Oprah Shares Some Really Upsetting Comments About Weight Loss

It seems that Oprah Winfrey has entered a new phase of his constant obsession with losing weight, and this one is especially disconcerting.

The incredibly influential media mogul returned to her roots as a talk show host with a new ABC Special on Monday The night was titled “An Oprah Special: Shame, Guilt, and the Weight Loss Revolution” in which she promotes the use of expensive weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound.

In December, Winfrey confirmed that she takes a weight-loss medication., but he did not specify which one. In February, announced his departure from the WeightWatchers board of directors after almost 10 years.

In her special, Winfrey lashes out at fat stigma, telling viewers to “stop shaming and blaming” people and themselves for weight gain because they are battling a “disease” similar to alcoholism.

“The first thing I hope people discover is that (obesity) is a disease and it’s in the brain,” Winfrey said.

Dr. Jen Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and obesity doctor, was also present to back up this claim.

“It is conclusively known that overweight and obese conditions are chronic, complex diseases, not character defects,” Ashton said. “Therefore, they should be managed accordingly.”

(It should be noted that doctors are big perpetuators of weight stigma, and research has found the doctors are less likely to respect patients who consider themselves overweightwhich has caused many diagnoses to be missed.)

Winfrey’s special also included interviews with people who had taken weight-loss medications. They talked about how medications helped them with diseases like type 2 diabetes and how miserable their lives were when they had larger bodies because of the fat stigma.

Winfrey shared how sigma has also deeply affected her.

“I have to say that I took on the shame that the world gave me,” Winfrey said in the special. “For 25 years, making fun of my weight was a national sport.”

She admitted in his special than her infamous 1988 moment on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in which he removed a red cart containing 67 pounds of animal fat (the amount of weight I had lost then) was achieved through fairly unhealthy means. He said she “starved herself” for five months before the stunt.

“After losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, the next day, I started gaining it back,” Winfrey said.

But now, Winfrey said she doesn’t have to go on extreme diets or deal with stigma due to weight-loss medications.

“All these years I thought that all the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower and that for some reason they were stronger than me,” he said, assuming that those with thinner bodies never think about their size or the meal. they eat. “But now I realize they weren’t even thinking about food. It’s not that you had willpower. You weren’t even thinking about that. “You weren’t obsessed with it.”

The special’s message is undeniably engaging and seemingly inspiring. But it’s also hard to accept Winfrey’s endorsement of weight-loss drugs, which she offers with as much passion as when he initially supported WeightWatchers with his “I love bread!” announcement: to the letter.

Weight loss medications are inaccessible to many people. due to its high price and are usually not covered by insurance. It is also unclear how long a person would have to take these medications and what the long-term effects would involve. Studies have already found that they can cause significant side effects while One study found that those who use the weight loss drug, Zepbound, will have to stay at it if they want to maintain the weight and not gain it back.

And while the decision to take weight loss medications is entirely up to the individual and certainly shouldn’t receive the criticism it does as a form of “cheating” to lose weight, endorsing these medications is not countering the broader social problem of Stigma. of weight. It’s simply about giving people a way to opt out of being shamed.

It’s also hard to ignore Winfrey’s long history of endorsing junk science and promoting snake oil salesmen. In 2004, Winfrey introduced her viewers to Dr. Oz, and 10 years later, he was called before a Senate subcommittee. on consumer protection for selling weight loss solutions that don’t actually work. Winfrey also gave Jenny McCarthy a platform to spread pseudoscience about vaccines on his talk show in 2007.

It’s also unclear whether there is any financial incentive for Winfrey to endorse weight-loss drugs. Winfrey joined the WeightWatchers board of directors in 2015, when she acquired a 10% stake in the company, and He reportedly made $221 million selling WeightWatchers stock. Through the years.

So if Winfrey announces a partnership with an affordable weight-loss drug in the near future with a name like Mighty Ozempic that you will never be able to stop taking or gain weight again, it may be wise to be a little skeptical.