Not too long ago, I was reassuring a girlfriend, “Susan,” who had gained some weight. As a child and adolescent, Susan had always had an extremely thin, nearly emaciated frame. Since nearing her twenties, she added thirty beautiful pounds to that frame. Because Susan is a very active woman who enjoys long jogs and hikes, her body became shapely and well-toned. However, Susan could not understand that, in her case, gaining weight was a good thing. In her fuller figure, Susan’s hair was shinier, her skin was brighter, and she had far more energy, but none of these factors prevented her from breaking into tears and repeatedly insisting that she needed to get back down to a healthy weight. While trying to console Susan, I was stunned at what decades of diet and exercise evangelism had brought: the inability to recognize good health when we have it.
Turn on the TV or pick up any magazine and you will find at least one feature on how to lose weight. In summer, we have to get in shape for bikini season. In winter, we must fend off those holiday pounds. Throughout the media, diet and exercise are synonyms for health. Alarms are raised at the increasing levels of obesity in America and this is understandable. We should be concerned with maintaining active lifestyles and control of our food intake, but fixating on weight and eating can be just as unhealthy, if not more so, than being overweight. These articles are aimed mostly at women, supposedly to empower them and give them control over their body images. But do they really? Is our national obsession with weight loss backfiring?
The other side of obesity.
The American Obesity Association reports that 62 percent of American women are overweight and 34 percent are obese. It also warns of the increased risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, joint problems, and certain types of cancers associated with being overweight. Consequently, losing weight is widely considered the equivalent to improving one’s health. But this is not necessarily so. For those who are at a reasonable weight according to their height, or for those who are underweight, the messages to get slimmer undermine what they actually need to be doing, which is maintaining or gaining weight.
PREVIOUS PAGE
