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Obesity has been a concern in the US now for a number of years. The prevalence of obesity can not be ignored with statistics as well as movies, such as “Super Size Me” providing ample coverage for obesity. However, obesity should not be called a disease for any reason what so ever. One of the arguments that physicians use to classify obesity as a disease is that “people do not have full control over their weight”. I’d argue that they do indeed. It is a person’s choice what they want to eat, and when that person insists on eating McDonald’s for a week, then that person should know the consequences of his/her actions. Obesity also has a very shaky definition. Some physicians define obesity as a BMI of at least 30, but that makes no sense since there are people who are physically healthy who have a BMI of at least 30, athletes for example. If obesity has an unclear definition and is within one’s control, what makes the AMA think they can slap obesity onto a list of diseases that have fixed definitions and can’t be within one’s control, such as breast cancer, pneumonia or sepsis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/business/ama-recognizes-obesity-as-a-disease.html
