Amanda Spake, senior writer for U.S. News and World Report and editor to the Washington Post and Mother Jones, focused her article "Rethinking Weight" around whether obesity should be considered a disease, consequently, increasing the coverage of weight loss treatments by insurance companies. Spake 's purpose in writing her article was to bring attention to the debate regarding whether it was appropriate to define obesity as a disease which determines the availability of treatments for the obese. While Spake effectively uses seemingly credible sources as well as personal stories to present her and other 's viewpoints on whether treatments for weight loss should be covered by insurance companies, she fails to include 'a voice ' in the majority
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A comparison between how the population 's attitudes in regards to alcoholism changed after it was deemed a disease and what could possibly happen if the same happened to obesity. Spake makes her stance on the topic clear when she features geneticist Rudolph Leibel 's statement, "telling someone they 've decided to become obese is like saying, 'You 've decided to give yourself a brain tumor '"(Spake 156). Similarly, Dr. Spencer features a quote in his article "Is Obesity a Choice?" from Dr. Arya Sharma. Sharma states, "Telling someone with obesity to eat less is like telling someone with depression to cheer up" (Spencer). Spake also repeats words like 'willpower ' and 'choice ' to further her viewpoint of obesity not being controllable for …show more content…
These outcomes directly related to whether insurers decide to cover these treatments or not. Using a negative outcome to demonstrate a downside of not covering obesity treatments, Spake states that obese people or even ones that are just overweight are resorting to weight loss surgery because other treatments with less risks are not an option for them, especially in low-income homes (Spake 159). Spake ends the article finalizing her claim by presenting the possible of the cost of obesity and treatments growing if it does not become covered by insurance companies (Spake
A comparison between how the population 's attitudes in regards to alcoholism changed after it was deemed a disease and what could possibly happen if the same happened to obesity. Spake makes her stance on the topic clear when she features geneticist Rudolph Leibel 's statement, "telling someone they 've decided to become obese is like saying, 'You 've decided to give yourself a brain tumor '"(Spake 156). Similarly, Dr. Spencer features a quote in his article "Is Obesity a Choice?" from Dr. Arya Sharma. Sharma states, "Telling someone with obesity to eat less is like telling someone with depression to cheer up" (Spencer). Spake also repeats words like 'willpower ' and 'choice ' to further her viewpoint of obesity not being controllable for …show more content…
These outcomes directly related to whether insurers decide to cover these treatments or not. Using a negative outcome to demonstrate a downside of not covering obesity treatments, Spake states that obese people or even ones that are just overweight are resorting to weight loss surgery because other treatments with less risks are not an option for them, especially in low-income homes (Spake 159). Spake ends the article finalizing her claim by presenting the possible of the cost of obesity and treatments growing if it does not become covered by insurance companies (Spake