Competing University Conferences - "Be Fat" vs "Fight Obesity"

WASHINGTON - July 31, 2023 - PRLog -- Temple University in Philadelphia is planning to hold a conference celebrating fat, fat people, and being fat which could further exacerbate the current epidemic of obesity among both adults and children which will soon cost over four trillion dollars annually.

In stark contrast, Northeastern University holds conferences on using lawsuits to fight obesity - just as legal action was so successful in slashing smoking - and this new legal movement has already produced significant victories for public health, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Temple's upcoming "Philly FatCon," being promoted as the first conference to celebrate overweight people, was organized by three women who profit from the obesity epidemic by running plus-size shops for fat people. The gathering is designed to encourage people to accept being fat.

The keynote speaker in Philadelphia will denounce what are claimed to be "White supremacist" ideals behind "fatphobia," and the "social construct" of health.

In stark contrast to the Temple University gathering are conferences held at Northeastern University on "Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic" at which lawyers and health advocates discuss and plan how activists can and should use the same kind of legal action which was so effective in slashing smoking to fight the epidemic of obesity.

These legal conferences have already produced significant results, including the new and successful "fat lawsuit movement," and expensive courses for attorneys on how to fight such lawsuits says Banzhaf, who helped organize the conferences. Indeed, the movement prompted a Fortune magazine cover article suggesting: "IS FAT THE NEXT TOBACCO?"

Encouraging if not glorifying obesity, as Philly FatCon is apparently attempting to do, is likely to discourage people from trying to improve their health by adopting a more healthful lifestyle, says Banzhaf, who notes that the Milken Institute has estimated that obesity cost the U.S. over $1.7 trillion during 2016.

Banzhaf suggests that a conference which hopes to convince fat people that they can be healthy while also being morbidly obese is likely to be the butt of as many jokes as those who make such claims, but unfortunately some people are likely to believe it.

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GWU Law School Prof. John Banzhaf | 2000 H St., NW, Wa