Dear Doctor (or other Health Professional),
I am a fat person who has come to you for treatment
of a specific health problem. I expect and demand adequate medical attention.
Please give me the same type of examination and treatment that you would give a thin person
and do not automatically assume that my problem is weight-related.
I have not come to you regarding my weight, because I know that there is
no known cure for "obesity" (I have put obesity in quotes because weight
is a continuum, and as long as my personal weight causes me no direct medical problems,
I refuse to define my body weight as a disease). All existing diets and weight loss
techniques work only 1-2% of the time on any permanent basis. Since I have wasted
much of my life on numerous unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, I have reached
the logical conclusion that I am one of the 98% for whom dieting doesn't work.
I refuse to endanger my health by taking any further part in the yo-yo syndrome of losing and regaining weight.
I did not come to you for a lecture.
Please spend your time instead reviewing the medical research on "obesity"
and dieting (or voluntary starvation). Re-examine your assumptions.
Studies show that on average fat people eat the same same amounts and
types of food as "normal" (i.e. thin) people. Most longevity statistics
compiled have been done on fat Americans who have spent a lifetime
dieting and living in a stressful, disciminatory environment. Yes
despite studies such as the one done in Roseto, PA., only one factor
(the fat) is blamed for people's ill health.
Please throw out any height-weight charts you own,
especially ones compiled by insurance companies to justify collecting more money from fat
people. The Framingham report has show how inaccurate these charts are. At any rate, I expect
my health to be evaluated on an individual basis by you and not by such a piece of paper.
Always use a large size (42 cm.)
blood pressure cuff on me and any fat patient. Dr. George Mann has
reported that a standard size cuff can give a falsely high reading of 8-12mm
of mercury. This inaccuracy alone accounts for the large part of the statistics
linking high weight with high blood pressure.
If you are unable to agree to these conditions, I shall take my business
elsewhere.
Your Fat Patient,
****"Dear Doctor (or other Health Professional)" is from the May 1981,
Issue #4, of "F.A.T. - Feminist Fat Activists Together." It was submitted/published anonymously, and
may be copied, distributed and used for free distribution and personal use. This statement should be
left on when copying/distributing, crediting F.A.T. - Feminist Fat Activists Together, Issue #4, May 1981
anytime when copying & distributing it.****
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