On his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Mach,” Mach, who is not a scientist, claimed, … [+]
Bill Maher’s claims about the obesity epidemic are regrettable.Back in 2019, Maher asked people to hyperbaric Show “Live with Bill Maher”.It’s kind of like telling people to bully people more, as I’ve reported ForbesNow, in the latest episode of his show, Maher complains that America has “shifted from the acceptance of obesity to the celebration of obesity.” Maher also claims that “there’s a disturbing trend in America these days of rewriting science to fit ideology or just to fit the reality you want,” as you’ll find in Maher’s following tweet and accompanying video See it like this:
To be clear, Mach is not a scientist. On his show, he also doesn’t show any real scientific research, nor does he bring any real scientists and experts to the show. So, um, is he showing actual science, or is it his ideology, or what is the reality he wants?
Maher went on to say, “See your own letting go as a form of pride? We used to try to stay healthy and society praised those who were successful. Now the word ‘body positivity’ means, ‘I am the perfect me because I am it is me. “Well, he says body positivity is supposed to be saying, ‘I am perfect my way because I am who I am? While some may have distorted this message, true health professionals who are experts in the field are not saying that anyone should believe they are perfect. Life is about constantly trying to improve. It’s not that doctors tell their patients, ‘You’re perfect Perfect, don’t do anything”, or the scientific journal article says, “Everyone is perfect. Finish. “Regardless of your body mass index (BMI), your current lifestyle or your overall health, there is always room for improvement.
Instead, body positivity is about understanding that one size or one shape doesn’t fit all. For example, if everyone is supposed to look like LeBron James, Mach will have a lot of work to do.Rather, body positivity is about understanding that a particular person can do all the right things, like eating healthy and exercising a lot, and still never have the same body shape as someone who can eat a whole hot dog and pizza and still look like a Gru Special from Guardians of the Galaxy.
So when Maher goes on to say that “‘any weight is healthy’ is an irrefutable lie that people tell themselves so they can keep eating whatever they want”, he doesn’t describe exactly what the phrase really means and meaning. First, the more established term is Health of All Sizes (HAES). That doesn’t mean you can just eat whatever you want, instead of exercising and gaining extra pounds without consequences. Rather, it means that body size (or weight) is just a measure, and alone may not necessarily reflect a person’s health. Otherwise, a person with only skin and bones and eating only paint chips all day would be considered the healthiest.
Later in his rant, Maher asserted, “At some point, acceptance becomes lucrative. If you’re in any way involved in this cheerful celebration of overeating that’s going on right now, you’ve got blood on your hands. . . .” Then again, who is “celebrating gluttony”? Are there any real obesity experts who say, “Yes, binge eating?” Maher’s name is Ted Kyle, RPh, MBA, Founder of Conscience Health, “Obesity Activists”. But advocating against prejudice and discrimination based on weight and body type is not an “obesity activist,” it sounds like someone is actually pushing the interests of fat tissue.Kyle explains it here American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) How stigma hinders proper obesity treatment:
Maybe next time Maher can bring Kyle to his show so everyone can hear what he’s saying directly from Kyle?
Maher’s rant also included the following statement: “Nike, Sports Illustrated, Victoria’s Secret, companies that specialize in fitness, yet market people who clearly don’t like fitness.” Well, when it comes to Victoria’s Secret, your first thought might be Not a fitness company. A lot of their underwear may not be specifically designed for spinning or 100m hurdles. Moreover, in that statement, Mach did exactly what anti-bias advocates warned against: assume a certain body type is “obviously unfit for fitness.” Maybe Maher should visit some NFL forwards and tell them in person that they are clearly not fit for fitness because they are over a certain weight.
In his rant, Maher continues to push forward stereotypes of those who may have a larger body size or a higher body mass index (BMI), which has sparked outrage on social media, such as:
Towards the end of Mach’s rant, Mach acted as if he already knew how to tackle the obesity epidemic, and it was just a matter of telling people not to be gluttonous. This approach oversimplifies the obesity epidemic and ignores many scientific studies that suggest many other factors that may contribute to the obesity epidemic.As I have written many times before Forbes, This World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) Internationaland Nutrition Reviews, The obesity epidemic is a systemic problem, not one that can be solved with a simple solution of telling everyone to eat less and exercise more. This was tried in the 1990s and 200s and 2010s. Simply blaming individuals ignores the fact that a lot has changed in our society since obesity rates started to rise in the 1980s, such as our food supply with more and more processed foods and more additives. Some people on Twitter wonder aloud (because you can’t wonder silently on Twitter) why Mach doesn’t talk more about the food industry like this:
The composition of the food may play a major role. But that may not be the only culprit. Whenever a major public health problem persists, a system of different factors is involved. Other changes have occurred in the past few decades that correspond to the continued rise in obesity rates, such as people being exposed to a variety of new chemicals in the environment, towns becoming less walkable, and jobs becoming more sedentary Do not move. In addition, the obesity epidemic has been accompanied by an increase in other health problems, such as other chronic diseases and loneliness and mental health problems, which began in the 1980s and continued to rise in the decades since. So some of the same factors could be driving each of these different trends.
This certainly isn’t the first time Mach has hyped up a scientific issue, but there are no real science experts on the show. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he criticized the use of vaccines and masks when talking about the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19. One Twitter user pointed out that a lot of what Maher said on his recent show was a bit of a pity:
Mach was right about one thing: “There’s a disturbing trend going on in America these days of rewriting science to fit ideology or just to fit the reality you want.” An example of this trend is talk shows , the host talks about a scientific topic, but doesn’t really have a proven scientific expert to talk about it?
