“Now here’s the controversial thing.”
How’s that for an understatement.
This morning on The Today Show, Karl Stefanovic interviewed Dr Ric Gordon about the new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which highlights this country’s problems with obesity, and related health issues.
Dr Gordon suggested that combating obesity is less about promoting physical activity, and more about “what you eat.”
The suggestion that diet plays a part in weight loss is neither new, nor extreme.
But this was:
“Now here’s the controversial thing,” he said, in an impressively understated way.
“There were no overweight people in the concentration camps. Now they weren’t exercising a lot. They just weren’t eating.”
No. They weren’t. Because they were being imprisoned and starved in the type of conditions that would unfit for an animal.
Ignorance and poor thought aside, let’s talk about how incorrect Dr Gordon’s statements were. Yes, many Nazi controlled concentration camps were specifically for ‘extermination’ and imprisonment, there was also an extensive labour force- Arbeitslager.
“Now I’m not going any further with that except to say – What you put in your mouth, ends up on your hips.”
“Righto,” said Stefanovic, moving swiftly on from the doctor’s inflammatory comments.
“He said it, not me Lisa.”
For more like this:
Health Minister urges Aussies to “put down the remote” and “go for a walk”.
Why did Channel 9 think it was okay to air an anti-gay marriage ad during the Today Show.
Top Comments
I am glad that Dr Ric Gordon said this. We are facing an obesity epidemic - and as a society we have lurched into refusing to face the primary cause: diet.
As our society changes, growing fatter and fatter, and less inclined to hear unpleasant truths - there becomes more and more pressure applied by this changing society to suppress those truths - and a greater need for them to be stated. Numbers are power. The more fat people we have in the population, who refuse to face or address their own problems, who viciously attack anyone who dares to confront them, the harder it will become to cure this epidemic.
Strong, bleak truths are needed to counter this.
Trying to get something that is legitimately good out of a tragedy is not disrespecting the people who suffered from that tragedy. It is trusting that they would want some good to come out of their horrific experience. It is the people who don't have that trust who are disrespecting the victims of concentration camps.
Dr Ric Gordon isn't saying these things to benefit himself. He is trying to save millions of people from untimely death and needless suffering. This isn't a trivial cause that he has applied the example of holocaust victims to.
Extreme examples are good to make points, because they remove ambiguity. If you choose to get offended by someone referencing an actual fact to make a point in a related topic that is on you. This is a perfect example of a situation where the propose was not to offend. Only a small amount of time needs to be spent to comprehend what was said and what it was meant to mean. These days people deliberately twist words and take comments out of context to manufacture outrage and offence.