This is obviously a loaded topic which touches on current events, but my question is historical and truly being asked in good faith.

I was recently exposed to the idea that fighting against obesity has roots in racism. It is an idea that at first glance strikes me and probably other people as a stretch, but I don't want to dismiss it out of hand.

Here is an article I was directed to: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/

I also was made aware of a book called "Fearing the Black Body" which I have not read.

I figure taking a historical look at this can allow us to skirt around some of the contentious and opinion-based issues that might come up here-- for example, one might argue that there's an underlying assumption to these claims, which is that obesity in and of itself isn't harmful, and therefore some other explanation for societal opposition to obesity is needed, and maybe that assumption is wrong. But from a historical standpoint, we can potentially avoid that debate by figuring out which idea came first-- are there publications discussing the harms of obesity from societies that likely thought little about race in a day-to-day setting, as they were insulated from black communities? Are the earliest writings against obesity written in the context of race? If people were already writing negatively about obesity without any evidence that it was harmful, but with exposure to the idea that some cultures they looked down on prized a rotund figure, it would support the idea. On the other hand, if early writings are generally about observations that obese people more often get certain diseases, that might oppose the idea. I'm sure in reality there are a variety of interwoven ideas.

This may be too broad of a topic to easily address, as I'm sure there are multiple circles of thought from which obesity opinions arise, across different times and places, but if not-- if there's a pretty clear root from which the rest of the discussion arises-- it would be very interesting to learn about.

Sorry if this is a tough one or a vague one, but the historians here are pretty impressive sometimes, so I'll hope for the best!