I agree the "war on fat" is a moral issue. America is obsessed with productivity. Fat is seen as symbolic of complacency, it's seen as gluttony, squandering resources. Fat people are the personification of all these negative traits: lazy, worthless, useless. It's unfortunate, but true. The opportunistic diet industry reinforces these negative thoughts through their unscrupulous marketing of products which really only exacerbate weight disorders in the long run. They'll show a woman - fat, sullen, depressed, obviously feels worthless... then they show her after - she has everything she ever wanted and feels great. Then they promise you if you buy their 400 calorie liquid fasts, their ridiculously dangerous opperations, their unsatiating pre-packaged refined foods, or their pills that you too can have the same results. It's shameful, and unsustainable weight loss efforts do the body great harm.

They often say it is near impossible to lose weight, that only 5% are successful. Well duh. Sounds about right to me, considering about 95% of weight loss methods are the money-taking BS methods above.

However I have a hard time believing fat poses no health risk. Metabolic rate, which puts oxidative stress on the body, must be raised to support all that extra fat tissue. Fat also exacerbates endocrine disorders. Even if fat were a metabolically neutral tissue, it still certainly is indicative of metabolic disorder. Doesn't the state of hair or skin quality indicate good health as well? Self-acceptance shouldn't include accepting your health deteriorating if you can do something about it. They talk about how obesity is more common among blacks and mexicans, is it any wonder these groups also have very high rates of heart disease and diabetes? The anti-fat might say the fat caused them, and the pro-fat might say the fat is unrelated and the diseases were caused by sedentary lifestyle, but I know that the IRS is the catalyst causing all three. Our high carb diet disagrees with many people, and as we eat more and more sugar the problem is only going to get worse.