Dear Readers:
I have been lazy about writing lately. Corina complained that my posts are too long anyway. I contend that her attention span is too short.
Greenville is much the same as it ever was. I am still looking for work and have a few things on the horizon, but it is useless to talk about it until something actually happens.
I have twice written about obesity in this journal, both times as a response to Mr. BigFatBlog who maintains a website promoting fat acceptance.
He wrote me again today. The exchange is posted in the Comments section of these two posts: 02/08/03 and 02/26/03. The rest of today’s entry is better understood if you’ve read the other two, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.
I have always meant to write a piece about the obesity epidemic in the US. Everyone knows I have been to a lot of countries and I can easily say Americans are noticeably fatter than the rest of the world…although other countries are catching up.
Here is my opinion as to why we are so fat and why the rest of the planet will become more so in the coming years unless something is done. I wrote this email to Paul today. He maintains bigfatblog.com.
Paul,
Everyone has that idea for which they are willing to go down with the ship. This seems to be yours.
You skill with rhetoric is admirable. You seem to have well developed opinions and you express them well…..but no amount of skill will persuade the world that fat is ok. None. Give it up. If this is the idea for which you are willing to go down with the ship….then you just bought your ticket to the bottom.
In fact, the fatter the general population gets, the more desirable it will be to be thin.
Can you change the opinion of the world? I don’t think so, but you are welcome to try.
I stand by the statement that your time is much better served in losing weight than in trying to shift world views.
I am sure you’ve tried. You say diets don’t work. I agree, the research is extremely clear on that point.
But the fact is that our caloric intake has not changed much in the past 50 years. Yet we are much fatter.
The difference is in our lifestyles. 50 years ago over 90% of folks worked in manufacturing or agriculture. These jobs required manual effort and burned calories. Kids played outside because there was literally nothing else to do.
Now 70% of the economy is in the service sector. We do nothing at work more physical than walk to the bathroom. Kids play video games and chat online. Our lifestyle no longer burns calories.
I am not much into placing blame, but the epidemic of obesity and the myriad of health and social problems that come with it has been caused by the monetization of America….and the time poverty that comes with it.
40% of the US labor force works 50 hours or more a week. We work more than any other industrialized country in the world: on average 9 weeks longer per year than Western Europe.
We’re too tired at the end of the day to take exercise and our jobs no longer require us to do anything but punch keys or answer a phone. We went from 8 hours of manual labor per day to 10 hours of sitting on our butts at an office. No wonder we are fat.
And as for children, they used to play outside. But playing outside is cheap. It doesn’t cost anything to go play catch with a friend.
At some point marketing identified kids as a demographic with disposable income and pushed them an endless stream of diversions that compete with outside play. These products simply didn’t exist in the past.
Their parents buy them the crap because they feel guilty about not spending enough time with their kids because they’re at work all day. The fact is they have the money to spend on useless diversions, but not the time to make sure their kids live a healthy lifestyle. In many Western European nations it is illegal to advertise to children.
In short, forget changing world opinion and forget diets. Go join a basketball league or a runners club….if you can find the time to do it.
If you trade all the time you spend defending fatness with time spent exercising, you’d find you no longer needed to make such a defense.
If you prefer your current lifestyle, by all means, continue it…and I will continue to enjoy your website =)
Happy Holidays,
Elliott Dykes
Entries (RSS)
Hey,
I read your posting on Mr. Big Fat Blog and agree with
what have told Paul. If it makes any difference, I’ll
give you my take.
Society scrutinizes fat people because they either
have a defective metabolism, defective exercise
routine, and/or defective eating habits. Whichever way
you choose to look at it, they have a defect. It is
this defect that society immediately recognizes when
they walk into a room or walk back to the buffet line
for seconds.
I read a book called “Complications” which was written
by a 5th year surgical resident at Harvard University
Medical School. It’s a great book that gives the
reader a unique insight into medicine and the life of
a surgeon. The author made some interesting comments
concerning fat people, especially those who elect to
undergo bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgery is a procedure that is aimed at
making fat people thin. For example, Wilson Phillips
band member Carney Wilson elected to have this surgery
and the procedure was successful. She is now somewhat
thin and contemplating posing for Playboy. I doubt
that will happen though.
According to the physician, the majority of fat people
who undergo the bariatric surgery have a metabolic
and/or a psychological problem. The most prevalent
psychological problem among fat people is an eating
disorder. He says many fat people eat too much
because they are depressed, can’t push away from the
table, etc, etc… Most importantly, the majority of
fat people have a regular diet that consists of eating
unhealthy foods.
The part of the book that I found interesting was that
once the fat people started to eat healthy foods for
an extended period of time, their taste for unhealthy
foods changed. They no longer enjoyed eating a greasy
hamburger and fries but preferred eating fruits and
vegetables. The direct result of eating healthier
foods was a thinner waist line.
In my opinion, many fat people are accustomed to
eating unhealthy foods. Is this their fault? Yes!
It’s common knowledge that if you eat a Big Mac and
fries everyday your probably going to pack on the lbs.
Society scrutinizes fat people because they have a
defect. We have trained ourselves to scrutinize
defects. Are defective products acceptable? No. Are
wrong answers on a test acceptable? No. As a society,
we are pursing perfection in everything we do.
Defects are not rewarded and they should never be.
Sorry to be so long winded….
Hope all is well!
See you soon,
Dean