There are lots of things that can be potentially bad for our health.

As a society, we seem more accepting of some, but not so of others.

Longer working hours

There’s lots of research that shows longer working hours can be problematic for our well being. It’s linked to impaired sleep, depression, heavy drinking, diabetes, impaired memory and heart disease (to name a few). Symptoms and illnesses that can impair someone’s quality of life.

Overworking is also bad for the economy. It’s an expense for individual businesses due to lower productivity and absenteeism. It’s also a burden for the health services, with hospitals and doctors having to treat these people and us taxpayers “having to foot the bill”.

But as a culture, we think of the idea of hard work as “good”. No one is going to an entrepreneur’s Facebook page and complaining about how much of a drain they are on the health services. Or saying that by encouraging people to put in more time on their business they are “promoting worse health”.

Dangerous sports

The same thing can be said about the sports that people participate in. If you go on a skiing holiday, you’re drastically increasing your chance of injury or death.

Recently Sir Richard Branson had an accident while mountain biking at dusk. He hit a tree root, went flying over the handlebars, landed on his face and shoulder, while his bike went careening off a cliff. He said at the moment before he hit the ground he thought he was going to die.

Branson recounted the story on the Virgin website and the comments were all gushing with praise for who he is and wished him a speedy recovery. No one was having a go at him for being reckless or saying how much this was costing the hospital and emergency services.

Sleep deprivation

Lack of sleep would be another example. As a society getting proper sleep is often seen as a sign of weakness. People regularly say “they don’t have time” and everyone nods in agreement.

But lack of sleep, in the same way as overwork, is terrible for our health. Memory problems, depression, poor cognitive function, weakened immune system, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and accidents or accidental death.

Studies show that a large proportion of traffic accidents are due to inadequate or disordered sleep. This could lead to anything from an annoying scratch on your bumper through to multiple deaths.

But despite all of this, it’s rare people are “sleep shamed”. Where someone feels they should shame someone for not getting enough sleep under the guise of “I’m just trying to help them…what they are doing is harmful to their health”.

And again this isn’t because lack of sleep isn’t bad, it really is. It’s because as a society we don’t have a moral or visceral reaction to it.

Which then brings us onto weight…

Carrying around higher amounts of body fat can (but doesn’t always) impact on someone’s health. Often this isn’t the weight per se but the habits someone keeps up.

But despite weight just being like all these other issues, in that they can all be potentially creating a problem, we react differently to the weight.

Doctors routinely tell patients that they need to lose weight. Rarely do they have a conversation about cutting back the work hours and encouraging the person to have more play. Or ask them how much sleep they get and what time they get to bed; giving them directives if it doesn’t fit with what the research says.

Someone who is fat is routinely told so on social media. Many of the people who are doing the shaming respond defensively (and often aggressively) that they are trying to “help” these people. That being fat kills.

Strangely enough, they don’t take the same stance against so many other issues that can potentially have the same impact.

Weight = Morality

When you peel the layers back, most people’s issue with weight isn’t due to health concerns. It’s a moral issue.

We don’t like the look of it (which is more cultural than evolutionarily driven, but that’s something for a different post). Or we’re terrified that if we don’t keep up what we’re doing, that could be us one day.

Someone’s weight can impact on their health. But so can a multitude of other things that we as a society champion.

And when we choose to deride someone for their weight, we aren’t doing it because we care about health, we’re doing it because of ignorance (if I’m being charitable) or more likely, the same reason we make racist or homophobic comments.

Someone’s weight can be a health issue, but it’s nearly always a moral issue. And as a society, we need to change this.