Comments on: Aussies, Beware the Fat Bomb!

By: Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:42:46 +0000

A study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, published today, indicates that the “Fat Bomb” claims were grossly innaccurate. What a surprise.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23918332-23289,00.html

By: Duncan | Syrup&Tang

Duncan | Syrup&Tang — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:52:40 +0000

Really interesting to see the discussion here. I apologise for what will seem like self-promotion, but a few months back I wrote an article about some of the problems with the 'obesity crisis' not long ago. It sums up pretty well what some people here are commenting on. I've been pleased to see some experts stating their doubt about the latest press-pushed study in Australia. Pity it isn't receiving more attention. There was a piece in crikey.com.au about the way this study has been promoted to attract attention.

By: Angie

Angie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:18:38 +0000

It may disgust you (as it did me) to realise that our Aussie Maternal & Child Health Nurses (at least in Victoria) measure babies and childrens’ BMI ! And then talk to the parents if they deem the figure too high! I am talking children aged 0 – 4. Yikes!

Ang.

By: sleepless

sleepless — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:15:22 +0000

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned in the comments yet, but there was a very good letter in yesterday’s Age newspaper about the study this “news” was based on, seriously questioning the methodology. I’ll copy it here: (hoping the html works!)

FAT STATS PAINT A BLOATED PICTURE

IT HAS been reported widely that Australia has become the fattest nation in the world. Bigger than the Americans? I’m not so sure, judging from the methods used in the study (The Age, 20/6). The study was large, with many good features, but it had serious potential for some of its results to be biased.

The data came from free tests conducted in shopping centres as part of a national blood pressure screening day last year. People who are overweight are more likely than people of normal weight to attend such a screening, because of concern about their health. The results are therefore likely to give an overestimate of the proportion of overweight and obese people in the population.

Obesity is indeed a major problem in Australia, and many of the measures suggested to address it have merit. But it doesn’t help to overstate the problem, and the conclusions drawn from this study are in danger of doing that.

Dr Graham Hepworth, Statistical Consulting Centre,
The University of Melbourne

By: Angela

Angela — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:53:02 +0000

Oops!!! Sorry - I snarked on poor Stace's shoes.

By: sizeoftheocean

sizeoftheocean — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:05:42 +0000

“I don’t hear people talking about those fucking Aussies and their fucking SUVs and fucking huge houses and overflowing landfills and whatnot, let alone how all their fucking fat people are just another manifestation of the same problem”

Oh, but we Aussies hear it all the time. All the damn time.

By: Pianoamy

Pianoamy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:27:01 +0000

Reading about denials of surgery makes me SO relieved my mom met with the surgeon she did, last Tuesday. She is somewhere around 300lbs – possible a little bit less, but not much. She badly needs both knees replaced. She met with one specialist several months ago who was just about to move on to some other job, so wouldn’t be around to be the one doing the surgery (he wanted to be doing sports medicine), who told her she’d probably have to lose weight in order to get knee replacements. But since he was leaving, she’d have to meet with someone else to figure it out, anyway (Thank goodness!!!)

She finally got another referral to a surgeon and met with him this week, and how has her Surgery scheduled for the end of August. She really liked him and his nurse, and felt respected and so forth by them. He apparently told her that they (not sure who “they” are) recommend not doing them for people over 235 because the replacement knee won’t be *as* stable, but “what am I going to do, not do surgery on someone who’s 236?” Again, she’s more than that, even, but his attitude is clearly that if someone needs it, he’s going to do it – in any case, it’s not as if her current knees are stable! She basically has bone on bone and it’s even causing her legs to bow out *shudder*.

By: SFG

SFG — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:54:18 +0000

SAKI: perhaps get media watch involved.

I think the 14,000 people were self-selecting folk who wandered into free health check vans — gee, I wonder if that would introduce any bias?!

By: Saki

Saki — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:11:20 +0000

Hi Himawari and others,

Hope you may be able to help me here. Australia has a “Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice” which is supposed to regulate program content on commercial free-to-air television, including it’s accuracy.

Now I am more than happy to fire off to the offending TV chanel each time I see one of these stupid news spots the official ‘complaint form’ which they have to reply back to (so they say). http://www.acma.gov.au

But what has my read lots, but don’t write much brain in a spin is that, in the ‘Complaint Summary’ part, what should I saying? Should I be giving them studies that show they are wrong? Do I just say- stupid reporter go back to school and learn to read an actual report and not just something that the weight loss industry has given you to report?..

SO, what do you think would be good ‘form letter’ information to send to various people who pretend to give us factual news?

Saki

By: La di Da

La di Da — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:27:26 +0000

I think my other comment got caught in the spam filter, but the full quote from the Genius Professor who headed the report about denying surgery wasn’t about denying fat people general surgery, but denying weight loss surgery to fat people unless they demonstrated they could lose some weight on their own first. I’m not even going to begin to deconstruct that, and it doesn’t make the report any less fucked, but it’s…something, I guess.