Our View: Obsessing about celebrity weight loss can affect our health

There is an obsession in America when it comes to news. It is news that is larger than the growing global warming epidemic. It is called celebrity gossip.

America's obsession with celebrity weight loss and gain is spiraling out of control. We're living in a time where top stories on Entertainment Tonight are about who's getting thinner in Hollywood and how they're doing it. Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham grace the covers of celebrity gossip magazines under headlines like "Angie: Scary Skinny" or "Less than 100 lbs?"

Tyra Banks has been criticized for gaining weight, thus making her look more like a healthy adult woman than a skeletal mannequin. She, wisely, has admitted to liking the occasional pancake, which makes her pretty much like everybody else.

The more attention we pay to weight and weight loss, the harder it will become to be able to focus on being healthy and living in a society where we support each other. We need to stop and not place a critical eye on our bodies and the bodies of celebrities. We've got to stop buying into the skinny craze not only to save Hollywood, but also ourselves.

We at The Herald believe people put celebrities on pedestals and then tear them down. It's the way the game works, fairly or unfairly. But to tear people down for being people ... that seems, well, inhumane.

We know it's fun to gossip, yet we must not forget that we are in war, lives are being lost everyday, rates in the economy are at an all-time high, there are health epidemics and terrorist threats are being carried out each day.