70 Million Obese Americans: What’s the Solution?
Just read this article: http://tinyurl.com/33aj7n9 and as you can imagine, I have some thoughts! Ha-ha! (The first few comments are actually surprisingly not bad at all, the 1st one is rad).
I don’t even need to mention why the photo is all kinds of wrong, right? Okay, it is wrong because it has stolen this woman’s identity by not allowing her to show her face. It doesn’t address the fact that she has a mobility issue and it is no one’s business weather or not she had this disability before she was whatever size she is currently. Or when this picture was actually taken. For all we know she could be quite happy & healthy. She’s out walking for one thing, not sitting on a couch drinking sugar syrup by the jug! Ahem.
70 Million? I am now wondering what this article is using to classify so many Americans as “obese” (scare quotes!). Is it possibly the BMI (body mass index – more badness on that here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp)? Because that was adjusted a few years ago and because of this, literally over night millions were suddenly considered “obese” by this newer version of the BMI. But they don’t specify so one can only wonder.
They go so far as to ask, “Is anybody listening” to the whole “OMZFATWILLKILLYOU” message. Um, everyone is listening. It’s hard not to hear it. It’s everywhere! We are inundated with the whole fat kills message anytime we leave the house, go online, turn on a t.v., watch a movie, read a magazine, etc…America hates fat, we know this. Yet, we’re all fat? Hmm…We’re a bunch of self-haters, yes?
They say that losing weight isn’t impossible and then include a link to a bunch of their past “success” stories. When you actually read each individual success story, most aren’t about someone who yo-yo dieted or other typical issues with weight loss. It’s mostly, “I stopped drinking soda” or “I started walking.” Nothing shocking. But that doesn’t work for everyone. Nothing works for everyone!
The article specifically mentions minorities and non-college educated people as being the most at risk of “obesity.” Funny, that. It’s not the fat that’s keeping us out of college, it’s the damned tuition (and I didn’t have to go to school to figure that one out)! I grew up very poor. Fresh fruits and veggies were serious treats to us. When we’d go to my grandma’s for dinner on Sundays I always looked forward to her fresh, crisp, green salads! Not candy or ice cream…SALADS! Because my family just couldn’t afford those kinds of foods on a regular basis. We ate generic, yellow boxed things that could provide sufficient nutrients so we wouldn’t fucking starve! And don’t get me started on my free hot lunches at school! We’re talking about lower income groups who simply can’t afford to buy healthier food. Watch the documentary Food Inc. and you’ll understand and see exactly what I mean and why.
I have done just about everything in my power to not look/end up like my birth mother. Genetics, you bastard! I am active and healthy and still have hips that could pass a watermelon (heaven forbid). I ate very healthfully and consciously for a very long time, nothing changed. I gave up soda, my co-workers lost weight, I did not. I became a vegetarian and gained a little weight. Now that my weight has stabilized, and I am broke as fucking hell, I can’t afford all of those gorgeously organic crunchy things I so love and crave. I buy when I can and make do when I can’t. Such is life!
I find it extremely problematic for someone like Michelle Obama (Rich!) to make it her personal mission to rid the country of fat people by 2025 (or whatever she said, sorry, it’s ridiculous and I don’t care). Talk about privileged?! Yes, she’s a minority, but she’s a special kind of upper class minority. I doubt she’s ever had more than an extra five pounds on her frame and seems so driven and confident I doubt even that is true. Not to personally attack her, I find her pleasant and smart and a great role model for the most part, but…obesity? Ugh! *sigh*
There is no one solution. There is no diet plan for the masses. There is no universal success story. I mean, shit! If Oprah can’t do it with all of her wisdom, fortune and fame, what hope do the rest of us have? Huh? Yeah, exactly! I am sick of the mainstream media telling everyone that my fat is going to kill me. My fat is not a damned disease. It’s just fat! I don’t have diabetes, or hypertension or any other fat related illness. I am not doomed. I am not a stereotype!
I don’t believe that the government should be telling us how to live our lives. I do think it should start at the source and go directly to the companies that manufacture all of the over processed foods. And aspartame should once again be classified as a bio-weapon! Diet drinks should simply have less sugar or another natural sweetener. We should not have to fear for our lives with every sip or bite we ingest! We should educate on nutrition, not calories! We should focus on activity, not exercise. We should celebrate life, not loss. I am just so very sick of this old rhetoric. It’s bullshit, but somehow no one seems to know it! Ugh!
Okay, I’m done for now. *steps off soapbox*
Thank you for reading & commenting. You’re amazing!
Yeah, I hear you. I’m so tired of hearing that my fat is going to kill me in 5 years if I don’t lose it yesterday (I’ve been hearing that for the last 30 years – funny, I ain’t dead yet).
I decided to hell with all of them, including my doctor. I’m going to live my life, fat at the world, and to hell with all of them. They don’t like looking at me, don’t look. Life is just too short to care about the haters, even if it lasts 80 or 90 or 100 years, that’s still a drop in the bucket of eternity. So I’m going to live it, love it, and flaunt it, and maybe my example will help more fat people do the same. If enough of us do that, who knows what else we can accomplish…………..
Yes! And so my dream of a big fat flash mob soar! Just picture one hundred fat and fabulous people in the middle of, I dunno, Union Square in SF, dancing to some loud and fattastic song and video taped for the world to see we are not ashamed or dying! That has been my focus lately, too. Being more publicly fat so other fats can see it’s not terrible. No one has harassed me or hated on me and even if they did, I don’t give a flying leap! Thanks for reading & commenting. You rock!
The problem with reporting stuff like this is that it’s assumed that all fat people refuse to lose weight. I don’t think it’s taken into account that many have tried to diet without success and perhaps decided that living as best as they can while fat is better. But it’s insisted we always keep trying diet after diet. Not only is it costly, it may lead to even worse health problems.
I think the solution is what you said in your last paragraph. They need to stop looking at the visible fat and focusing on healthy eating and exercise as goals for weight loss only. They also need to stop believing all physical diseases are a cause of fat, especially when many thin people suffer as well.
Yes! I blame the ridiculosity (totally made up word) of the medical industry for perpetuating this absurd “war” on all things fat. Why can’t they simply target the obvious? Blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels (I actually forget what it’s called, but they check me for the diabetes every time, even if I have bronchitis!). I loved Marilyn Wann’s book “Fat? So!” and the bit she mentions about fat cells being the most benign things ever. Great read!
Thanks for reading & commenting, you rock!
Funny how “what should we dooooo about the fatties?” never seems to be answered by, “How about frigging quit hocking the fatties and get over it already?” We’ve had a century of weight-loss dieting, folks, a century of calorie-voodoo math taking over the culture, with the pressure to slim down (especially for women) increasing with every passing year. And what good has it done? Has it resulted in thinner people? No. Healthier people? No. Saner people? Mais non. In fact, you could well argue that the opposite is true.
That doesn’t mean weight loss is impossible for everyone. But neither is earning a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and we don’t threaten people with the prospect of homelessness for not having one.
On that I will have to say that there is a lot of prejudice against those without a higher education, which is basically classist! I have worked with people who have used the phrase, “Well, someone obviously didn’t graduate from high school!” as a common insult. Little did they know that I am a high school drop out working right along side them. It is utterly unnerving to me! I think you’d have to be coming from some serious privilege to throw those types of things out there, and yet they do.
This also applies to fat shaming, I think. I mention this here: http://www.notblueatall.com/archives/privilege/
I grew up very poor and for awhile I “forgot” about it. Now I try to address it daily, because it is who I am and that is okay. But in the fatosphere I think that it tends to be a lot of highly educated people addressing fat and such topics from an academic stand point. Nothing wrong with that, but I like to think I offer a bit of a different perspective. Thanks for reading & commenting! =0)
I really wish they would cease and desist beginning with ‘Everyone knows zomgobesity is a greater health threat to since the bubonic plague….etc.,’
Screw ‘everyone knows’ what ‘everyone knows’ is often; utter bullshit-lies go round the world before the truth gets out of bed- that’s what science is here to save us from.
It is amazing that the science community hasn’t spoken out about this. I mean, fat is such a benign thing on it’s own. I think if we follow the money though…
Thanks for reading & commenting!