Letter to the Editor: Assumptions about fat people are hurtful

Joe Falinski - did your pharmacy professional classes teach you to be rude?

I understand that you wrote your letter to bring more awareness to the obesity epidemic ("'Disgusting fatties' must make healthy changes," April 10). But, if you advised a patient "[whose] breasts are bigger than most women, [to] put down the chips and get to the gym," not only would you lose a patient, but also a possible referral source.

Being a pharmacy student, you should know people can be overweight - not only due to genetics, a sedative lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits, but due to their medications and other rare but serious medical conditions like pituitary tumors. I have worked with people who have gained weight due to medications like antipsychotics, oral contraceptives and corticosteroids.

Would you encourage your patients to not take their meds in order to have a healthy Body Mass Index? And yes, the more overweight someone is, the more likely he or she is at risk for pathologies like stroke, Type 2 diabetes, heart attack and high cholesterol.

But guess what - just because someone is overweight does not mean he or she will definitely have health problems. You can be in shape and still be at risk for diseases considered typical for people who are overweight. Look at Tedy Bruschi: He is a superb athlete but he had a stroke in February 2005 at age 32. Ryan Shay, the 2003 US Marathon champion, suffered a heart attack 5.5 miles into the 2007 New York Marathon and died at age 28.

As far as the comment about the "disgusting slobs [who] don't seem to care about themselves or their appearance…," you went way out of line.

Ladies: Just because you have "buns of steel" does not mean you can wear a skirt so short that I see them! Guys: You can have an eight pack for all I care - but I am not impressed when you do not take the time to iron your shirts and pants. People who walk around campus like that clearly do not care about their appearance either. Besides, there are more healthy than unhealthy people on this campus.

As a future health care professional, I do feel that a more aggressive wellness program should be enforced by our country to combat the obesity epidemic. However, it will not work unless future health practitioners, like us, positively motivate people to lose weight for a healthier lifestyle, not just to look better in a bikini.

Besides, Joe, did you ever take the time to ask these "disgusting slobs" why they are fat? You can't just assume that people are fat because they "eat large portions of high calorie and low nourishment food and do not exercise enough."

- LaTanya Lemon is a senior physical therapy major.