According to ABC news (via Reuters), a Harvard School of Public Heath doctor assessed a study based on the suicide rates in the United States during 2004/05. One quarter of the suicides involved people who were obese (based on BMI). This number seems incredibly high to me but overall "there were three fewer suicides per 100,000" amongst obese individuals.
Fat people apparently are not killing themselves because well, they are obese. They are too fat for poisoning (do not take enough for their body size) and too heavy to try to hang themselves (the rope breaks before they suffocate). So basically, lots of obese people try to kill themselves; they just are not successful at it because they are too fat. Apparently the assessors of this study also think obese people are stupid. Hello? Cannot anyone get a gun in the U.S.? If someone wants to kill themselves, obese or otherwise, they will find a way.
This seems like the usual low blow against fat people. How about the obvious, fatter people have less reasons to kill themselves in general or that any suicidal thoughts they may have are squashed with the satiety food brings on. Maybe if the other three quarters had eaten more they would not have committed suicide. I did not say "become obese", I said "eaten more". (I do not promote becoming obese as a lifestyle choice but if one is obese I do promote living with the lifestyle they have instead of waiting until they lose weight).
Also not a surprise, the study and article insists that any positive notes regarding weight and not committing suicide are very little in comparison to "the risks of obesity." Aren't they always?
This is one of those nobody wins reports. Had the results shown obese people being successful the end result would have still been because of their weight even though the people were not around anymore to say why they committed suicide.
