In reviewing the research and public debates, I have come away startled by the depths of politics and misappraisal about the problem, and the need for human biology to counter this mix of science and morality.  So tonight I’ll write about three problematic things I outlined to my class today, and then show how human biology can provide a useful counter. 

Mind/body and nature/nurture dichotomies run rampant in both public and scholarly discussions of debate.  If it’s not willpower, then it is a biological deficiency.  Genetics causes obesity, or super-size-me environments.  These dichotomies are based on philosophical distinctions that are now centuries old.  They do not match up well with how our bodies, minds, and environments actually work. 

The moralization of fat and the politics of diet produce a tremendous incentive for bias, whether explicit or implicit.  Rhetorical arguments are never really rhetorical in the domain of obesity.  Results are tinged by claims of good and bad, of what’s ideal and what needs to be done.  Since thin-is-in, obesity must be bad, no matter the data; finding that miracle cure, whether it is a diet or surgery or drug, promises huge financial gains, so convenient theories are propped up. 

Suspect science results from both old dichotomies and from the moral politics of obesity.  The moral politics is heightened by the uses of science in establishing authority over a problem, whether it is the government, a medical association, restaurant businesses or soda companies. 

Continue reading “Human Biology and Models for Obesity”