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A Fat America
According to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released in early 2012, more than one-third of Americans are obese. Among adult African American women, almost 80 percent are overweight or obese. The CDC states that obesity significantly increases the risk of hypertension and Type 2 diabetes and makes other illnesses more difficult to manage.
Talking about fat
And though we talk about fat all the time, talking about any person's particular fat is socially taboo. I would argue that if friends and family were more 'forthcoming' with comments about someone's burgeoning waistline (out of love and not out of denigration) then perhaps action could be taken earlier. I watch a lot of these fat reduction shows and the one thing I hear over and over is, "No one ever really said I was fat". No one that loved them that is. But if it's a child, then they get taunted on the playground. But these days, on some playgrounds only the fattest kid will get teased because so many of the other kids are fat too.
The cultural and structural causes of obesity
Because of this widespread shift towards a fatter nation, there is a lot of discussion of the institutional, cultural and social causes of this health challenge but any discussion of personal behavior related to weight gain engenders one to be accused of "blaming the victim". The argument goes that if so many people are fat, then it cannot be about individual behavior but about structural causes. I would argue that it is a mix of both and it is much easier to use prevention methods to change personal behavior than to get the structure to change. So while we fight corn syrup and get McDonald's to have apple dippers and Burger King to get smoothies, we have to get people to want to change their behavior.
Although poor people are more likely to be fat for reasons such as 'food deserts' (the new term for areas where fresh food is hard to find), most people who enter grocery stores go through the fresh fruit and veg section first to get to the fatty stuff, so it's hard to argue that someone is putting this stuff down our throats unwillingly.
The courtesies of fatness and thinness
I will acknowledge that as a skinny person, I supposedly have no right to be talking about obesity because 'I don't know what it's like'. Well, I don't. And perhaps that means that maybe I know something about what it's like to stay thin. But that's for a book I have yet to write.
Should one gain weight in America, it is considered rude and insensitive to note any observations of such. However, should one be considered too thin, then everyone from strangers to friends, colleagues and family, think it perfectly justified to suggest that you eat, or that they are worried about you. Should I say to someone who is getting fat that I am worried about them, I'd be considered obnoxious and rude, especially because I'm 'skinny'. But not so skinny people have the 'right' to talk about how skinny someone is and suggest when to stop losing weight etc.
Yes.... the gossip magazines rip celebrities for every ounce they gain, but they are a different case. And after all, they have access to the best food, best exercise gurus and it's all tax deductible as a job requirement.
But for the rest of us, perhaps we can get rid of the fat taboo, and just as someone is able to tell me I'm too thin or that I should eat up, we can tell the ones we love when to put the fork down or stop telling them they look amazing in their size 16 dress, because what they look is unhealthy.
I'm sure I'll get a lot of flack for what I say in this post, but I am simply tired of being exposed to the weight hangups of other people because I am slender and have that slender be the seal on my lips for talking about anyone else's weight.
Praising people for losing weight has encouraged many an anorexic in the same way that not mentioning someone's increasing weight has supported many a friend or relative into obesity.
Talking openly about fat
If we want to have a country where people are not at high risk for diabetes and hypertension and high cholesterol because of the crap they eat, then let's get open and honest in talking about fat, just as much as we are in talking about skinny. It's not the cure, but just like with smoking, we may get the cigarette companies to 'behave', but in the end the smoker still has to quit or not start. What we put in our mouths is within our control, and blaming the government or corporate America for our fat is not going to make it go away.
