Good points. However, I would also point out that a large percentage of that "overweight" population (larger than most people would realize) comes, not from people actually getting bigger, but from our culture's unrealistic changes in what we consider bigger. When I was a kid, the only women who were as thin as girls aspire to be today were a spate of freakishly skinny models that cropped up around 1965 or so (the most famous of them being Twiggy). Their ascendancy didn't last, and the beautiful girls of the later sixties and seventies had more realistic bodies. It wasn't until the fitness crazes of the '80s that the pressure towards "zero body fat" began. This is an extremely unhealthy trend, as it throws off the whole structure of the human body - fat is there for a number of reasons, and all of them are important to the body's functioning.
So what was considered perfectly fine 40-50 years ago is now considered overweight, and what used to be considered maybe not so good is now called really fat. Yes, weight gain is a big problem, for all the reasons you state. But it's also the way we look at ourselves that has caused this "epidemic". Were our ideas of what is healthy actually healthy, not only would the numbers of the "obese" look different, our attitude towards ourselves would, in and of itself, encourage behavior that would keep us truly healthy.
I'm fat myself. But what you may find interesting is that I've never had a problem with it. The only problems I've ever had with my weight are the ones I've incurred by fighting against my body. A radical diet three years ago left me with a heart condition, and the psychological battles I've had because of feeling wrong, lazy, etc., have taken their toll, as well. My body has never lost weight easily, and I'm physically calmest and happiest when I allow it to settle at the weight where it's comfortable - which, incidentally, is about 25-30 pounds heavier than it's "supposed" to be. At that level, I neither gain nor lose, but remain in a steady state that is most comfortable.
Yet I'm constantly bombarded by the idea that this is wrong, and that I have no willpower, and that I'm unhealthy - despite all evidence to the contrary. And that pisses me off. I don't like being told I'm sick or ugly when I'm clearly just as I'm designed to be. I don't like being browbeaten into ruining my health just because other people don't want to see a real person. I don't like hearing someone like Sean, who is so attractive as Sam partly because he wears the weight so well, calling himself fat and ugly - not because I feel bad for me, but because I feel bad for him.
And I'm sick to death of hearing stories about kids killing themselves because they've been convinced that 10 or 20 pounds extra is going to be the death of them. That's where the weight problem starts - in the mindset of fear and paranoia, and the lifelong behavior it starts up. Yeah, our food is crap. Yeah, we're raising kids that move less every day. But we're not only poisoning our bodies, we're poisoning our minds. And that's an enormous part of the "obesity epidemic", if not the root of the whole thing.
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branchandroot
Re: Well said!
Date: Wednesday, November 19th, 2003 07:53 am (UTC)So what was considered perfectly fine 40-50 years ago is now considered overweight, and what used to be considered maybe not so good is now called really fat. Yes, weight gain is a big problem, for all the reasons you state. But it's also the way we look at ourselves that has caused this "epidemic". Were our ideas of what is healthy actually healthy, not only would the numbers of the "obese" look different, our attitude towards ourselves would, in and of itself, encourage behavior that would keep us truly healthy.
I'm fat myself. But what you may find interesting is that I've never had a problem with it. The only problems I've ever had with my weight are the ones I've incurred by fighting against my body. A radical diet three years ago left me with a heart condition, and the psychological battles I've had because of feeling wrong, lazy, etc., have taken their toll, as well. My body has never lost weight easily, and I'm physically calmest and happiest when I allow it to settle at the weight where it's comfortable - which, incidentally, is about 25-30 pounds heavier than it's "supposed" to be. At that level, I neither gain nor lose, but remain in a steady state that is most comfortable.
Yet I'm constantly bombarded by the idea that this is wrong, and that I have no willpower, and that I'm unhealthy - despite all evidence to the contrary. And that pisses me off. I don't like being told I'm sick or ugly when I'm clearly just as I'm designed to be. I don't like being browbeaten into ruining my health just because other people don't want to see a real person. I don't like hearing someone like Sean, who is so attractive as Sam partly because he wears the weight so well, calling himself fat and ugly - not because I feel bad for me, but because I feel bad for him.
And I'm sick to death of hearing stories about kids killing themselves because they've been convinced that 10 or 20 pounds extra is going to be the death of them. That's where the weight problem starts - in the mindset of fear and paranoia, and the lifelong behavior it starts up. Yeah, our food is crap. Yeah, we're raising kids that move less every day. But we're not only poisoning our bodies, we're poisoning our minds. And that's an enormous part of the "obesity epidemic", if not the root of the whole thing.