Only when we can stop body bashing (and I mean body bashing from every angle – fat people body bashing thin people, thin people body bashing fat people) can we get on with working with what we’ve got and getting as healthy as we can through good nutrition and regular movement. I hate to tell you too not worth it, but I was recently at a hospital visiting a friend who had a premature baby, and this may shock you but wow, were there ever a lot of thin people there! I didn’t realize that thin people got sick too – who knew??? I wonder if sickness in general for a whole host of reasons is raising your health insurance rates.

Kirstie, have you been taught about the doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis? He was the doctor attributed to discovering germs but before he actually figured that out, he and his team were responsible for killing who knows how many innocent women in the maternity ward because they were too arrogant to even consider that perhaps they were the problem for the unexplained high rate of mortality. Women in Austria were terrified to give birth in his hospital because of the death toll. The problem was that Semmelweis and his team were performing on cadavers and without washing their hands before tending to women about to give birth, they infected them with deadly germs. Just because you are a medical student does not preclude that you have all the answers – others are doing obesity research that does not support the claims you make. Your credo is to “First do no harm”, do you believe that this campaign does no harm, and furthermore that your comments do no harm?

Health at Every Size is a peace movement and not just for fat people. I can go at any given time into a workplace cafeteria, sit down with a group of women and 99.9% of the time they will be talking about either a) dieting, b) how fat they are, c)how terrible their bodies look or d) all of the above. How sad is that??

I have no doubt that there are a plethora of large people around who are completely healthy. For whatever reason. Hell, I think I’m one. I weigh like 110kg but with a resting heart rate of 59 which made even my doctor go, ‘huh, that’s weird.’ I know you can’t judge someone’s health by their size, and society’s thing that fat = unhealthy is stupid. And that healthy, happy, large people have to deal with that shit. I agree with all of you that no one, healthy or no, should be judged by how they look. I think the women in the response campaign are beautiful.

If you’re big and you know you’re healthy, then good the hell on you, keep being amazing, healthy and happy and good luck with navigating the shitty world.

But seriously, how much in the minority are these healthy people? Surely the majority of people who are overweight -not chubby, plump, size 16, lovehandles – but obviously quite obese, are extremely unhealthy? Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s half and half, or most ‘fat’ people are healthy, but I doubt it.

Considering that then, saying to these people, no, it’s okay, you’re healthy, you’re fine, don’t change, be proud of who you are etc. is condescending, sugarcoating, in-denial bullshit that is downright harmful. They need to change, because they are literally shortening their lifespan and likely passing on their habits to their children, and God I know how hard that is to FACE let alone do anything about, and how terrifyingly deep the denial goes, but those are the facts, it’s up to you.

To close: for 40 years my mother tried to be (unhealthily) “fat and happy” and now she cannot walk because the extra weight she carried around for so long disintegrated the cartilage in her knees and she’s in too much pain. Again, if you know you are healthy, excellent, but otherwise, know that there are consequences for being unkind to your body.

At least, for god’s sake, don’t deny your kids from achieving what you failed to even begin.