The Obesity Epidemic

Mar 3 15:57 UTC 2006

America is allegedly in the midst of an obesity epidemic, but our 
obsession with weight is the real disease. 


 
If you watch any mainstream news, you know that apparently America is 
in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fear-producing news segments 
feature footage of overweight men and women, cut off at the heads like 
criminals, lumbering along the streets in Anytown, U.S.A. Ads with 
skinny women touting weight loss miracles as they look disdainfully at 
old pictures of their fatter, sadder selves run on a continuous loop on 
daytime television.

The scare tactics are working. Americans continue to pump billions, and 
blood, sweat, and tears into their "body projects," convinced that if 
they are fat, they are doomed.

Conflating fat with sickness is a dangerous delusion. The truth about 
fat, reinforced recently by a $419 billion federal study involving 
49,000 women, is that it does not automatically indicate unhealthiness. 
Many thin people, who don't exercise or eat balanced diets, are at a 
greater risk for disease than those with some extra padding who work 
out and eat relatively right. Your health can only be improved by 
movement and moderation. That's it. The study, published in the Journal 
of the American Medical Association last month, concludes that low-fat 
diets do not, despite all of the hype, reduce a woman's risk of cancer 
or heart disease.

Being fat is not equivalent to being unfit. In fact, being underweight 
actually kills over 30,000 Americans a year. Equating weight loss, 
instead of lifestyle changes, with improved health is "like 
saying 'whiter teeth produced by the elimination of smoking reduces the 
incidence of lung cancer,'" argues J. Eric Oliver, author of Fat 
Politics: The Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic. Even a 
group of CDC researchers admit that "evidence that weight loss improves 
survival is limited."

So why do highly educated, media-savvy Americans continue to buy into 
the idea that the thinner one is, the healthier and happier one is? The 
mammoth diet industry, not to mention the exercise, beauty, fashion, 
and cosmetic surgery industries, certainly has something to do with it. 
In America, alone, we spend $40 billion annually on diet products, even 
though diets prove to be ineffective 95 percent of the time. Not only 
is our stupidity disturbing -- those stakes wouldn't even lure the 
drunkest of Vegas gamblers -- but the implications are foreboding.

There is a slippery slope from dieting to disease, as the 7 million 
girls and women suffering from eating disorders in this country will 
attest. Thirty-five percent of those who diet go on to yo-yo diet, 
dragging their bodies through a cycle of weight gains and losses far 
more unhealthy than just being overweight; 25 percent of those who diet 
develop partial or full syndrome eating disorders. Mindfulness advocate 
Susan Albers writes: "The dieting mindset is akin to taking a knife and 
cutting the connection that is your body's only line of communication 
with your head." There is little hope for long-term health improvement 
with this vital line severed.

Cut off from our ability to listen to our authentic hungers, we ride a 
roller coaster of marketed cravings and emotional upheaval -- 
overeating, then guiltily undereating, then overeating again. But 
unlike brief and thrilling amusement park adventures, we can't seem to 
get off the ride. The explosion of coverage on "the obesity epidemic," 
though well-intentioned, has not served as the emergency break 
nutritionists and doctors so hoped it would. Instead, the sensational 
news spots on the dangers of obesity have often fed misperceptions 
about the direct link between fat and unhealthiness, or worse, fat and 
unworthiness.

Hyperbolic reportage on the expanding waistlines of America's children, 
in particular, has created a damaging hysteria. Fat camps are flooded 
with applicants who are solidly within their recommended body weight. 
In 1995, 34 percent of high school-aged girls in the U.S. thought they 
were overweight. Today, 90 percent do. And those who really are fat, 
and yes, there are many, are subjected to increasing scrutiny and 
scolding. The fat kid in school, once the butt of mean jokes, is now 
the target of a societal assault. A recent survey of parents found that 
1 in 10 would abort a child if they found out that he or she had a 
genetic tendency to be fat.

We are being brainwashed by sensationalistic news segments and the 250 
ads we see a day that tell us, not only that fat is unhealthy, but a 
sign of weak character. In a recent poll by Ellegirl magazine of 10,000 
readers, 30 percent said they would rather be thin than healthy. Over 
half the young women between the ages of 18 and 25 would prefer to be 
run over by a truck than be fat, and two-thirds surveyed would rather 
be mean or stupid. The single group of teenagers most likely to 
consider or attempt suicide is girls who worry that they are overweight.

The messages are coming in loud and clear, and they are riddled with 
disempowering dichotomies -- all or nothing, feast or famine, 
disgustingly fat or virtuously thin, deeply flawed or triumphantly 
perfect. There is no talk of what Buddhists describe as "the middle 
path," no discussion of the pleasure of walking, eating homemade food, 
slowing down. There is no permission to say "no" sometimes and "yes" 
sometimes, and have those no's and yeses be simple answers, 
insignificant scores on a Scrabble board, representative of nothing 
more than a mood. Instead our yeses and no's signify our desirability, 
our life expectancy, our self-worth.

It is not fat itself that is unhealthy, but our hypocritical attitudes 
and compulsive behaviors that are. We drive two blocks to the grocery 
store and then spend 20 minutes circling the parking lot so we can get 
a close spot. Once inside we load up our carts with low-fat, microwave 
meals and diet shakes filled with artificial everything. In the 
checkout line, we read about the latest fitness trend in Men's Health 
or Self, then get back into our cars, drive the two blocks home, and 
sit in front of the television all night eating Pizza Hut while 
drinking a liter of Diet Coke. We go to bed late, wake up early, head 
to work -- in our cars, of course -- where we will spend the next eight 
hours stationary and bored. Rinse. Repeat.

We don't need expensive, genetically engineered foods or state-of-the-
art exercise equipment. We don't need fancy doctors or pharmaceutical 
drugs. We don't need the latest diet craze book or even the latest 
medical study -- they all seem to contradict each other anyway. We 
don't even need Herculean willpower.

We just need to leave our cars in the garage, stroll down to the park, 
and play some softball with our neighbors on a Saturday. We just need 
to enjoy every last bite of our home-baked birthday cakes, then have 
some oatmeal for breakfast the next morning. We need to resist the 
pressure to overwork and underenjoy. If we want to live long, healthy, 
happy lives, then we need to stop believing the hype. We need to 
rediscover our own wise instincts that know far more about well-being 
than a whole country of experts. 

Courtney E. Martin's book, "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters," will be 
published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press in March 2007. You can read 
more about her work at www.courtneyemartin.com.


Original article: http://www.alternet.org/story/32958/

response 2 of 378:

Mar 3 17:37 UTC 2006

I sometimes think that fat jokes act is motivation for fat people to 
get into shape. But maybe its just motivation to not be fat.

response 4 of 378:

Mar 3 17:57 UTC 2006

A lot of people do not fully understand the pain and grief that obesity 
brings. 

response 6 of 378:

Mar 3 18:07 UTC 2006

I'm a fatty and love smoking and struggle with both addictions.  I feel I have
full license to joke about it.  If it makes me seem shallow or whatever,
consider the topic in the first place.  I'd rather people address things head
on and use a lil humor than to bury the whoel thing like it doesn't exist.
To me, that's like saying "Ok, we're going to let the Mexicans STAY but we're
not going to give them any rights or anything." i.e. hide in the shadows and
don't muck up The Beautiful People fantasy.  Oh, the horrors of reality..quick
hand me the TV remote so I can tune out.  What's the # for the pizza joint?

response 8 of 378:

Mar 3 18:16 UTC 2006

re #5
 resp:1 I can appreciate that you have a concern for your health, tod.
 Which is why I think I should tell you that while there is some
 evidence that obesity is a risk factor for a number of diseases, there
 is no real evidence that losing weight makes a person more healthy. 
My grandma had to get both hips replaced.  Arthritis runs in the family.  I
don't really need a roadmap to see that if I'm a lil lighter then I'll have
a less difficult time as I get older.

 Naturally you are entitled to make fun of anyone you would like to make
 fun of. You can make fun of people because of their race or their
 sexual orientation or their weight or whatever else you want to make
 fun of. But some people might think less of you for being a bigot.
Losing popularity contests if something I accel at.  If there's one thing I
want to be remembered for, its that tacts are what people use to nail stuff
where they want for a nice controlled environment.  The Holocaust flew under
the radar because the average German didn't have the balls to speak their mind
(regardless of how stupid or bigoted or unpatriotic they may have sounded.)
I'm always open to being convinced otherwise on things.  I used to believe
that outwardly gay folks should not be allowed in the military but I was
convinced otherwise by folks that were willing to debate me despite my
obvious abrasively belligerent and adversarial approach.  

Back on topic here, I think being "obese" is what I'm yammering on about. 
I'm not talking about 20 or 30 pounds over but like 100 or so above..you know,
when you are having a hard time tying shoes and stuff like that.  Saying its
normal to be out of breath from tying shoes is just flat out denial.

response 10 of 378:

Mar 3 18:35 UTC 2006

Here's the question:

Do you like yourself?  Do you feel you are good to yourself?  And are those
answers formed by society or yourself?  

I am not a thin person.  If I got down to a size 12, I would look wrong.  I'm
designed to be bigger than societal norms.  That being said, I take care of
my body, I like how I look (for the most part- probably more so than the
average woman), and I try not to look to society to validate that.  

Studies on whether it's healthy or not seem stupid.  Fat people use it to
validate them being fat, thin people use them to validate being thin.  If your
doctor says, "look, you need to take some weight off because of ____", that
should be a strong compass.

response 12 of 378:

Mar 3 18:48 UTC 2006

re #9
I think what you're saying is that a person shouldn't bother to lower their
weight if they're obese cuz they'll just gain it all back.  I agree with that
sentiment if it means the person is not modifying the behavior that causes
their obesity.  Fad diets and stuff like that aren't worth it in the long run
because of what you're implying.  The part where I disagree though is that
it will be gained back irregardless.  I also disagree that a person will be
equally healthy (i.e. live longer or have less physical complications) if they
remain obese.  I think studies have proven that lovehandles predict a shorter
lifespan.

response 14 of 378:

Mar 3 19:43 UTC 2006

In rats it does. My sister wasn't working on the project, but in one of
the labs near her at UPenn they found that if rats were slightly
underfed they lived longer than the ones that were fed the 'correct'
amounts. (either this was at U-Penn or she read about it) Problem with
people is they don't want to constantly be 'slightly starving' and nor
should they.

If people just 'diet' than yes, there is a greater chance of them
rebounding. However, if they make a conscious effort to alter the way
they eat, the way they view food, and their excersize patterns- than
it's not so much a diet change as a lifestyle change. Those kind of
patterns can become ingrained and the odds of a rebound are much lower.  

I'm not the thinnest person around, and I would like to lose weight so I
can be healthier. But to me that means eating more fruits and veggies,
and working out so that I CAN run up the three flights of stairs and not
feel winded. 

response 16 of 378:

Mar 3 20:45 UTC 2006

My stepdaughter, the 15 year old with the chronic pain in her foot, was 
told by her family doctor that her cholesterol and triglycerides were 
too low.  "Don't you ever go to McDonald's?" he asked her.  Just try 
convincing a teenaged girl in America she's too skinny.

response 18 of 378:

Mar 3 20:52 UTC 2006

Thinner people are more attractive than fatter people.

response 20 of 378:

Mar 3 21:26 UTC 2006

resp:17 I honestly think that there is something wrong with our 
society. I think we are obsessed with weight. I think that has some 
negative consequences. It leads to eating disorders. It causes people 
to feel badly about themselves. It puts an entire group of people at 
the margins of our society. It wastes money as people keep spending 
money on diet programs that dont work.

 I believe that talking about issues is a way to expose people to ideas 
and to get them to think about things they might not have otherwise 
thought about. I think ultimately I would like it if I could convince 
society and I think a lot of people are starting to do that. I wouldnt 
mind getting some people on grex to think about this kind of stuff. I 
dont need to convince myself. 

On a personal level, I have to admit that I have not gone to see a 
medical doctor for a routine exam in over eight years. The reason I 
havent gone is because I often would feel like a failure because the 
doctor would tell me I needed to lose weight and then I wouldnt lose 
weight. But recently, as a result of reading a lot of fat positive 
websites and books, I have come to realization that it is wrong for 
doctors to tell patients to lose weight. I mean come on...95% of people 
who lose weight do not keep it off. Losing weight in and of itself is 
not the answer. Weight alone might not even be an indicator of health. 
Obesity is a risk factor for certain diseases, I dont doubt that. But 
so are a lot of things like a person's race or gender. You dont see 
doctors telling men to become women because women have a lower risk of 
heart disease. I think telling fat people to become thin people is 
pretty much the same thing when you consider that almost everyone who 
loses weight gains it back. 

Now a doctor certainly can tell a patient to eat a good diet and to 
exercise. That is responsible. But contrary to what a lot of people 
think, it is possible to eat a healthy diet and to exercise and to 
still be fat. 

But, of course, this isnt *really* about health anyways. It is about 
morality. At least on some level it is.