In other situations, doctors should be cautious about exhorting patients to lose weight, especially when they are only mildly obese. Until we have better data about the risks of being overweight and the benefits and risks of trying to lose weight, we should remember that the cure for obesity may be worse than the condition. Finally, doctors should do their part to help end discrimination against overweight people in schools and workplaces. We should also speak out against the public's excessive infatuation with being thin and the extreme, expensive, and potentially dangerous measures taken to attain that goal. Countless numbers of our daughters and increasingly many of our sons are suffering immeasurable torment in fruitless weight-loss schemes and scams, and some are losing their lives.
Doctors can help the public regain a sense of proportion.
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