‘Americans are blind to it!’ Lauren Chen fears US obesity ‘epidemic’: ‘Damaging to society’

The Blaze presenter said: "I want to clarify that as someone who lives in the United States, I think a lot of Americans are blind to the fact that many, if not most, Americans are fat.

"I often hear Americans say that someone who's objectively overweight is just normal. That's just a regular person.

"The conception of what fatness even is in America is so skewed because we're at a point now where 66 per cent of people are overweight and a growing number of people are obese. There is an actual health crisis. It's an epidemic.

"This is not debatable. And so when I hear a lot of people talking about the body positivity movement, I don't think you should hate yourself if you're overweight. But it is just a medical fact that being overweight is unhealthy.

"You can take steps to improve your health through diet, exercise and lifestyle changes. When it comes to the body positivity movement, which I think is born out of the fear of eating disorders, born out of maybe anorexia or wanting to be too thin.

"That's not good either. We also don't want people to be too thin. But if we look at the state of the United States, I think we are very far from a place right now where the general concern is that Americans are too skinny."

"I understand as a woman who's gone through weight fluctuations at pregnancy that you do want to feel comfortable in your own skin.

"You don't want your sense of self-worth to be dictated by what you look like.

"I think when we start getting into the idea that being fat is healthy, that your weight doesn't affect things like diabetes or risk of heart disease, then we start to change from the realm of just victimhood, pitying to actually now this is something that is dangerous, this is something that is harming people's lives.

"I think a lot of people out there, they would rather be told you're beautiful, you're healthy the way you are than to be told you need to make changes to get in better shape, to be more attractive."

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According to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four in ten American adults now have a body mass index at 30 or higher, classifying them as obese. This has climbed since the turn of the century, when it was approximately three in ten.

Obesity is proven to increase a person’s chances of heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.

Body positivity is a social movement that promotes a positive view of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities.

It often means that women who are overweight are featured in advertisements.