Reply #130: Even more offensive to me

[Kathy in Cambridge]

is that some people are so unreflective that they don't see their own illness, though it's present on this message board for the whole world to see. They'd rather project their neurotic fear of being overweight onto the objects of their scorn. Their relationship with food is just as unhealthy as the fat person who gouges on junk food. It's all about control-or lack of thereof-and there are many qualified professionals who deal with this.

Just because overeating and making excuses is part of YOUR experience, it does not mean it's part of everyone else's experience. There is plenty of research documenting food allergies, and a genetic component to obesity. Are you denying this? And how do you know it's just overeating and not acccess to nutritional foods that make people fat?

Wait until you hit menopause. Over 60% of menopausal and post-menopausal women end up with a hypoactive thyroid. Not to mention that the female metabolism really starts slowing down naturally. What will you do if that happens to you? Starve yourself? Make yourself puke? Take laxatives?

Most obese folks are also poor, as stated by many posters on this board. I listed my healthy grocery list and compared it to the inexpenive, high-carbohydrate diet that many poor folks eat due to being on a limited budget. And I really think that aside from a neurotic obsession on being thin that many women absorb from society, much of this hatred toward the obese stems from a disparaging attitude toward the poor in general. I expected more from a liberal message board.