Obesity in the Star Trek Universe?

Something hit me the other day -- how would/does the Federation deal with the concept of obesity? Would it even exist in the Federation's time? One of the reasons why it's so bad for the body is because of how much it stresses the body but maybe they have technology to ease that so it's pretty much the same as a normal weight. Also, they probably have greater control of the calorie contents of their food. I wonder, though; would it be seen as a lifestyle choice? Since humanity is advanced enough not to discriminate on appearance I imagine there wouldn't be a stigma around fatter people as there is today.

I'm pretty tired at the moment so my memory is probably skipping over alot of characters but the only character I remember being quite over-weight is Scotty. I don't remember anyone giving him a hard time or suggesting combinations of exercises and dieting.

 

By the 24th century, I'd assume they could just transport fat out of you. And turn it into delicious replicated pizza. Rinse and repeat.

Heck, there's no reason to even wait for it to be turned into fat. I have a dream, a dream of a toiletless society.

 

K'mpec was pretty chunky before he was poisioned. Starfleet is fairly fit although Levar Burton had put on some weight in Nemesis.

 

So did Jonathan Frakes, but neither of them qualify as obesity. That leads me to believe that the 24th Century did away with obesity, yet at the same time doesn't emphasize image over substance (ie, there are no super-skinny bulimic or anorexic people, either). Rather, obesity is done away for health reasons, not vanity, and though some people may get a little puffy due to nature, they're still healthy all around.

 

You eat sweets in the holodeck.

 

Obesity was little more than a fad that didn't last beyond the mid 21st century.

 

As I recall, Harry Mudd was on the portly side. And in Unification, Pt. II, the four-armed piano (or whatever instrument) player was overweight, too.

 

Also outside the Federation, there was that Klingon who ran a restaurant/food stand on DS9, he was quite portly.

 

I thought of Mudd, too. Also, now that I think about it, the fellow who sold the Tribbles, Cyrano Jones, was on the chunky side.

Don't know if either of them count as obese or not.

 

But then again, we don't know what counts as 'obese' for non human species.
That might be the ideal weight for those individuals.

 

Maybe the idea of obesity as an appearance based bias will have disappeared and weight will be health based - this will reduce the anxiety which humans sometimes feel about being overweight and therefore reduce stressors that contribute to unhealthy weight management. Obesity that is truly based on phyisical/chemical factors could be handled with medicine and bio control.

 

In STIV, McCoy gave a woman pills which cured her need for dialysis within 15 minutes or so. I'm sure he has pills for obesity, too.

 

Wow, this thread made it this far without one joke at Shatner's expense. Amazing.

 

Many of the examples of people being portly have been male. Has there ever been any examples of "portly" females, or does the future have a "No Fat Chicks" rule?

 

Well, in Starfleet at least, members have to pass routine physicals, so I'm sure there's definitelyy a fitness standard that must be met. As for the rest of the Federation...the explanations given above fit well enough for me.

 

Not only is there no obesity, but there are hardly creepy ugly people as well! I don't see many women with mustaches, for example, or with a big wart on their nose.

 

No, Brit TV doesn't show real people, it only shows ugly people. I refuse to believe that there are so unbelievably many horribly ugly people in the United Kingdom. Simply can't be true.

 

Riker's weight fluctuated a lot during the Pegasus incident