I recently received an email regarding "Dr. Rob" and his blog comments
regarding treating people who are obese. "Dr. Rob" is Dr. Robert
Lambert, an Augusta, Georgia physician who is board certified in
internal medicine and pediatrics.

Dr. Rob talked about witnessing the shame in a man who is obese. The
man had been taught to blame all of his medical conditions on being
overweight. Although in the blog, Dr. Rob appeared to me to also be
making a person's weight the main culprit of medical problems (I
disagree with this... from a non-medical standpoint), he did talk about
the "culture of accusation and shame" as making matters worse.

"The idea that their personal worth lies on their BMI is extremely
damaging. There are a lot of screwed-up skinny people out there; just
look at super-models. It is a lot easier to lose weight when you
actually like yourself and want to do something about your health. Our
culture of accusation and shame simply makes obese people hate
themselves. If you hate yourself, why should you want to take care of
your body?

Is obesity a problem? Sure it is. But we need to get off of our
self-righteous pulpits. Obese people should not be made into a group of
outcasts. The “them” mentality and the finger-wagging are no more than
insecure people trying to feel better by putting down others."

I will talk more about this in tomorrow's blog.

For now, any comments on Dr. Rob's thoughts?

Anne