how we're supposed to do it. The problem is, none of that works. The problem is, all of those "Supposed to's" aren't nearly as factually based as their promoters would have us believe. Fat people have incredible will power. To resist the call takes a great deal of committment and effort. And for those who haven't come to acceptances, they are still demonstrating towering will power by repeatedly waging a losing fight in the hopes of meeting the expectations that have been drawn for them. Yet we are constantly called failures and demeaned as idiots.

This is what the anti-fat establishment thinks of us. They think we're so stupid that just repeating themselves is an intelligent response to their make-believe epidemic. We are dealing with people who hold us in such low regard as to respond to us like we are drooling fools. This is the opposition to fatness and this is what they think of us.