Feeding The Fish

Some deliciously nutritious satire from The Health Institute of Nutrition:

We here at the Institute look at three simple criteria before judging whether a fact is good or not. They are:

1. Is it convenient?
2. Is it fair?
3. Does it agree with what everybody knows?

A so-called “fact” which is inconvenient or unfair, or challenges what you already know about the world, is hardly worthy of being called a “fact” in the first place. Bad facts such as these are to be avoided at all costs, and excluded from your mental diet.

Take, for instance, some of facts that have been splashed all over the internet lately, mostly at the chubby hands of the Fat Acceptance Movement:

The BMI standards were changed in 1998, making more people officially overweight and obese than would have been otherwise.

This statement is “true”, and thus it technically fulfills the definition of a fact. However, if we’re trying to talk about how dangerous the skyrocketing obesity rates are, this fact can only get in the way. It is therefore a bad fact.

This BBC article is just chock full of of them. The threshold of childhood obesity is entirely arbitrary and bears no correlation to what’s healthy or not? That’s a bad fact! The health risks may be drastically overstated? Another BAD FACT.

In related news: The government plan to have alerts for when children are becoming obese I can now exclusively reveal to have been inspired by a panel discussion on the Onion News Network: Are we shaming obese people enough?