I spent 13 years taking my mom for regular blood treatments in the oncology day clinic. She would always notice and whisper to me that she was the only fat person there - so her condition, typically a precursor to cancer, never turned cancerous. Because from where we sat, week after week, only ‘normal’ weight people got cancer.

So while cancer causes weight loss, we saw no one who started treatment who was obese. She liked to conclude that thinness causes cancer.

It really is a chicken/egg scenario. Sure there are some things where physics trumps biology: like carrying around an extra 100 pounds will wear down knees faster than not.

(Although even there I would argue. I am moving constantly, active but not athletic, with a great pair of knees, despite being medically obese. My sister, the athletic one and three years younger, is waiting for her knee replacement surgeries. So there’s that.)

In the end, it’s society’s preconceptions that cause the most health problems for the overweight. We avoid going to the doctor. We avoid healthy exercise programs. We learn to eat in private. All to avoid public scrutiny.

So am I fat because society hates me? Or does society hate me because I’m fat?

Either way, it’s my problem and nobody else’s business.