Global obesity rates are on the rise, but body shaming campaigns are doing more harm than good, says medical anthropologist Nancy N. Chen.
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Matt Smith
November 12, 2021 at 5:36 pm
Objectively, being morbidly obese is bad in every way..
Sweet Meats
November 12, 2021 at 8:21 pm
Okay, you missed the entire point, which is that ‘morbidly obese’ encases a lot of varying types of bodies. Using the US’s standard, the BMI, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is considered morbidly obese. Shame and fear of fatness has been studied for decades and experts agree that it doesn’t help people change or strive for their healthiest.
Nelson Artemio
November 12, 2021 at 9:39 pm
@Sweet Meats Let’s say it were really easy to filter out obvious outliers such as Dwayne. So BMI has no legitimacy for normal non- bodybuilders?
Victor Ureno
November 12, 2021 at 5:41 pm
Well made points. A good friend would always tell me “ I’d rather be chunky fat and healthy than skinny and unhealthy”
Let’s keep out internal organs healthy and running for many years to come. 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
SeaRose
November 12, 2021 at 7:22 pm
How can you be “chunky fat” and healthy? Chunky fat sounds like hard organ fat….
Nelson Artemio
November 12, 2021 at 7:53 pm
Visceral fat (know as belly fat) can cause damage to vital internal organs. Non alcoholic Fatty liver disease is common and it can lead to liver failure and death. If someone has no current symptoms or functioning of these organs are not at low enough levels to raise an eyebrow, that does not mean that the condition won’t eventually progress to a failure point. By then it is often harder to deal with and sometimes it’s too late. Also being heavily also can lead to varicose veins. This may result in blood pooling in the lower extremities which could clot and become deep-vein thrombosis which itself can become a pulmonary embolism, which is often fatal. You cannot be chunky fat and healthy.pick one.
Zé Zero
November 12, 2021 at 5:42 pm
Why are we still talking about thin body as the ideal, while the mainstream feminine body ideal is like that of Kim Kardashians…. Outdated research.
Tan
November 12, 2021 at 10:55 pm
I don’t think men, in general, find the Kardashians bodies to be attractive (except kendall) it’s mostly a craze instigated by women
Home Wall
November 12, 2021 at 6:05 pm
So if you can’t be ideal, just lower the standards of that ideal. And of course follow whatever ideals others tell you are ideal because you shouldn’t think or act for yourself. Just be a clone slave so the slave masters have an easier day.
Home Wall
November 12, 2021 at 6:06 pm
Did Covid kill more obese people or more trim people? There simply is no imposed ideal standard, at least until government runs our healthcare fully. How is it the black Americans, for example, don’t follow this ideal standard you pretend exists?
Sherif Gerges
November 12, 2021 at 6:35 pm
1. True that models have gotten thinner – but on average, Americans have gotten fatter. 2. Also orthorexia is not an actual disorder – just some qualitative description of people who obsess over healthy food. Most of these kind of disorders aren’t taken seriously by academic physicians anyway. Finally, this is much less a science video, and more a social justice video borrowing scientific jargon to appear grounded in the science method.
Eugene Numberoneov
November 12, 2021 at 6:43 pm
Rock? Is it you?
Johnny Lu
November 12, 2021 at 7:06 pm
So the average woman size is 16, which is between 148-170 lbs, while average height is 5’4’’. So an average woman in the US is overweight on the BMI??
SeaRose
November 12, 2021 at 7:28 pm
*Last I checked we weren’t suffering an epidemic of hourglass shaped bodies* ….the obesity issues in the US are much more of the apple-body variety, which is the opposite of the evolutionary ideal.
Jordan Sainte-Marie
November 12, 2021 at 11:02 pm
Humans become overweight for many different reasons and body type is not a determining factor. Weight gain can happen in the midsection regardless of body type. Your comment is void and null.
cj N
November 12, 2021 at 7:34 pm
Ted has become a cesspool
SeaRose
November 12, 2021 at 7:35 pm
Why did body ideals shift in the 70s? Because feminism made us reject anything and everything associated with our fertility and evolutionary role and place it with a masculinized bread-winner centric role. The body ideal lost all tether to evolution and became the degendered flat shapeless body of twiggy. Which are the subcultures that have resisted that? The ones that also resisted feminism.
Mahdi Joharian
November 12, 2021 at 7:56 pm
❤
Станислав Агаметов
November 12, 2021 at 8:00 pm
You can’t imagine how I love the indigenous people of America.
Nelson Artemio
November 12, 2021 at 8:05 pm
Not until you’re faced with the life and death scenarios of your own future and what that means for your loved ones, will many people realize that accepting of being obese was a dangerous mistake and by then, it may be too late to save yourself.
B
November 12, 2021 at 8:11 pm
Curves are good. Fat is bad.
zarbon18
November 12, 2021 at 8:14 pm
indian transverstite or what is it?😂
Joe Joey
November 12, 2021 at 9:28 pm
Obesity shouldn’t be stigmatized but being supportive and using terms like “body positivity “ “curvy” … etc to normalize disease isn’t good neither , obesity is very dangerous, it is more deadly than smoking
vvv
November 12, 2021 at 10:49 pm
There, that’s it, she was saying “curvey” , your perception is already tained that curvey is closer to obesity and deseases, no! Thin is not less closer to desease as she said, in fact, going diet to get over obesity is great! But you know you’re too much when you dont even feel satisfied after reaching the “goal”
Joe Joey
November 12, 2021 at 11:35 pm
@vvv I know what you are saying and what she is saying , doesn’t change the fact that obesity is the number one killer and that movements like “fat acceptance” aren’t a valid response to the stigma over weight people face
Michael G Roux
November 13, 2021 at 10:29 pm
Agreed.
FitToBeFifty
November 12, 2021 at 9:41 pm
While I agree the Instagram culture is doing real harm and often puts forth as ideal body type images that have either been modified with software and/or obtained in an unhealthy manner, I can simultaneously hold that belief while also noting that the center of the bell curve in America is not a healthy body shape either. The standard American diet is abysmal and is causing all sorts of metabolic disease (diabetes, etc.) that are fundamentally bad for our health. Our lack of proper exercise (sedentary work and sedentary entertainment options) are also catastrophic. So, while putting forth an over-thin body image is extremely bad, it is equally counterproductive to shut down conversations about weight management as body shaming. It’s not a universal statement, but as a general rule, an “average” height human at 5′ 6″ / 170 cm should probably not be 220+ pounds / 100+ kilos. We are not using fat gained during abundance to survive periods of scarceness anymore . . .
Mr. C
November 12, 2021 at 10:18 pm
The human body is a demanding, orderly sensitive, lying, deceptive, pos..!!! It is not to be trusted nor catered to. It is to be scrutinized and even opposed when necessary as an opponent to “Soundness of mind”. Those who “buddy up” to the demands of the body are setting themselves up for complete devastation! F the demands of the body…AND the mind!! Don’t think so?….ask the trillionaire pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. C
November 12, 2021 at 10:18 pm
The human body is a demanding, overly sensitive, lying, deceptive, pos..!!! It is not to be trusted nor catered to. It is to be scrutinized and even opposed when necessary as an opponent to “Soundness of mind”. Those who “buddy up” to the demands of the body are setting themselves up for complete devastation! F the demands of the body…AND the mind!! Don’t think so?….ask the trillionaire pharmaceutical companies.
Peace Guard
November 12, 2021 at 10:47 pm
Ever wondered why no one talks about not judging by things you cannot change, such as height or face features? Have you ever heard any activist talk about it?
There’s no money in it for big corporations such as those selling food and drugs, as in case of weight. Big corpo promotes “body positivity”, because they know it takes the focus off health and thus takes the responsibility off the food industry and helps Big Pharma make even more dollar.
And here come the ignorant preachers like in this video, completely ignoring the fact that weight is the health issue, regardless of whatever someone in distant times or culture considered best figure, mostly due to the fact that in poor times and in poor communities being bigger is a symbol of status and money. Nothing to be proud about here.
Energetic qualities of bodies? Yeah, here we go again, all of the sense in simply gone from this video.
vvv
November 12, 2021 at 10:54 pm
I think the diet culture put an ultimatum that if you are curvey you are obese… The problem is not on the diet itself but they pin numbers on bodies as the standard towards happiness
Jordan Sainte-Marie
November 12, 2021 at 11:00 pm
BRAVO
Stefan Nikola
November 12, 2021 at 11:03 pm
This is all very well and good, but I’m still partial to bald heads and cute ears.
明明就是我Ming-Ming Is Me
November 13, 2021 at 3:01 am
I’m so glad that I listened to this talk! Thank you 🙂
Fatima Ibrahim
November 13, 2021 at 8:52 am
Amazing nadPerfect topic 😍 thanks
Invox
November 13, 2021 at 9:39 am
There’s a big difference between what then Media displays as “ideal” and what we believe as ideal.
Besides, ALL magazine covers and photos are photoshoped.
Lavender
November 13, 2021 at 9:40 am
A body doesn’t have a gender. The mind “thinking “ does.
Michael G Roux
November 13, 2021 at 10:27 pm
Umm yea it does.. Penis= male. Vagina= female.. pretty simple logic here.
trinemesis
November 14, 2021 at 6:59 am
very true
trinemesis
November 14, 2021 at 6:59 am
@Michael G Roux u genius. we give things meanings. the same goes for how we define gender.
Satheeswaran Sanjith
November 13, 2021 at 10:59 am
🙇
AlexiYah MariciYah(Coptic Hyksos) Yetsubah Muse
November 13, 2021 at 11:32 am
Cheap!!!! Ratchet!!!! Hoochies of Windsor Castle. Brood of vipers!!!! HYPOCRITES. Jeanette Archer, Karly Franz, Donald Marshall, Phil Chuppa, Kathy O’Brien, All Chocolate People who were Aboriginal to the lands they destroyed with lies. Fakes, murderers!!!! Child abusers!!!! Vagabonds of transgression!!!! You shall not pass!!!! Liars will not inherit the Kingdom. Ratchet!
Puss Cat
November 13, 2021 at 11:47 am
This lady is making me feel better
😅 🍨🍨
TraceyOfficial
November 13, 2021 at 2:04 pm
That was incredible, thank you so much
popflorals
November 13, 2021 at 3:10 pm
I just have to laugh at when you started talking about Olympians. Typically for the same sport, the athletes tend to look similar in body size and muscle mass. You’re not going to see much variation within the same sport.
Funny how the first fertility figure would probably have a high risk pregnancy if a woman were that size too.
FactStat
November 13, 2021 at 4:20 pm
I am moved ❤️
ThinkingLoud
November 13, 2021 at 4:20 pm
I am moved ❤️
tommasini bafford
November 13, 2021 at 4:38 pm
That was an interesting video and how I look at my body structure. Thanks!
Kasimir B
November 13, 2021 at 5:10 pm
Wrong on so many levels! First of all I hate it that this talk is all about women again. Broad hips are an indicator of fertility etc. What about a man’s beer belly? What is that indicating? Potency? Stamina? Wealth? Almost no woman is attracted to such a man. Women look for tall, strong, athletic men. From an evolutionary standpoint, they were more likely able to protect the family and hunt successfully. Today there is no need for hunting and gathering. We (Westerners) have an abundance of everything. That’s the problem. Hence, a fat, unathletic, sedentary body is not associated with wealth and fertility anymore. It is associated with laziness, a lacking of discipline, ignorance, egoism and social seclusion. An obese person is in many cases unhealthy and suffers from anabolic syndrome. That might lead to many complications and immense costs. Being fat is the result of poor food choices, of indulgences, of revering the own comfort zone too much. Why should I respect or even admire such a person? These “anti body shaming” campaigns just provide excuses for unnatural and contemptible behavior. That’s the real shame.
Jacob Horton
November 13, 2021 at 7:50 pm
Thank you. Someone had to say it.
J
November 15, 2021 at 9:48 am
You are wrong .. obesity in women doesn’t happen only because of bad food choices .. lifestyle choices depend on various factors .. one who is coping to survive because of depression thinks least about maintaining a thin curvy figure .. for some it’s not so easy to loose weight . They will have to give up eating their favourite carb food in their whole life time . Would you tend to do that ? .. in some it’s an hereditary trait . In women fertility issues brings in symptoms like inappropriate weight gain and hair growth .. respect everyone for u do not why some one is in such a shape .. food choices are not the only determinants .
Invoke article 50 petitions/133618
November 13, 2021 at 5:11 pm
Funny I like to Ted talks on a platform that doesn’t allow them to nuke and heavily censor the commenter’s.
Catherine Mwai
November 13, 2021 at 8:48 pm
Wonderful insights. Love the idea of looking within, in relation to health instead of solely looking at the outside.
WhiteSpatula
November 13, 2021 at 10:32 pm
In my opinion.. A human body in dire need looks the same as any other, and more to the point, we needn’t allow dire needs amongst ourselves to know this.
Cheers and thank you! -Phill, Las Vegas
Michelle Franck
November 14, 2021 at 2:13 am
Excellent speaker with interesting content!
J. C.
November 14, 2021 at 3:03 am
Work towards healthy eating and how to feel great on the inside physically and mentally, worry less about the outside. We should all follow what works for us as individuals because each person is unique.
Xandria Ravenheart
November 14, 2021 at 4:59 am
Totally agree, as long as you’re healthy and living well, your body weight doesn’t matter. I’ve met very healthy thin people as well as very strong healthy people who weigh a lot more than average.
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
November 15, 2021 at 1:24 am
Just say fat why are people so afraid to say fat or obese
楊小藍
November 14, 2021 at 1:26 pm
Lots of people are strong(pretty) but unhealthy at the same time. Because the whole society are craving an ideal shape to admire. The origin reason is social media.
will liam
November 14, 2021 at 1:29 pm
Of course a few obese persons may be as healthy as some normal sized persons, but that Would be the EXCEPTION Not the NORM. Stop it, even in curve loving cultures, big hips are a sign of fertility while big boobs means milk for the baby. Body shape matter, BSM!
Matthew Stufflebeam
November 14, 2021 at 3:06 pm
TED promotes pedophilia. It should be shut down.
Violet E
November 14, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Thank you💜😊
Din Subterán
November 14, 2021 at 5:15 pm
the west is dead.
CaptainKeelhaul
November 14, 2021 at 10:52 pm
And just like that, diversity became more important than health.
AAA_ALyssa
November 15, 2021 at 5:18 am
Great insight but remember that obesity and overweight are the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and many other chronic diseases. Prevention is better than cure, that’s why promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention of diseases is a fundamental principle of public health.
Guyomar
November 15, 2021 at 12:53 pm
Where does this video actually show that the links between body ideals and health are “inaccurate”? A narrow waist and midsection free of fat are objectively healthier. Why is this anti-scientific nonsense being promoted by TED? Oh, I know, under the guise of “inclusion”. Well, your fairytales are going to kill people through chronic disease they develop after being told they can remain healthy at any size with fat accumulating around their organs.
정예은
November 16, 2021 at 1:15 am
하느님 감사합니다^^
Thomas O'Malley
November 16, 2021 at 3:56 am
This dude makes a great point…
Mook Jong
November 17, 2021 at 8:24 am
Ouch!
Nera Willson
November 18, 2021 at 9:00 am
Thank you
Tommy John
November 18, 2021 at 12:01 pm
These are very accurate and intelligent thoughts!
Reema Gul Sha Ali khan
November 18, 2021 at 1:24 pm
Good information 💕
Amaara Khan
November 18, 2021 at 7:33 pm
Smart, natural and gorgeous lady!