Cut 'N' Run

So now we're being told that obesity surgery may be a cure for diabetes. I'm naturally skeptical about these kinds of medical pronouncements, particularly when they revolve around a hot-button topic like weight loss surgery. With stories like this, I can't help wondering whether the primary motivation behind its dissemination rests more in making a controversial procedure more palatable to insurance companies and patients than it does in making an objective health pronouncement. But, then, I'm a cynical asshole.

(Besides, this study of studies doesn't appear to address what seems to be a fairly obvious question: is it surgery which has had an impact on patient diabetes or the substantive change in diet that WL surgery forces on patients who've undergone it?)

Reading the news story, though, does bring up a question that is frequently put to FAs; namely, "How can you, in all conscience, be attracted to someone whose size makes them unhealthy?" Put aside the dynamics of attraction – which, after all, refuse to follow the dictates of convention wisdom – and you still have what could be an ethical dilemma if you automatically accept the premise that Fat=Unhealthy. If you truly love someone, after all, shouldn't you want what's "best" for 'em in all things?

For many FAs, the current first line of response is that proclaimed by Paul Campos in his book, The Obesity Myth: that the present focus in the medical community on Body Mass Index over healthy eating habits and exercise profoundly misses the point. It's not fatness per se that the fitness-conscious adult needs to concentrate on, but rather healthier lifestyle habits. It's thus possible to be attracted to a fat partner, want to live with that person, and still lovingly encourage 'em to adopt healthy habits.

But what if the conventional wisdom is right? What if fatness is, to quote the hyperbolic language of the scaremongers, a "ticking timebomb"? Things grow markedly murkier when you venture down that path, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that are times, still, when I can mentally hear Conventional Wisdom shouting, "You're not doing your wife any favors by saying that you like her as she is!" Never mind that she is an adult woman who has come to terms with her size – or that the both of us have instituted both more physical active lifestyles and thoughtful eating practices over the years. The fact is: We All Know Fatness Is Bad, Mmm'kay? And just in case we, you know, forget or something, we have the ever diligent medical press to remind us. . .