A Heated Debate Over Whether Cosmo Is Promoting Body Positivity or Obesity | Good Morning Britain

do you think this is healthy the latest issue of cosmopolitan has been branded horrifying uh and shameful after they published color images of plus size models alongside the caption this is healthy horrifying and shameful are horrible words what it's not about it's not about the models themselves or saying that they are shameful and horrifying it's about saying that that imagery is healthy in the middle of a pandemic where you have 70 percent higher chance of serious illness from the virus if you are significantly overweight and i i had to say i agree with that i think it is irresponsible of cosmo to be celebrating obesity in the middle of a pandemic where we know obesity can uh can kill you so that's the debate the magazine claims wellness does not have to be a one-size-fits-all approach so we're talking about body positivity or whether that cover glorifies obesity joining us is health mind and body coach mandy platt who says we need to stop glorifying obesity on the front of magazines but blogger and zumba instructor sam cootes completely disagrees um with those who say that it is horrifying and shameful samantha coo um good to talk to you this morning good to talk to you both this morning um piers's point is that you know being obese is simply not healthy to say this is healthy is not true why is he wrong i'm very very sorry that's a question to samantha okay personally i feel that it's amazing to see bigger women in media on the front cover of magazines you know just because we are bigger women it doesn't mean that we are promoting obesity that's fine no hang on but hang on the debate is not about seeing bigger people on the cover of magazines i've been on the cover of magazines that's not the point it's calling it healthy the point is saying this is healthy when it is not healthy it's just not healthy to be obese i don't care who you are male female if you're obese you're not healthy and there's actually there's lots of women who are underweight and they're always splashed over totally agree with you don't wait wait wait samantha answers the question before you go to the stick insects i totally agree with you i don't like the painfully thin models on the covers either i think that's equally damaging that's not healthy but let's focus on whether obese people are healthy because they're not some obese people are not healthy however these people are unhealthy okay but everybody does not have so you agree with me of health regardless of your size i'm a size 18 i weigh like 15 stone i exercise regularly i eat well i'm a zumba instructor i teach classes you know so you may look at me and say i'm not healthy but actually i'm probably more healthy than most people you just agree with me though that all obese people are not healthy so you disagree with the premises i don't i think that i don't agree with what you just said and i'm speaking from my own personal experience as a bigger woman i deserve to be celebrated too why can't i be on the couch because there's nothing to celebrate about being obese in the middle of a pandemic where you've got 70 percent bigger chance of being seriously ill with the coronavirus if you're obese why are we celebrating you raise an interesting point about how you measure health because you describe yourself as bigger i don't know do you would you fall i mean you don't look bigger to me but would you fall into the obese category right and guess what mentally i'm much more healthy i'm happy i'm confident in myself you know and mental health is imperative as well listen about the way we look or how much i get that i just i don't want to make this personal it's not about that it's whether we should be celebrating obesity in the middle of a pandemic i want to bring in dr hillary before we go to our other guest i mean hillary the bottom line is if you're obese particularly given what we know obesity does in terms of coronavirus and serious illness it's not healthy that one word that cosmo are using to brand this is in my view completely irresponsible yeah look i i hate to disagree with sam who looks great but i do think that it's unhealthy and i'll tell you why because when you're overweight you're much more likely to have metabolic syndrome higher blood pressure higher cholesterol levels greater risk of heart disease and strokes the longer the more years you spend overweight the shorter your life will be you can be very flexible you can do well on a treadmill today you can feel great about yourself and and feel wonderful it's a great self-esteem but unfortunately in medical terms it cannot be defined as healthy dr hillary um samantha makes the point that she might technically be in the obese category but she exercises regularly she has a good mental health and she's a zumba instructor the photograph we just saw is of a woman in exercise gear now is there not an argument that if you are staying fit and healthy and doing regular exercise but that's not having an effect on your weight actually that could be classed as healthy no there isn't really an argument because if you've got visceral fat which means your waist circumference for a woman is more than 34 inches you're much more likely to have heart disease in the future that's the british heart and by the way and it's the word the word when i say it's shameful i mean cosmo is being shipped this is the magazine that only a few months ago put the super plus size model test holiday on its cover and did a whole interview without ever suggesting that this was an unhealthy body image we were supposed to celebrate this she's five foot and over 300 pounds that's not healthy that's morbidly obese she's got a very high chance of dying very young because of her extreme overweight and yet cosmo now seems to be spending most of its time putting obese people on the cover and telling us trying to convince us this is positive let's bring in most of its time you mean two covers well yeah but they they they've made a strategic decision as a company that they're going to start celebrating obesity is healthy i think that is dangerous and irresponsible let's bring in mandy i mean what do you think hi i've just been listening to sam it's totally irresponsible journalism for for a magazine to write a front cover as they did we are being told by our doctors scientists everybody in the healthcare and the medical world are telling us that the effects of obesity are extreme and very dangerous and especially now we are facing this virus we know that if people are obese and or or terribly overweight and they catch the virus they go into hospital it is very hard to treat and the outcome is sometimes not good i would love to go to an icu hillary and just ask the nurses and doctors what they think of this cosmo cover right now whether they think telling people who are obese don't worry about losing weight no need to do that you are completely healthy in your current physical condition it's undoubtedly well let me bring in hillary uh mandy it's undoubtedly a risk factor for sirius covid um so that's that's one thing there's another element which is the ethnic element the the um the afro-caribbean uh populations uh south asians uh japanese and chinese all much more prone to heart disease if they're overweight so at a lower weight they are more at risk okay okay but samantha i think the idea is if you you know if you might be overweight and i don't know why we have to keep bashing people who might be overweight no we're not let's don't do that we're not doing that we're not bashing people for being overweight no no no no no no no overweight willfully i'm like sam for being overweight i have criticized you for being unhealthy for thinking that cosmopolitan is right to describe obesity as healthy in the middle of a pandemic where being overweight is actually one of the main factors showing someone who is overweight on the cover doing exercises and maintaining their health healthy is she's trying to if he said if he said trying to get healthy with a picture she's doing exercise they're saying this is healthy it's not it's not obesity is not healthy but what measurement are you healthy a happy confident woman on that cover without disputing it we see this time with these women all over the media all the time nobody says a word no i might have to be confident listen listen samantha i'm a happy confident man i do not expect to be on the cover of men's health under the headline this is a picture of vision of great health because i'm not i need to lose a bit of weight right so this is just a it's a totally picture of perfect health you know somebody who is slimmer who's a fitness professional may you know drink two bottles of wine every day a headline if the headlines say get back in shape why we all need to lose weight uh because of the pandemic i would totally embrace that it's the fact they're taking obesity and saying this is healthy that is dangerous anyway we've got to leave it there well it's accepting that people are different shapes and stuff nobody's questioning that and if you do exercise questioning that is healthy no it's not saying that susanna you know it's not saying that i think that's exactly it's not saying if you go and exercise you'll get healthy it's saying if you are obese this is healthy that is a lie it's not anyway women of all different shapes and sizes and we need to always say get healthy if you say get healthy that's one thing they said this is healthy and industry we owe it to support doctors sam you have been trained to understand health and fitness we have been taught about obesity you know as well as i know that obesity kills it is dangerous so it's always easy to lose the weight i'm afraid people who drink so do people who smoke yeah you know i would love it i go out my way to help people sound to help them understand to change their mindset to have a healthier lifestyle to improve their health be the best version of themselves let me tell you it's if you're obese lose weight there you go take that to the bank we would not have it thank you so much

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 245,090

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, obesity, debate, cosmopolitan, heated

Id: PJNHJbLrXTs

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021