A doctor has sparked a heated debate after appearing on TV to defend obesity and suggest dieting is not good for people’s health.
Taking to This Morning to express her beliefs, Dr Natasha Larmie, who is also known as ‘the fat doctor’, voiced her opinion against weight loss and suggested more fictional role models should be obese to encourage diversity.
As the controversial doctor also insisted, she believes that being healthy is a sign of white and heterosexual privilege.
“This is a really interesting topic, this idea weight loss is a good thing. Actually most of the evidence out there shows weight loss is actually not good for our health,” Dr Larmie claimed.
“If you want to pretty much guarantee you’ll be heavier five years from now, then go on a diet because that is the greatest predictor of weight gain.”
Lashing out at the doctor and her “dangerous” claims was Steve Miller of ‘Fat Families’ who branded Larmie a disgrace for encouraging obesity as if it was a positive thing.
“What I’m concerned about is that we have a doctor telling the nation today, ‘Actually you don’t need to lose weight and you can be healthy,’” Mr. Miller said.
“That really concerns me because of all the obvious things we know being fat and obese leads to. We also know in the current situation, if you get Covid you are much more likely to be hospitalized if you are obese, and you are much more likely to die if you are on a ventilator in hospital with Covid.”
He added:
“I don’t understand why you call yourself the fat doctor, it’s like you’re promoting being fat? You’re going to have to explain to me why you feel it’s a good thing to be fat?”
After the backlash, the doctor went on to claim that white heterosexual males are more likely to have better health by saying that “health is a privilege you are born into.”
“Health is not just physical, it’s mental and emotional and spiritual. And the second thing we have to appreciate is health is a privilege you are born into. It is not an achievement from losing weight,” Dr Larmie added.
“When you’re born into an affluent home, when you’re born white, male, able-bodied, cisgender and heterosexual that means you are more privileged and your health will automatically be better.
“We have people like Steve who like to blame the individual and say weight loss is something we can do.”
The controversial doctor, who wants to ban the word obesity, also went on to claim that a person’s health can’t be measured simply by weighing them as she accused her colleagues of being discriminatory towards their overweight patients.
Responding to Dr Larmie, Mr. Miller said: “You let me speak for a minute. The latest study from Harvard has made it absolutely clear, that you cannot be fat and healthy.
“And it is a disgrace in my opinion for any doctor to be shouting to the nation ‘If you’re a bit poor, you’re always going to be fat anyway and actually it doesn’t matter because you can be fat and really healthy.’ It is just not true.”
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