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"PinterestFacebookPHOTO: 2009 AFPDr. Regina Benjamin is the nominee for the country&amp;#39;s top doc job. She&amp;#39;s qualified, up for the challenge and ... too fat, at least according to some critics.\n****Since President Obama announced his pick for the top doc job, U.S. Surgeon General, recently, the Internet has been buzzing with criticism--not about Dr. Benjamin&amp;#39;s qualifications or experience, but about her weight.\n&amp;quot;Critics seem to believe it&amp;#39;s ironic that the nation&amp;#39;s top doctor would be overweight,&amp;quot; observes MSNBC contributor Arthur Caplan.\nCaplan highlighted some of the comments on message boards: &amp;quot;I refuse to let fat be socially acceptable ... The President should have known better and picked a doctor who could kick start the debate on fat not perpetuate it,&amp;quot; one person wrote. And another: &amp;quot;Rather than select a fat Black woman Obama should have chose a Black woman with a body mass index of 25 or less.&amp;quot;\nThe issue, summarizes another commenter, is this: &amp;quot;How can Dr. Benjamin promote healthy eating if she herself is obese?&amp;quot;\nI don&amp;#39;t know Dr. Benjamin&amp;#39;s exact height, weight or BMI, and even if I did, I still wouldn&amp;#39;t be jumping on this bandwagon. Say she carries around an extra 15 pounds (this is by no means a guess, just for discussion sake), so be it! She&amp;#39;s not morbidly obese, nor does her weight seem to affect her ability to perform her job. And, there&amp;#39;s the argument that--despite what BMI scores tell us--some people are healthiest at a slightly heavier weight than what we may deem as &amp;quot;ideal.&amp;quot; In other words: Just because she (or you or I) doesn&amp;#39;t look like Heidi Klum, doesn&amp;#39;t mean she&amp;#39;s unhealthy.\nAnd, I hate to go there, but I do think some of this banter about her weight is likely because she&amp;#39;s female. If she were a male, I&amp;#39;m not so sure people would be so quick to object to her size.\nWhat do you think? Do you have a problem with the size of the new Top Doc? Or, do you think the weight-haters should be silenced?\nMore from Vitamin G:\nSwine flu vaccine controversy: Is it fair that obese people will get it but fit people will not?\nWhy &amp;quot;brown fat&amp;quot; could make you thin...\nHave you ever had a &amp;quot;fat day&amp;quot;?\nGet Glamour Wherever You Go! Follow us on Twitter. Friend us on Google homepage.\nPhoto: Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/story/health-controversy-some-are-ca>