title: 'Diabesity' down under: overweight and obesity as cultural signifiers for type 2 diabetes mellitus.
abstract: Although overweight and obesity are increasingly seen as the key 'risk factors' for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the relationship between them is complex and not well understood. There are many 'risk factors' for T2DM, including ageing, genetics, previous gestational diabetes, a family history of the disease, etc. the interplay of which is not entirely clear. While weight gain is a common symptom of T2DM and the disease appears to be more prevalent among 'obese' people, individuals from a broad range of weights (including those considered 'healthy') can develop the disease. However, in recent years, the idea that fatness istherisk factor and/or centralcauseof T2DM has become increasingly prevalent and naturalized in popular, academic, and public health discourses in Australia. In these convergences, the complex etiology of the disease and limitations in current knowledge are blurred or reconstituted. To date, the potency of overweight and obesity as cultural signifiers for T2DM and its consequences has received little attention. Drawing on an analysis of government reports, journal articles, and media coverage published since 1998, this article sets out to trace and unpack some of the contours of these convergences, while recognizing their entanglement in earlier moralizing discourses, which continue to have considerable salience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Darlene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McNaughton
keywords: critique; ethics; sociology of health
references.citation: Recent Prog Horm Res. 1973;29:457-96
references.pmid: 4750591
references.citation: J Health Soc Behav. 1999 Jun;40(2):141-58
references.pmid: 10467761
references.citation: Health Commun. 2004;16(2):255-71
references.pmid: 15090288
references.citation: Soc Sci Med. 2002 Oct;55(8):1401-13
references.pmid: 12231017
references.citation: J Psychiatr Res. 2003 May-Jun;37(3):193-220
references.pmid: 12650740
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2010 Jun;100(6):1019-28
references.pmid: 20075322
references.citation: Int J Obes (Lond). 2009 Jan;33(1):75-9
references.pmid: 19030008
references.citation: Diabetologia. 1992 Nov;35(11):1060-7
references.pmid: 1473616
references.citation: Int J Health Serv. 2000;30(1):211-6
references.pmid: 10707306
references.citation: World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser. 2000;894:i-xii, 1-253
references.pmid: 11234459
references.citation: Soc Sci Med. 1995 Jan;40(1):1-3
references.pmid: 7899913
references.citation: Cult Med Psychiatry. 1999 Jun;23(2):245-68
references.pmid: 10451804
references.citation: Arch Intern Med. 2007 May 28;167(10):1068-74
references.pmid: 17533210
references.citation: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003 Jan;42(1):57-65
references.pmid: 12500077
references.citation: Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Feb;35(1):55-60
references.pmid: 16339599
references.citation: Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2009 Jan 15;297(1-2):10-7
references.pmid: 19000735
references.citation: Diabetes. 2000 Dec;49(12):2201-7
references.pmid: 11118026
references.citation: J Intern Med. 2000 Mar;247(3):301-10
references.pmid: 10762445
references.citation: Med J Aust. 2003 Oct 6;179(7):379-83
references.pmid: 14503906
references.citation: Nature. 2001 Dec 13;414(6865):782-7
references.pmid: 11742409
references.citation: J Nutr Educ. 2001 Jul-Aug;33(4):208-14
references.pmid: 11953242
references.citation: Med J Aust. 2006 Aug 21;185(4):187-8
references.pmid: 16922660
references.citation: Lancet. 2009 Jan 3;373(9657):31-41
references.pmid: 19058842
references.citation: Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001 Oct;25(10):1525-31
references.pmid: 11673776
references.citation: Diabetes. 1990 Nov;39(11):1315-9
references.pmid: 2227105
references.citation: Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011 Aug;93(2):e76-e79
references.pmid: 21570145
references.citation: J Am Acad Nurse Pract. 2002 Dec;14(12):554-61
references.pmid: 12567923
references.citation: Soc Sci Med. 1992 Mar;34(6):675-85
references.pmid: 1574735
references.citation: Diabetologia. 1999 Feb;42(2):139-45
references.pmid: 10064092
references.citation: Perspect Biol Med. 2001 Spring;44(2):283-96
references.pmid: 11370161
references.citation: Obes Res. 2004 Oct;12(10):1587-95
references.pmid: 15536222
references.citation: J Am Acad Nurse Pract. 2010 Oct;22(10):527-33
references.pmid: 21040086
references.citation: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009 May;17(5):941-64
references.pmid: 19165161
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 1999 Nov;156(11):1686-96
references.pmid: 10553730
references.citation: Health Educ Res. 2006 Feb;21(1):97-107
references.pmid: 15996975
references.citation: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jan 21;(1):CD005268
references.pmid: 19160249
references.citation: Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Apr;26(2):189-201
references.pmid: 22498248
references.citation: Soc Sci Med. 2008 Aug;67(3):473-5; discussion 476-7
references.pmid: 18423825
references.citation: Br J Gen Pract. 1994 Jun;44(383):277-80
references.pmid: 8037984
references.citation: Cell Metab. 2008 Sep;8(3):186-200
references.pmid: 18762020
references.citation: Annu Rev Med. 1996;47:509-31
references.pmid: 8712800
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2006 Sep;96(9):1562-9
references.pmid: 16873751
references.citation: J Am Diet Assoc. 1995 Aug;95(8):914-6
references.pmid: 7636085
references.citation: Diabetes Care. 2007 Mar;30(3):490-5
references.pmid: 17327310
references.citation: Soc Sci Med. 2006 Jun;62(12):2988-97
references.pmid: 16426714