Despite
growing scientific interest in obesity and the uncritical nature of a
considerable proportion of the scientific community, a variety of other
researchers have queried the idea of an epidemic of obesity. Some of this
questioning has highlighted the uncertain moral and ideological nature of the
biomedical arguments about the risks of obesity. It should be researchers’
responsibility to question whether the hegemonic discourse against obesity has
led to a process of stigmatization and apportionment of blame, such that obese
individuals are judged as having socially expensive, lazy and dangerous bodies
that they do not take care of, and as being bad bio-citizens. It may therefore
be of interest, in addition to discussing the onus of obesity, to identify and debate who the “economic problem of
obesity” is of concern or interest to, and also who profits (politically and
economically) from maintaining this state or combating it. The aim of the
present text was not to establish methodological judgment over papers that have
addressed the costs associated with obesity. Our objectives were: 1) to
establish a critique of the non-explicit discourse that stems from these
investigations; and 2) to reveal the set of factors that contribute towards such expenditure.
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