The questions you posit have an easy answer: you’re wrong and you’re creating a false narrative.
No one is saying that being overweight is healthy. Most of those social campaigns were saying that we shouldn’t shame people for their body.
Also, plenty of studies have shown that weight control isn’t as simple as self control. Different people have different bodies that react differently, and plenty of people have other conditions that limit their ability to control weight.
Gaining weight is easy, and losing it is hard. The body evolved to treat a caloric deficit as literally painful. And losing significant weight requires months or years of deficit, which is months or years of pain. That’s tough to overcome with “a little bit of hard work and self control”.
Anecdotally, I’m a perfect example of this. I used to be a runner, and thin. Then I got sick, and my BMI doubled in months. It’s taken at least a year to undo months of illness. I can’t imagine what someone with chronic illness, or even more weight must go through. I live in a city and walk instead of drive, but not everyone has that lifestyle and it’s not a easy thing to change (“why don’t you just move a long way away to an expensive place and sell your car”). Of course, you should not require someone to do everything just right on paper for their views to be valid. Plenty of people struggle with the motivation, time, or finances to make healthy decisions, and those people are real and should be supported too.
It’s been studied and proven ad nauseam that food can be addictive and that addictions aren’t a matter of “self control” the way people want it to be.
No one is saying that being overweight is healthy. Most of those social campaigns were saying that we shouldn’t shame people for their body.
Also, plenty of studies have shown that weight control isn’t as simple as self control. Different people have different bodies that react differently, and plenty of people have other conditions that limit their ability to control weight.
Gaining weight is easy, and losing it is hard. The body evolved to treat a caloric deficit as literally painful. And losing significant weight requires months or years of deficit, which is months or years of pain. That’s tough to overcome with “a little bit of hard work and self control”.
Anecdotally, I’m a perfect example of this. I used to be a runner, and thin. Then I got sick, and my BMI doubled in months. It’s taken at least a year to undo months of illness. I can’t imagine what someone with chronic illness, or even more weight must go through. I live in a city and walk instead of drive, but not everyone has that lifestyle and it’s not a easy thing to change (“why don’t you just move a long way away to an expensive place and sell your car”). Of course, you should not require someone to do everything just right on paper for their views to be valid. Plenty of people struggle with the motivation, time, or finances to make healthy decisions, and those people are real and should be supported too.
It’s been studied and proven ad nauseam that food can be addictive and that addictions aren’t a matter of “self control” the way people want it to be.