Resumo

SANCHEZ GRAILLET, Luis Avelino. Obesity: global epidemic or individual responsibility?. Inter disciplina [online]. 2022, vol.10, n.26, pp.177-206.  Epub 04-Abr-2022. ISSN 2448-5705.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2022.26.80974.

I take a stand concerning the matter whether obesity is an epidemic or an individual responsibility. I state both characterizations are incorrect, and they have reinforced discriminatory attitudes towards fat people. This is shown by telling the history of how fat was medicalized and transformed into the pathological concept of “obesity”, and how it was related -in an artefactual way- with other diseases, to present it as a public health problem and “epidemic”. Then, I questioned whether the presentation of obesity as personal responsibility makes sense, by inquiring if body weight is subjected to voluntary control. I conclude that is not the case, after reviewing the efficacy of diets, the assumptions of the dominant biomedical model of obesity, and the effects of social determinants on its distribution. I conclude, so, that being thin or fat is not a matter of choice or personal responsibility, and that the increases in population weights are better understood as the effect of a high energy density food supply, preferred by the most vulnerable social groups for its lowest cost. I close by noting that the dominant model of obesity and the idea of an ‘epidemic of obesity’ have done nothing for our public health and have only served to generate moral panic and instigate prejudice and discrimination against fat people.

Palavras-chave : fat studies; medicalization; obesity stigma.