Cosmopolitan Magazine Under Fire For Calling Cancer A Hot New Weight Loss Trend

It hasn’t been the greatest week for brands. First we saw Kendall Jenner’s viral Pepsi ad flop on its face, and then we saw United Airlines give themselves a terrible bit of publicity by forcibly removing a doctor from their flight.

Featured Image VIA

Well Cosmopolitan may have outdone both of those with their attempt at clickbaiting an article earlier – a story on Simone Harbinson who was diagnosed with malignant cancerous tumour of the appendix. Good news though – her illness meant she managed to lose 44 pounds without doing ANY exercise:

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Simone had actually purchased The Bod, a 12-week diet plan which balances protein, fat and carbs. Because of her health issues, she couldn’t complete the fitness component of the program—so she did actually lose 44 pounds without a single gym session.

The article concludes:

Simone’s weight loss success is proof that anyone can lose weight without breaking a sweat simply by eating more mindfully.

The fact that Cosmopolitan framed cancer as the hot new weight-loss trend wound plenty of people up, especially cancer survivors:

Uhhhh pic.twitter.com/riAFrsHFq0

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) April 11, 2017

https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/851813838408343554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fobserver.com%2F2017%2F04%2Fcosmopolitan-magazine-cancer-weight-loss%2F

https://twitter.com/RupertMyers/status/851812122682167296

https://twitter.com/oreokitty_/status/851812690624425985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2

https://twitter.com/elieliuhoh/status/851811585223909376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fobserver.com%2F2017%2F04%2Fcosmopolitan-magazine-cancer-weight-loss%2F

https://twitter.com/AndreaNRuth/status/851822392078880769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fobserver.com%2F2017%2F04%2Fcosmopolitan-magazine-cancer-weight-loss%2F

Eventually Cosmopolitan deleted the tweet and changed the headline of the article online to read ‘A Serious Health Scare Helped Me Love My Body More Than Ever’. Probably for the best. I mean they’re not wrong – cancer does help you lose weight. It just doesn’t really make sense to frame it as a weigh-loss secret because a) you don’t just willingly contract cancer and b) well, it’s a tad bit insensitive.

Besides, is being fat even really that bad? Here are some benefits.