THE layman would hardly believe it, but many fat people are anemic. Their pink cheeks, natural though they be, proclaim a state of well-being which does. not exist in reality.
Anemia tends to produce a fatty degeneration of certain tissues of the body. Many people grow fat after bleeding copiously. There was a practice among cattle breeders of bleeding their stock so as to increase the amount of fat in the tissues. In some countries, France in particular, new-born calves are tied in close quarters in a dark stable and overfed in order to produce a veal with white texture. They thus grow fat and anemic. Though it has been proven that veal is not necessarily in-digestible, it cannot be a good food for those who are anemic and under-nourished.
The pink cheeks of the obese may be due to glandular unbalance, causing a thinner texture of the skin which allows the red of the blood in the dilated capillaries to show through.