Something about The Biggest Loser bothers me.
Each season participants fight their inner demons before going on to achieve their goals. The lesson is obese people carry around a lot more than weight.
My problem isn’t with the show. It’s the fact we know obesity is a symptom of deeper issues, but talking to someone about it is taboo.
Most of us know someone who is obese. Asides from an occasion flippant remark, I bet the subject has never been raised. The stupid thing is a person’s weight is considered personal.
In a society where we’re encouraged to talk about things such as mental illness, it’s sad that something as dangerous as obesity is off topic.
Obesity is self-inflicted. So is drug abuse, self-harming, and a bunch of other stuff we acknowledge as a symptom of deeper problems. So let’s treat it as such.
Everything we do tells a story about who we are, including weight. It’s up to us whether we choose to hear it.
