any data on higher weights and early death will involve a host of confounding variables. i talk a lot about food insecurity, environmental racism, adverse conditions at work, and similar stressors which are associated both w disease & early death and w fatness. a related factor that has a large body of research demonstrating its significance is weight-based discrimination, or weight stigma.
weight stigma itself, independent of many other variables, is deadly. that discrimination alone could account for many of the poor health outcomes we see in larger people. and not only morbidity, but mortality. research shows that weight-based discrimination increases risk of death by 60%.
that statistic is horrifying and should be enough to bring the entire weight loss industry (commercial, medical, public health campaigns, the whole complex) to a screeching halt…. but it doesn’t. in spite of all the contravening data, institutional fatphobia continues to profit off of the unscientific hatred & scapegoating of fat bodies
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