It’s hateful that they did this study and it’s hateful that I’m posting a link to a news story about it.

Children born to women who have achieved drastic weight loss through stomach surgery are healthier than children born to severely obese moms, a new study shows. The findings suggest that obesity creates an unhealthy environment for a fetus that has ramifications later on, scientists report in the November Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

“This is very important work,” says Dana Dabelea, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Colorado—Denver and the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora. “This is the first proof that exposure to obesity in utero is associated with long-term effects,” she says.

Any effort to assess the health consequences of obesity = hate. Please make a note of it.

75 replies on “Hate!”

  1. it’s hateful that I’m posting a link to a news story about it.

    Thank God you’re finally admitting you have a problem.

    The next step is to stop.

  2. Weight a minute Dan, this is about weight loss surgery and not healthy lifestyle changes! This is about as helpful as asking Loveschild for tips on throwing a nondenominational same-sex commitment ceremony.

  3. It is shocking that obese women produce children who are less healthy. And….

    It is sad that we NEED to do these studies. Yes, it is better to not to have excess fat as those diet pill commercials say. But they also say it isn’t your fault. It is stress, children, ……. and poor diet.

  7. How many severely obese pregnant women read SLOG, will read this article, and then get weight-loss surgery or otherwise change their lifestyle? Can this really be described as anything but a clever attempt to gain yet another “most commented” SLOG posting?

  9. @7: Of course. Dan is the king of provocative posting.

    It would be all too easy to post about the benefits of jogging or lifting weights, it would be simple to sometimes post about things like open rugby leagues or running groups in this city and it would be a cinch to say “hey look, this study says climbing hills adds 2 years to your life!”

    But that’s not Dan.

  10. @7 I think it’s more like digging your heals in. You know the whole “This is my world I can do whatever I want with it” mentality. I mean, if you think about it, Dan is kind of like God of the Stranger, and this is his way of rubbing our noses in it.

    I agree that obesity is a big problem in the world, as far as health goes (note: I said obesity, not ‘fat people.’ Obesity is a big bad health problem), but really this is getting wee bit tired.

    Dan, you speak so intelligently and amusingly about so many other things, this hateful desire to belittle people of a different physical nature than you is rather … baffling … and seems beneath you.

    Obesity is bad for your health … we get it. Move on already.

  13. I wonder if that is what caused Glenn Beck to rape and murder that young lady in 1990. Well, we are not sure he did it but he has yet to deny it. Was Glenn Beck’s mother a fat ass? It would be an interesting study.

  15. Dan,

    How would you feel about a study that showed that wealthier people had healthier children? Would you conclude that all people living below the middle class should not have children? Would you suggest that prospective non-rich parents be shamed and badgered into affluence?

    The under-5 child mortality rates in Alaska, South Dakota, and Arkansas are more than double those in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Maybe we should tell every prospective parent living in those first three states to move before procreating.

    The “hate” isn’t inherent in the study you posted. It’s your manner and history in posting. How would you feel about an author/blogger who, when discussing gay marriage rights always began by stating that among the six common transmission modes of HIV, male-to-male sexual contact is by far the most common cause of new HIV/AIDS cases (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillan…) ?

  16. Maybe if you stapled their mouths shut it’d save us a fortune in wasted healthcare dollars because of people’s lousy lifestyle choices?

  17. @4 Wearing clothes that don’t fit you is worse in some ways, because really, it doesn’t even require effort to not wear clothes that are too small for you.

  18. Tight clothing on fat bodies is an American right! Says so, right there in the constitution, the ‘right to maintain a muffin top over spandex’.

  19. What are you hoping to achieve by these postings? You’ve made your point many times, do you just want to rub it? It’s beginning to feel cruel…are you a sadist by any chance or just a sociopath who is incapable of showing any empathy?

  21. “Any effort to assess the health consequences of homosexuality = hate. Please make a note of it.”

    FIFY

  24. So, Dan, you admit some people can’t loose weight by other means and benefit from gastric bypass surgery? (Which, with a 15% complication rate, a doctor will recommend generally *only* if every other weight loss method hasn’t worked for five years.)

  25. So if studies identify adverse health effects of homosexual behavior shoud homosexuals be condemned and sanctioned?

  26. @21,

    analogy failure. There are no health consequences associated with homosexuality that are not shared by the heterosexual population.

    There ARE health consequences to being obese that are NOT shared by the non-obese population.

  27. People know that being obese isn’t healthy. People just want you stop thinking that harassing fat people will make them want to be thin and help them get that way. You can weight more than a set of charts developed by the insurance industry and adopted by the medical industry as “normal” and be in good health.
    How come, when people say “I’ve tried and tried to loose weight and it doesn’t work so well.” the response is always “you’re doing it wrong or you’re lying about what you did”, never “maybe, if this fails so often, our theory about weight management is wrong.”?
    It sure is nice to have a simple answer to a big problem, and one that puts all of the fault on the shoulders of the person with the problem. Sound like trying to pray away the gay, doesn’t it?

  28. Does anyone actually like it when Dan trolls like this? Isn’t there someone else he can piss off besides all non-fatophobes?

    He had a good point with that posting about hypocritical parents who want healthy kids but don’t lead healthy lifestyles themselves. This is just a swing at everyone who doesn’t play into the FAT PEOPLE ARE EBIL mentality.

  29. @26
    53% of new AIDS cases in America are homosexual men.

    That is 50X the rate to be expected based on population.

    Why is that?

    Homosexual men are not the only people engaging in anal or oral sex so what accounts for the AIDS?

  31. @ 13 Speaking of Glenn Beck’s murder and rape of that young women, was the victim “severely obese?” If so perhaps Glenn was looking to make skin suit ala Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs! Prove your innocence Mr. Beck!!!

  32. I have more of an issue that you zero-in on fat people with a glaring eye… Other hazardous body types, habits, etc. seem to be totally disregarded. How could people not think that you’re hateful?

    It’s like a fundamentalist Christian that goes on and on about the dangers and consequences of being gay, only you target fat people. Did you know that if you’re a gay individual, your kid has a higher likelihood of being teased? Did you know that gays have a higher likelihood of posessing HIV in the bloodstream? Did you know that gays are more likely to be victims of hate crimes?

    I’ve got a BMI of 22, but I gotta represent here. There are dangers to being fat, but the more important value is to love your fellow human being.

  35. It’s not that “any effort to assess the health consequences of obesity = hate”. The problem is when you link to a journalist’s lite summary of a scientific study that doesn’t mean what you think it means — and then everyone understands the cue to commence Two Minutes Hate in the comments. The reaction is entirely predictable, it doesn’t actually benefit anybody, and it only produces acrimonious arguments and sanctimonious bloviating — and, of course, more page views! You know exactly what you’re doing, Dan, so don’t play dumb. You’re cynically exploiting some people’s health issues and other people’s self-righteousness for a little bump in your advertising rates.

  39. Dan, I love and respect you, but this is one issue where you are wearing blinders. We all get it. Being obese is a health risk. Obese people tend to cost the health care system more. And as your slant seems to suggest, every person who carries extra weight is a boil on the butt of the great American Republic.

    Give it a rest now, huh? Stick to posting the sex and politics we all love to read about (even those who hold opposing viewpoints – they wouldn’t troll if they didn’t have interest…).

  40. There is little value to be gained form this subject through discussion, because of the manner you use in posting, Savage. It’s the manner not the subject that comes across as hate.

    But, hey points for trolling me to respond.

  41. Ah, obsessive hatred.

    And people wonder why i can’t get my fat queer friends to leave the house. It’s not Warcraft, it’s not the swan song of the couch, it’s not xbox 360, and it’s certainly not eating fast food, it’s because your fucking rampant hateful bullshit has become such a staccato that they believe their peers hate them.

    The funny part is when i sit around on the couch eating Dick’s, playing (insert video game here) and fucking eating fucking bonbons out of the fucking box, nobody says shit because i’m “skinny.” My fat pals don’t do this; most of them are significantly healthier in their habits than i.

    Perhaps they’d get out and exercise more if the closest gym that you wouldn’t get hated on at for being fat or queer wasn’t in fucking Portland. Just a thought.

    As usual, Dan, i feel sympathy for whores when people call you a whore: you’re a fucking sensational fatphobic insult to whores everywhere.

  45. Actually, I’d need to see the underlying scientific study (the real details), but I’m guessing this has more to do with diabetes risk factors, heart conditions, and other health impacts than it has to do with radical diet choices.

    Diets, for the most part, don’t work and increase your risk factors. What does work is: mild to moderate exercise, a varied diet low in red meat, reducing stress, and getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

  46. As someone who has struggled with weight his entire (long) life, I take no offense at this revelation or your obsession with obesity. You haven’t walked in my shoes, so I don’t expect you to empathize. As an adult I have weighed as little as 135 (underweight) and as much as 285. Your reminder in an earlier post that keeping only healthy food around is pertinent, but I think your evident revulsion toward fat people is regrettable. I can imagine you herding us into the camps, Dan. Remember the gay bars where, if you couldn’t squeeze through a very narrow entrance, you weren’t admitted? Your sort of place, I guess.

    All we fat people know we’re not healthy, and almost all of us know what we should be doing. Each of us (and the rest of you) has his own demons to deal with, and most of us do the best we can. In one way, it’s as simple as “Just stop eating” and yet it never is, for many of us. Compassion seems to be a rare commodity in your column, and not something I expect anyway. So go right ahead, preach at us – it’s your blog!

    That said, I still enjoy your postings and miss them when take vacation or go off to H’wood to pursue your career. And I especially appreciate the battles you wage.

    Good luck!

  47. Look, America has a weight problem and it’s getting worse. People sit around and eat more. Yes, there is a very small minority of overweight people with medical conditions that make it difficult, but that is not true for most people.

    Nobody is saying they hate fat people. Nobody is saying overweight people shouldn’t get married, be denied housing, jobs, etc. Most of my friends are overweight, and if you ask them they tell you that they like to eat. They fully admit to poor diet and exercise habits.

  49. If you look at the wide range of common addictions, and the most successful methods for overcoming them, you will see a pattern. Addictions are hard to conquer, as they are essentially an internal battle, and therefore have a high recidivism rate. Smokers and drunks often take several attempts to quit their addictions, as do narcotic addicts, sex addicts, etc.

    The most successful method for beating addiction is the “self help” or “mind cure”, like AA, NA, and other support group-styled treatments. A key component to this method is accepting that you’ve lost control of yourself, and must now find a way to regain that control. This might be a 12 step program or projecting your problems onto a “higher power” who absolves your guilt and allows you to believe that you can control your actions again. Accepting that you are responsible for what you’ve done to yourself is central.

    Despite Pat O’Day’s senile ramblings, medical “cures” for addiction don’t really address the underlying problems that caused the addiction. That cure is to essentially change the body’s physical composition to make the addiction no longer possible. (poisoning for drunks & junkies, stomach stapling & banding for food addicts)

    Look at all the success stories around you of people that have overcome addiction: did a magic pill or surgery do the trick, or did they end up having to heal themselves with thought? That should tell us where the problem came from in the first place. The mind is a complex thing, but don’t let that dissuade you from using & studying it.

  51. Dan, no one disputes that obesity is detrimental to health. I think what people are focusing on is your apparent obsession with the subject. I think we’ve all gotten the message about obesity and would like to see you get as adamant about, oh say, smoking cigarettes or something. Fr’instance, if I’m sitting on a park bench and the fatty next to me is eating a cupcake, I’m not going to imbibe any calories from that. But if instead that person is smoking a cigarette, that toxic smoke will go into MY lungs — their bad habit slops over onto me, and do they ever get self-righteous about their right to pollute.

    But hey, it’s your blog, and if fatties are what get your goat the most (along with pit bulls and ‘gun nuts’ and homophobes – Oh My!), then post all the “helpful” fat-related topics your little heart desires. God Bless America.

  53. Sheeet, there must be a lot of fat-ass Sloggers for such a backlash against Dan for posting fatty-studies. Glad you guys don’t share yer photos here. Yikes.

    I’m actually with Dan about obesity – it’s pretty freakin’ disgusting. Overconsumption of resources – whatever kind – is GROSS. Food consumption and consumption of environmental resources (which everyone’s always up in arms about) are under every individual’s control. So gluttonous people who make excuses for their weight or expect the world to weep for them or support their fatness make ME sick too. Particularly when you compare the lifestyle of these over-consuming fatties with those of the majority of people on the planet. How can you NOT be repulsed by them?

    Keep up these posts, Dan – maybe the fatties will feel bad enough to NOT finish that box of donuts tonight. Ew.

  54. @53

    The back lash is not at the idea that obesity is bad for your health, we know that. And I am not an overweight or obese person. I enjoy Dan’s posts for the most part and have even found some of the study posts interesting.

    But this is getting to a point where he is no longer posting to inform, assist, help, advise, etc. it has gotten to the point where he is clearly going out of his way to make sure that overweight people know how much they disgust him. It’s a total power trip.

    And, as many have said, it’s his blog, he can do whatever the fuck he wants, it’s just kind of disappointing for him to act like this.

    I don’t hate Dan for it, I just thought it was beneath him to act so childish, I was wrong and am disappointed. But as Kim in Portland pointed out, the “hate” from others on this particular posting is not aimed at the studies themselves or even the fact that he is posting them, it is purely about his delivery.

    Over-consumption of anything is gross, I agree, but the voice that is being used here isn’t helping the problem. It isn’t productive, if anything it is counterproductive. How about finding and posting some studies on how to improve your mental and physical health on the path to losing weight? I dunno … but the tone of these posts is getting increasingly negative. Of course if America started being healthier, losing weight, looking better, etc. than how would we know who the “beautiful” people are right? Then how would you and Dan measure your superiority?

  56. To troll the trolling…we know Dan doesn’t like anyone who is overweight, at all (possibly even on the high end of normal). So, Dan, you do realize that most people who have gastric bypass or lap band surgery never achieve a normal weight, right? Any study that says participants lost less than 100% of the necessary weight (um, that would be ALL of them) means that >50% of the participants remained clinically overweight.

  57. I’m just posting so we can get to 100…

    And, while I’m at it… didn’t this start last summer, Dan vs. Kate Harding? This thing started with Dan arguing against those who are so ideologically fixated on the idea that being overweight is not a problem, could not be a problem, and is sheerly an ideological issue. Of course, he sure doesn’t make it clear now, if that’s who he’s trying to knock over the head with these little bombs he tosses.

  59. I saw a news show years ago about this fat, Warcraft dude who went on some gamer’s message board and posted this longish “The Way I See It” style entry and people were, no pun intended, really savage to him. So he tried his best to stop reading the thread but he couldn’t. He stopped showing up to work and just would helplessly try to refute this cyberbullying and it would drive him deeper and deeper. After a week, his job called his parents and told them that he hadn’t shown up to work in a week and they were worried about him. His parents found him dead in his apartment–suicide. As I gravitate towards Dan’s umpteenth weight-related entry since the “This is Why You’re Fat, Dan” entry, I need to step back, and re-assess. Why the fuck would I take diet & nutrition advice from an over-opinionated SEX COLUMNIST. If I need comments on what to do, I’ll talk to my doc and the mirror, which both say that the 20 pounds that would take me to abs isn’t making me unhealthy, but that I could stand to drop a few when my intellectual plate isn’t so full (ha). Hope this helps someone realize that reading about obesity is about as proactive as reading about poverty. Even if it’s not your problem, someone else could probably use your support.

  61. I just did another study. I looked at the last 50 cases of pedophilia in my state and all of them were committed by men.

    Obviously, this means that Dan is sexually abusing his son. Hey, I’m not being hateful, it’s just the facts (twisted to say whatever the fuck I want them to say).

  65. To troll the trolling…we know Dan doesn’t like anyone who is overweight

    Um, been to the Stranger’s offices lately? There’s probably a few people on the payroll who would fit the ‘overweight’ bill. There’s no discrimination on his part.

    What Dan hates is the promotion of negative life habits, and a litany of them go into nearly every case of obesity. Obesity, BTW, is an extreme case of being overweight, so calling both one in the same is not necessarily correct.

  66. Losing weight is not as simple as diet ads and nutrionists make it out to be. No one is debating whether or not obesity is a health risk. We all know that it is. However, preventing obesity and keeping it off can be difficult. I work as a veterinary assistant and have seen firsthand how hard it is to get an obese pet to lose weight on restricted diets. It seems like it should be a no-brainer, and you control the pet’s diet, not the pet. Yet, I have seen some pets lose weight on one diet with dramatic results, and other pets take the same diet and exercise regiment and only lose one pound in 8 months.

    Metabolism is complex, and varied amongst individuals of a species. Rate of regulation is genetic, and no doubt a factor of several genes with a variety of genotypes.

    To obsess over overweight people and attempt to shame them into thinness is not an effective solution to their issues. Often, stress contributes to obesity. I gained the most weight of my life when I worked two jobs. I ate little, was on my feet 70 hours a week, and yet surprise, surprise, gained weight. I work normal hours now, eat more food, and amazingly weigh less.

    I don’t see insomniacs getting this kind of shaming behavior tossed at them, and their issues are similar in the complexity and difficulty in resolving their condition. Is it because insomnia is not openly visible to the public? Obesity make people visibly larger, so like chickens attacking a weakened member of their own, society seeks to attack them for their visible illness.

    It’s a small-minded and barbaric approach to a real physical and psychological condition. I see people treat sexual addicts and alcoholics with more sympathy than obesity. Studies on obesity are not hateful, and can further understanding into its causes. So long as obese people realize that these studies are not an attack against them, and nonobese people realize why obese people feel attacked in the first place, we can finally move forward into curing obesity or preventing it in children.

  67. Losing weight isn’t simple if you’ve developed the litany of negative habits that have left you out of shape and rather overweight in the first place.

    In terms of biological physics, it’s simple. If you’ve got to undo an entire lifestyle’s worth of bad habits, then yeah it’s not simple.

    There’s nothing genetic about a diet of processed food and a lack of exercise, other than a tendency for a person to get fat when they practice both habits.

  69. I gotta say, these posts always make me laugh. The fallout in the comments is uniformly entertaining because it seems that no one has yet figured out that, while the original kerfuffle way back whenever against the “There’s nothing wrong with being obese” crowd may have been legitimate sentiment, virtually everything sense has been done to get a rise out of people. Post a legitimate news story, bracket it with some mild sarcasm (or even nothing at all; I’ve seen a few posts with no commentary that had the comment thread explode), and watch people go nuts over it.

    Yeah, it’s kind of childish in a “kick an anthill/poke your sibling” kind of way, but the overdone indignation that follows is usually good for a laugh, especially when people start trying to compare obesity and its related complications to homosexuality and HIV and thus wind up attacking homosexuals and folks with HIV as a group instead of the one person they’re pissed at.

    Want him to stop making these posts? Then quit putting on such a good show.

  70. Dan, you’re really beginning to sound like flaming Jack on WILL AND GRACE, who was always calling Will fat – Will didn’t have an extra ounce on him. What a creep you’ve become.

  73. If obesity = death i’m gonna fucking LIVE FOREVER. I mean, my great-grandmother’s 5’7′ and 240 and she’s 94 years old. I called her to ask how this obesity=death thing is working out for her but she’s on her old lady trike coming back from the store so she had to be quick. Oh yeah. That’s because she’s an active fat woman. Hmm. She always has been. Hmmmmmmm.

    Physical activity, and lots of it, is good for you. Eating crappy food is bad for you, no matter how fat or skinny your ass is. Do you understand how hard it’s been for me to wean my skinny, muscular self off of KFC, Jack in the Box, and Burger King? You just have a much easier job judging the fat people than the skinny people you see eating that shit…you assume fat people are gorging themselves and skinny bitches are barfing it, but barfing it is more acceptable than not barfing it, apparently. Assholes. Oh yeah and by the way, when you intuited i must be barfing it: i wasn’t. Way to trivialize all those poor women and men with eating disorders.

    Also, as usual, Gomez is the voice of complete reason and reality. Thank you.

  74. Xian:

    Really the problem is that Dan holds himself up as a role model. Of course the purpose of these threads is to rile people up in order to generate hits. The purpose of teasing a fat kid in a school yard is to rile her up in order to make her cry for your entertainment.

    Is it acceptable for an adult man to model his behavior on that of a schoolyard bully?

    The purpose of this posting was to try to pull the focus off of Dan himself and pretend that he has not been genuinely, repeatedly hateful. Of course he has– note that only posters who have proven themselves to share his malignant obsession with other people’s fat cells even pretend that Dan Savage has not repeatedly embarrassed himself on this topic and lost the ability to be taken seriously by people who are not as nuts on this issue as he is.

  75. I don’t understand why people freak out when Dan posts stuff like this. Dan has STATED that he thinks that it is OK for people to be fat. Yes, he also posts research that saying being overweight/obese isn’t healthy, but that doesn’t mean he thinks people are terrible for being fat.

    Simply, if you decide to eat more calories than you use, knowing and accepting that there may be repercussions, that’s fine. Kind of like how it’s OK to ride motorcycles even though riding motorcycles carries various risks, so long as you are cognizant of the risks and accept them. It’s when you run around yelling, “There is no danger in riding a motorcycle! NONE!” that there is a problem.

    Ride a motorcycle if you want. Drink. Climb trees. Rappel off cliffs. Have sex. Eat/exercise in a proportion that leaves you overweight. Freely decide that the joy you get from these things is worth the risk. But for heaven’s sake, don’t insist that all of these things are 100% safe.

    And yes, I know that it can be really, really hard to lose weight. I know. I myself am overweight, and I’m sure there are people who have more trouble than I do. Is it FAIR that some people find it easy to lose weight and others don’t? No. But it isn’t fair that some people have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.

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