It is the last socially acceptable form of bigotry. And it is often effectively disguised by the use of pseudo-medical terms such as overweight and obese. Fat used to be a descriptive term, and along with such words as large, chubby, round, big, heavy, plump, stout and voluptuous, depicted the marvellous diversity of body shapes we see all around us. There is no universally accepted scientific definition of overweight or obesity. These beliefs still hold sway, despite an increasing body of opinion to the contrary, such as the surgeon on the SBS program Under the Knife who said he had come to believe, after many years of surgical experience, that heredity factors were the most significant contributor to a person's size.
Health is an extremely complex matter, and involves so much more than the size of one's waistline.
For example, the health food and dieting industries make millions of dollars because medical practitioners and dietitians constantly tell us to eat less fat. The British Medical Journal recently published an article that reached a similar conclusion. Food has replaced sex as the leading source of guilt in our society. Without them our immune systems are weakened, and we have less resistance to illness. Pleasure is good for our health, he argues, and a healthy appetite is better for us than aspiring to join the ranks of the celebrities who resemble the celery sticks on which they apparently survive.