Nature was once the most prestigious academic journal in the world. Yet in the last few years, it’s been allocating more and more editorial space to woke activism. The latest example comes in the form of an article titled “The sting of sizeism in the scientific workplace”.
“Sizeism”, in case you’re not aware, refers to prejudice or discrimination against those who are overweight. And the article’s basic gist is that it’s a big problem in science. In short, “researchers of size” (an actual phrase used in the article) are being held back by “stigma against fatness”.
Okay, pointing this out isn’t so unreasonable, you might say. After all, if someone’s a great scientist, they shouldn’t face a penalty just because they’re on the heavy side. And that’s true: discrimination on the basis of any arbitrary characteristic is wrong. However, the article goes much further than that – by suggesting overweight people contribute to “diversity”, and making various other bizarre claims.
“Academics love to pay lip service to diversity, less so to size diversity,” says an academic quoted in the article. The implication being that “diversity” with respect to body size is something desirable – that it would be better to have a department with 10 healthy people and 10 obese people than with 20 healthy people.
Personally, I’m against attaching any weight to “diversity” when it comes to hiring. I think the best person should get the job, full stop. However, to suggest that we ought to care about “size diversity” is particularly absurd. You can at least argue that hiring more women or black people might have positive role model effects. But I can’t see any possible benefit of hiring people just because they’re overweight.
The article goes on to describe the idea that “everyone can control their weight” as a “misperception”. According to the author, claiming that “if someone is larger, it must be because they eat too much and exercise too little” is “flawed logic”, which makes people believe that “losing weight should simply be a matter of eating less and exercising more”.
You don’t need to know anything about the science of obesity to realise there’s nothing “flawed” about this logic. Sure, some people find it harder to lose weight than others – they may absorb slightly more calories from the food they eat, or burn slightly fewer calories during their daily activity. But it is a matter of basic physics that if you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight.
How do we know this? Until the 1950s, almost no one was obese. At that time, food was far more expensive and life was much less sedentary, so people ate less and exercised more. Likewise, when food is genuinely scarce (as in poor countries or prisoner of war camps) people lose weight – fast.
Acknowledging that some people find it difficult to lose weight is fine; rejecting basic physics is downright bizarre.
As an aside, the article also suggests that overweight women experience more discrimination than overweight men. “One study found,” the author notes “that women were 16 times more likely than men to experience weight-based discrimination at work.” However, she then adds in parentheses that “gender is neither binary nor fixed”. Remember this is Nature we’re dealing with, not Teen Vogue.
How does “implicit bias” against the overweight manifest in academia? One academic “recounted a subtle but pervasive undertone of bias at morning tea breaks, when thinner colleagues would discuss wanting to lose weight in her presence, and referenced being ‘naughty’ if they ate cake, and so on”. Is this really “bias”? Or is it perfectly normal conversation among people trying to maintain a healthy bodyweight?
The final part of the article discusses what might be done to counteract discrimination against “larger-bodied individuals”. As an example of one initiative, the author mentions a blog titled “Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs”, which posted photos of PhD candidates or holders who “identify as fat”. According to its creator, the blog shows aspiring scholars they don’t have to lose weight to be successful.
The article discusses various other ways to create a workplace “that is accepting of all body sizes”, such as by “hiring more people of size”. What it doesn’t mention is that losing weight might actually be a good idea. After all, being overweight is unhealthy, and you might have assumed Nature would be would concerned about that.
But of course, telling people to lose weight is ‘offensive’, which is the worst possible thing you can be in the current climate. So we find ourselves in the odd situation where a leading scientific journal is normalising obesity.
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Antonin Scalia, the late US Supreme Court justice:
“We will never be a distinguished age if we don’t believe in excellence, if we have a hostility to ‘elitism’. The very notion that there are some modes of behaviour, some usages of language, that are better than others, the very notion, that anything is better than anything else, once you reject that notion you’re never going to improve. And I’m afraid that we have bought into that in a lot of fields.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvttIukZEtM&feature=youtu.be&t=2439
Worth watching the whole section. Worth watching the whole video actually, and almost everything else he ever said or wrote…
“There are dignified and excellent ways to behave and there are undignified and base ways to behave, and people who regularly do the former are better than people who regularly do the latter. And unless you believe that you’re going to have a vulgar society.”
We appear to have hit a plateau in many fields of science. Everything that can currently be discovered that genuinely progresses the scope of human knowledge in many subjects has been done. What we now have is vast swathes of ‘academics’ who will never genuinely ‘discover’ anything of value, anything that advances human knowledge in their field. So we get this rubbish.
Im really not sure what the next leap forward is in many fields. Quantum Computing perhaps, commercially viable Nuclear Fusion? The vaccine debacle aside, there could be genuine advances in medicine thanks to gene therapies (call them what they are) if they have not poisoned the well with these covid jabs.
I saw some really interesting rotary hydrogen engines the other day. Its a really interesting area, although there are all kinds of issues with processing enough Hydrogen, as I understand. One of the things that really pisses me off about the whole green agenda is that certain technologies have been chosen as THE solution, one of which is lithium battery equipped cars. Any critical thought can tell you that ‘sustainable’ can’t include anything that is heavily dependent on rare earth metals that are hard to find and require an immense amount of processing. Never mind having a power grid to charge them up, (renewables largely dont work at night…) even if you can afford one in the first place.
The internal combustion engine over the last 20 years has become super-clean and super-efficient. A third of the CO2 (even if you think CO2 is a poison gas..), produced from half the fuel. It does make me angry that a politicians pen can render this incredible technology obsolete. It has driven the economic development of the world for a century, and its demise is for little good reason.
I say demise, but you know where it will remain strong and develop further.? India and China. What utter absurdity is the whole Green Reset…
Of course the Nature article is bizarre and suggesting fat people contribute to diversity comical.
But to say someone is heavier because they eat too much and exercise too little and fat shaming generally, is unhelpful in my view. It’s like saying someone is an alcoholic because they drink too much alcohol. The real question is why are they drinking too much alcohol. So I don’t agree with Noah in this article.
It’s certainly true that there was less obesity in years past as we can see from the old beach photos.
The cause of obesity is in the main down to Big Food and flawed dietary guidelines. If we eat the right things then our hunger and satiety hormones (ghrelin and leptin for example) kick in and we naturally adjust what we eat. Obesity in general terms isn’t about calorific deficit it’s about endocrinological imbalances. That doesn’t mean that some people wouldn’t ignore dietary guidelines even if they were evidence based (rather than Big Food profit based) and become obese; that would be their free choice.
But the fact that there is a calorific imbalance (more calories eaten than burned) in someone who is putting on weight is a consequence of them eating the wrong things rather than being the cause of their obesity. This is the error in Noah’s logic.
This recent Gary Taubes video explains the illogic of the energy balance theory
‘The History of a Very Bad Idea: Energy Balance, Fat Shaming & the Science of Obesity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbtxJZPviUo
I totally agree with everything Noah has said. His article is not about addressing why people are fat – he states that everyone can control their weight, and that is a fact – they can. Intake of calories in excess of calories out IS the cause of weight gain. Stating facts really should not be called ‘fat shaming’. However, it is certainly true that it’s a lot harder to be slim nowadays, because cheap fattening food is available round the clock, and can be obtained very quickly. In the 50s/60s there was nothing like the constant temptation there is nowadays. It’s harder for everyone. People look at me and think I’m ‘lucky’ to be slim. What I do is, like everyone else, I put on weight like everyone else and then, after a few years of it accumulating, deprive myself of a lot of indulgences, spend a few weeks feeling really quite hungry a lot of the time, and exercise hard. Then the excess weight goes. It’s b___ hard work. But when I get fat, it’s due to stuffing, eating more than I should. And, sure, when I’m down I might stuff more. It’s my recognition of this, that the excess weight is entirely due to my own choices, rather than giving myself all sorts of excuses (eg the ones that people use – ‘had children’ ‘menopause’, ‘middle age’ – blah blah) that has helped me maintain a reasonable weight over the decades.. In 2022, most of us eat more than we need. Fat’s the price we pay for that. We should help each other by being truthful about why people get fat, and stop referring to it as ‘fat shaming’.
Everything is a choice…
By your own admission it is b***** hard to maintain your weight at times.
By contrast by eating the right foods I no longer have difficulty in maintaining my normal weight and I even have a few indulgences along the way, I like my beer for example. I enjoy my food more than I ever have done and I feel a real freedom from not being hungry most of the time or having to count calories. I know a number of other people who have switched to eating the same way and have discovered the same. It’s not because I am super virtuous or brilliantly controlling my calories in and out, it’s because I’m eating the right things most of the time, and because of that my body tells me when I need to eat.
In the past I have eaten the wrong foods and it has been a miserable experience getting my weight back under control. It wouldn’t surprise me if others eating that way find it even more difficult to control weight, and because eating the wrong things can also depress their metabolic rate, they end up with their weight yo yo-ing. It doesn’t surprise me that people in that situation put on weight and I don’t think that’s often their fault.
It is not helping anyone to tell them that they need to try b******* hard to lose weight because that’s the truth (calories in calories out etc) and if they fail then their weight is their choice and they shouldn’t blame it on middle age etc, when there are other ways of eating in my view (such as low carb, high healthy fat real food diet avoiding vegetable oils) which in many cases will enable them to lose and then maintain normal weight in many cases effortlessly, and more importantly improve their overall health significantly. That’s where I think the evidence base takes you. I wouldn’t tell people that’s the truth, as I could be wrong. But if someone said to me I’m overweight and really want to lose weight but nothing seems to work it must be middle age, I would suggest low carb high healthy fat was something they could try if they wanted to.
Haha. Long ago had a huge row on climate change with the husband of a friend, re climate change. Classic fossilised “liberal” believed everything he was told. Asked him how he knew it was happening….
“I read Nature”, he said (already lost to the climate cultists back then).
Very pissed off when I and my wife burst out laughing.
Friend of wife no longer so, as she took offence at my wife suggesting that Covid had to be the result of a lab leak…no, said friend, another classic “liberal” (Both North Oxford, a hell all of its own), it’s those filthy Chinese eating bats, and I don’t like the way you (my wife) think”
Beloved told her to put her head where it doesn’t shine…
Never been overweight. Best part of 6’6″, was at 14 stone for decades. Went Carnivore* 18 months ago (no looking back) and shed 20 lbs in 6 or 7 weeks without even trying.
Carbs are why we have an obese country. All dietary advice from the medical world is shit. They knew back in the 19th century that the way to cure diabetes mellitus was a beef only diet.
Now we aren’t that strict, but apart from a bowl of porridge I have now and again, we eat next to no carbs. Wife’s bone cancer has stopped in its tracks since she went carni, and she shed weight she didn’t need. We both shed visceral fat.
At 70, I wish I had known this at 20.
*Eat and cook only using animal products”.
We are lucky in that we have local producers of grass fed livestock.
I’ve just read Paul Saladino’s book The Carnivore Code. I’d recommend that. Some interesting ideas in there such as how our evolving brain and meat eating might be connected, and he covers plant toxins very thoroughly.
I’m low carb rather than carnivore, but with a heavy red meat content. Also lucky that I can get some of my grass fed beef from a local farm.
A while back I read Travis Kristofferson’s book Tripping over the Truth which explores the metabolic theory of cancer suggesting that cancer (or at least those cancers that associate with obesity) is mainly a disease of damaged mitochondria rather than a genetic illness. And because cancer cells thrive on glucose as one of their main fuel sources eating a ketogenic diet (and carnivore is as ketogenic as it gets) has potential benefits alongside other treatments as it deprives those cancer cells of ample supplies of this fuel source. Glad to hear your wife’s bone cancer has stopped in its tracks.
All good – we are pretty much convinced that my wife’s bone cancer resulted from her heavy duty chemo for breast cancer, complicated by the fact that sepsis set in after the op and it was 10 weeks before it healed and chemo could start – by which time….
Sepsis was healed by a special vacuum dressing which fixed it in a week or so. NHS refused to use it as it costs c£100 per diem (really). How much has now been spent as a result of this and consequent damage, God only knows – my wife turned down further chemo, and is relying on diet and some other non-standard medication – so far so good. They were astonished at the hospital that her last scan showed no change.
NHS now on the point of collapse, and I am not sure whether they harm more people than they heal. On diet, obesity could be fixed just like that if they were clear that people need to drop carbs, SUGAR and all the processed shit they eat. Seed oils are also very inflammatory. And saturated fat does NOT mess your heart up…
“Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions”
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/51/15/1111.full.pdf
I’ve always been a pretty fit and active bloke. Dogs, living in the country and gardening like crazy; regardless, I noted how much better I felt when going Carnivore & Low Carb. Sleep improved. Creaky, crunchy neck which, as with most old people, made some road junctions hard, with an inability to turn your neck far enough – gone. Head turns like an owl now
If you doubt it, why not try it for a month?
And if you are an eco-freak, our food miles are minimal. The only foods that come off a supermarket shelf regularly are tea, coffee, butter (have a thing for President butter…) and Goat Milk. Else it’s all butcher, local shops and farm shops. Also makes cooking far easier, e.g.
Dry brine steak overnight
Meal time
Place metal on hob and heat up
Slap meat on
Turn over and do other side
Rest meat
Eat
only veg I ever eat are Chips if we have a steak out, and grilled tomatoes if I have a full English. You might like to read up about Oxylates if you want to know why veg is not good food. And no, I haven’t got Scurvy and do not miss veg at all. Eat a few berries with our home made yoghurt now and again, but we grow them
And if you live in East Somerset, you should visit this Meat Emporium…
https://www.kimbersfarmshop.co.uk/
You know it makes sense…
So interesting to read of your individual experience and how you go about it. If we are going to defeat all this nutritional nonsense, I think it will be by change from the bottom up by sharing our experiences and others giving it a go.
I’m definitely temped to give full carnivore a go at some point for a month.
My mum lives just outside Bridgwater, so you never know might make it over to that farm shop at some point!
Do it! You won’t regret it – their Black Pudding is by far the best I have ever eaten, made with fresh, not dried, blood, with huge chunks of fat in it. My favourite breakfast – scrambled eggs on black pudding. Their pork pies are gorgeous as well, think lovely pastry, juicy pork and lots of jelly. As for the meat, bliss. Venison too, local, wild.
BTW, on the off chance you return here, there are some ace people on YouTube who are carnivores….
Ivor Cummins
Steak & Butter Girl (Gorgeous ex Vegan who looked terrible when Vegan!)
Bart Kay – foul-mouthed Kiwi who batters other idiots on YouTube
And many more…
“ Glad to hear your wife’s bone cancer has stopped in its tracks.”
Many thanks!
Cancer in effects ferments cells to increase them. Sugar of course key to fermentation. Carbs => Sugar. Carbs and fat at the same time confuse the body, as both are energy sources – but both at the same time ends up with the body storing rather then using them … as fat … .as we can now see everywhere. We get raw honey (Baltic Honey on web), from Lithuania, cheaper than sugar fed honey and gorgeous. A spoon with my now and again porridge perfect (plus local creamy milk with blobs of cream in!) and a teaspoon of Molasses Sugar with my coffee – can’t do sugarless coffee.
And if you are going to eat carbs, breakfast is the time and take exercise after to burb it off. Having dogs achieves that for us.
You only have to look around to see that people have farmed out the responsibility of their own health to the government. Hence the last two years. When the government are brought out by big Pharma and big food (who love promoting a hi carb diet) what do we expect. People need to take responsibility even if it’s as simple as eating a healthy diet which surely isn’t rocket science.
I’m fit, try to eat as best as I can exercise a lot, as well has having a physical job but it’s bloody hard work. I’ve got a good starting point for obese people it must be murder to start and then continue. Once you start down that route it must be difficult to escape.
Farm out responsibility for anything to the government and lose out…
I’ll tell you what discriminates against obese people: nature.
Not the magazine, the phenomenon.
Nature has a horrible tendency to kill obese people sooner than the non-obese.
According to Healthline.com 69% of Americans are either obese or overweight. Wikipedia puts the figure at around 75%
So, it would seem to me that what would increase diversity is having more skinny people rather than fat people.
“Two guys are in Africa when they happen upon a hungry Cheetah. One of them pulls out a pair of trainers and hurriedly puts them on. The other guy says you won’t outrun the Cheetah, it’s the fastest animal on land. I don’t have to outrun the Cheetah as long as I outrun you.”
I don’t mind overweight people. Saves me having to carry trainers wherever I go. Any health issues are their problem unless they try to make it my problem too.
Haha, talk about jumping on the Band wagon! Well, I actually have some sympathy this article. Im fat, and my diverse outlook knows no bounds. I hate everybody!