To the Editor:
Re “In the Age of Ozempic, She’s Fighting for the Freedom to Be ‘Fat’” (front page, April 22), about Virginia Sole-Smith:
Ms. Sole-Smith does have the freedom to be fat. Adults have the right to make their own choices and pay the consequences that flow from them. While I respect every person’s right to eat what they want and do not think fat shaming is right, I take real issue with parents who try to push this on their children.
Parents are morally obligated to educate their children about obvious and known dangers to their health. Eating poorly, overeating and being overweight are obvious dangers.
Letting kids have occasional sweets is one thing; allowing them to eat brownies for dinner is another. Sorry, but this woman needs a little less freedom and a lot more parental responsibility.
Jeanne L. Ramasso
Mount Sinai, N.Y.
To the Editor:
I am disappointed that you gave a platform to someone who sits in judgment of those who look at the number on their scale, honestly tally up the health impacts and think: “I love my body, but for me to continue enjoying my life, there must be less of it.”
That’s what I said to myself two years ago, when the toll of being 95 pounds overweight hit home. I have been active most of my life, enjoying a mix of indoor and outdoor activities. But as I gained weight, I could do less and less of those things because doing so hurt from my lower back all the way down through my feet. Plus, I have multiple health issues that are directly linked to being overweight.
I sought out and joined a medically supervised weight loss program. After about a year, the needle had gotten stuck with 70 pounds still to lose. My doctor and I agreed that bariatric surgery was the next reasonable step. I’m recovering from that surgery as I write this.
I never stopped loving and appreciating my body. I just want it to be able to continue supporting the life I want to live.
There is nothing fat-phobic about wanting to lose weight to support your health and your lifestyle. If Virginia Sole-Smith is truly comfortable with her weight, more power to her. I completely agree with her that being overweight does not change the value of a person, and I’m grateful that we’re coming to accept that as a society (albeit slowly and patchily).
But to stretch that to “being fat is perfectly fine” (to paraphrase her) is disingenuous at best and actively harmful at worst.
Darcy Jayne
Sedro Woolley, Wash.
To the Editor:
The comments on your article on Virginia Sole-Smith were as predictable as they were disappointing. “Bad parenting.” “Neglectful mother.”
This is all directed toward a freshly divorced single mother balancing the onerous responsibilities of provider and parent. I don’t necessarily agree with a nihilistic approach to nutrition, but looking around I can’t say that decades of fat shaming and body-image zealotry have done much to curtail obesity in the community. We entrusted our food and our health to the free market, and the results speak for themselves.
If Ms. Sole-Smith is putting food on the table and a smile on her kids’ faces while putting a bit of money away for their future, then who can be taken seriously calling her a bad mother? Kudos to Ms. Sole-Smith.
Michael Hill
Melbourne, Australia
The writer is a paramedic.
To the Editor:
Virginia Sole-Smith is right about the harmful biases toward fat people both in medical treatment and in general life. It’s unfortunate, however, that her account does not address the root causes of obesity: factory farming, the rise of ultra-processed foods and limited access to healthier foods.
This is a particular issue for the poor, who are increasingly faced with food deserts, where the available options tend to be highly processed. Rates of obesity in the U.S. have tripled over the last 60 years, mirroring the increased consumption of these highly processed foods and sugary drinks.
This phenomenon has been accompanied by a precipitous increase in sedentary lifestyles for both adults and children. Together, these facts indicate that it is societal choices, not individual ones, that are the main drivers of the obesity epidemic — a crisis that is a significant psychological and health burden for those afflicted.
Isaac Shub
Laurie Bridger
New Haven, Conn.
Dr. Bridger is an internist.
To the Editor:
I am a white, fat, disabled woman in my late 30s. I have lived with the stigma of fatness most of my life, on top of dealing with ableism. As Virginia Sole-Smith highlights, fat phobia and body shaming are horrible things to navigate and contribute to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.
However, despite Ms. Sole-Smith’s good intentions, I feel that her perspective does a huge disservice to low-income people who are disproportionately Black and brown.
Low-income people often struggle to make healthy food choices because they do not have access to affordable produce (for example living in a food desert) and/or don’t have the time or resources to cook healthy meals for themselves and their children.
For an affluent white woman such as Ms. Sole-Smith to provide her children with unhealthy snacks and no guidance on how to eat healthily seems to be an insult to all the low-income mothers out there who are struggling to put healthy food on their children’s plates. She has the resources and privileges to buy healthy food options, but instead focuses on personal freedom and the right to be fat.
I choose to embrace my fat body because I know I am taking care of myself the best that I can with the resources I can afford. But I would not willingly refuse to provide myself or my children (if I had them) with healthy food options if I had the money and resources.
Patricia Kalidonis
Philadelphia
To the Editor:
While I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and should not be stigmatized, it is undeniable that obesity is an epidemic that cannot be ignored.
Bias against overweight people is unjust and harmful. However, it is important to recognize that obesity is not a matter of personal choice or opinion; it is a serious, sometimes lethal health issue with far-reaching consequences for the individual and for society, which ends up paying the cost for the medical expenses associated with morbid obesity.
We should strive to support and empower overweight individuals to lead healthy lives, rather than downplaying the risks associated with this condition. We need to support efforts to address the obesity epidemic in a compassionate and evidence-based manner.
To give such a prominent platform to Virginia Sole-Smith is a disservice to your readers and to our society as a whole.
David S. Cantor
Los Angeles
The writer is the author of “The Book of Good Health — Destroying Myths, Lies and Deceptions. Reaffirming Truths to Achieve Total Wellness.”
To the Editor:
Reading your article on Virginia Sole-Smith has left me in a dangling knot of contradictory emotions. As a man struggling with his own weight, I am happy that Ms. Sole-Smith has accepted her body unashamedly and am nauseated by the vitriolic abuse she has received. Nevertheless, I am ill at ease with the idea that obesity can be passed off as healthy, even celebrated, despite the heaving mass of professional and scientific evidence screaming the contrary.
In fat acceptance as in life, there is room for nuance. We can recognize that fat individuals are more prone to suffer a whole freight of health issues (Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea and so on), while also affirming that fat people are just as entitled to dignity and respect as everyone else, and do not deserve to have their bodies examined, mocked and made a public spectacle or political talking point.
Baybars Charkas
State College, Pa.