The Daily Mail has an article that should make you both sad and angry.

Sad, because, of course, almost anybody dying before their time is sad; angry because there is an ideologically-driven push to convince Westerners that striving to reach a healthy weight is “fatphobic.”

Eating disorders are rampant in the West, and when you add the unhealthy foods that our “food science” and marketing geniuses push on us, the result is an explosion in obesity. Not too long ago, anorexia was the problem du jour in the United States, and it still exists and needs to be taken seriously, but the most prevalent eating disorders in the West today are those tied to bad diets that make people extremely fat.

This is so sad. She was misled. You cannot be healthy and fit at any size. Obesity is a death sentence. https://t.co/1KtDuwsC3S

— SoloMumyTravels (@solo16112) December 17, 2023

There is a movement that pushes hard to increase fat acceptance, and it has invaded every aspect of our culture. At base, the argument is simple: our culture and our healthcare industry have been captured by an ideology of fatphobia that tries to convince people that being thin and fit is superior to being obese, and that ideology is based on a pernicious lie.

This is, of course, totally absurd.

How can anyone live like this? Also, what’s race got to do with being fit and healthy? pic.twitter.com/ZkMN7BcXqZ

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 23, 2022

No doubt it is true that people can be horribly mean to people for being fat, and horribly mean people are despicable. But the problem in such cases is the nastiness, not the prejudice, behind this particular variety. Being nasty is wrong, but being obese is objectively unhealthy. And while people have varying propensities to become obese, being obese is linked to choices and behavior.

In other words, it sucks to be fat, it sucks to be more likely than others to become fat, and some people are blessed with a greater tendency toward healthy weights and a love of activities that are healthy that others don’t share. Such is life. We all have burdens and advantages, and we must deal with them to live long and prosper. Bitching about it doesn’t help.

One of my favorite follows on Twitter is Dave Danna, who has been on a weight loss journey. He is relentlessly upbeat, and it is fun to watch him drop the weight and see how many people are cheering him on. People love him because he always smiles–I have yet to see anybody make fun of him for being obese because everybody wants him to succeed.

You’re so inspiring and a breath of fresh air! Keep it up!

— lapetitecanary (@lapetitecanary) December 18, 2023

He’s lost well over 100 pounds in the past year and, in that time, has been followed by over 75,000 people, all cheering him on. I would be willing to bet that almost none of them would cheer on the obese people who revel in their obesity. Dave knows he wasn’t “healthy at any size,” and he is doing something about it.

These four social media influencers were swept up by a movement that claims obesity is perfectly healthy… The tragic truth is they have all died under the age of 45 https://t.co/z3IaF1Rnz2 pic.twitter.com/Ed446twodc

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) December 16, 2023

Fat influencers are now dropping like flies, being taken far too young because they have become immersed in the “healthy at any size” ideology.

Instead of following Dave Danna’s lead, they have instead become activists pushing back against “fatphobia.”

Branded Health At Every Size, or HAES, the philosophy has, at its heart, laudable goals. It aims to counter the multi-billion-dollar diet industry – which has a poor record when it comes to long-term, sustainable weight loss – and act as an antidote to the stigma encountered by people struggling with their weight.

The idea is that, rather than shame overweight people and force them to diet, they should be encouraged to embrace their bodies, find exercises they enjoy and eat more nutritionally. But some say those philosophies have been taken to extremes, particularly on social media, by celebrating morbid obesity while ignoring its serious health dangers.

The US edition of Cosmopolitan magazine was criticised for running covers featuring plus-size women in yoga poses under the headline: ‘This is healthy.’ As part of a drive to challenge beauty stereotypes, it also featured US plus-size model Tess Holliday – who at 5ft 3in and 300lb has a BMI of 53, more than double the healthy range – a decision condemned ‘as dangerous and misguided’.

Tess Holliday is one of the more pernicious media influencers in this genre, luring people into a lifestyle that will kill them far too young.

Yet, as bad as the “healthy at any size” influencers are, it is the intersectional ideologists who embrace fat activism and promote it that are the real villains. Fat activists, after all, are at least trying to justify to themselves their lifestyle; Cosmo, not so much. They just hopped onto an ideological trend for money or to virtue signal.

That people will wind up dying young is of no concern to them, apparently.

The truth of the matter is that being obese is bad for you.

A well-known activist, professor of ‘fat studies’ Dr Cat Pausé, who questioned the links between weight and health, lost her life aged 42. Based at Massey University in New Zealand, she also presented a ‘fat positive’ radio show.

She had said: ‘The science isn’t quite as clear cut as we’d like to believe and there’s not really quite a consensus yet about the relationship between weight and health.

‘Obese people, and even morbidly obese people, have just as good health or better health than someone in the normal weight range.’ She died in March 2022 from causes which have not been made public.

Obesity researcher Sarah Le Brocq, founder of charity All About Obesity, says that ignoring the health implications of excess fat is delusional.

‘People are always going to be different shapes and sizes,’ she says. ‘That’s OK, and we need to be more accepting of that, but you must be mindful of the health implications.

What we know is the more body fat you have, the more likely it is your body will be in an inflamed state. This means you might become insulin resistant and develop diabetes or end up with heart problems.

We all know this, and one major reason that people react negatively to morbid obesity is that we instinctively know that it is really unhealthy. If you can’t get up without getting out of breath or tie your shoes without being horribly contorted, it is time to do something.

Again, I can’t emphasize enough how wrong it is to make fun of others’ weight. But it isn’t wrong to challenge a “fat activist” when they make absurd claims about being the picture of health and criticizing people encouraging others to get or remain fat is an act of kindness to anybody who might get taken in.

It is a matter of life and death.