More questions than answers
H. Holden Thorp
Abstract
Weight loss and obesity have been challenging topics in science and public health for decades. While scientists have pursued understanding through studies of metabolism and the microbiome, public health scholars have shown that social factors such as poverty and inadequate health care are also major contributors. And though it is true that excess weight carries with it numerous comorbidities that lower life expectancy and add costs to the health care system, studies also show that it is possible to be overweight and healthy. That doesn't change the fact that obesity can be associated with poor mental health, in part because of the corrosive societal stigma that associates being overweight with mental weakness, not biochemistry.