According to a front-page article in the March 31, 2011 edition of New York Times describing research by Dr. Alexandra Brewis of Arizona State University, there seems to be a global aversion to fat people.
She, along with her team, interviewed people via the Internet in 10 countries and cities including American Samoa, Mexico, New Zealand and London to assess attitudes towards the obese. Even the Samoans, who are used to regarding a large body as beautiful, are changing.
The reasons for this stigmatization of obesity range from cosmetic to economic and from fashion to financial. Obese people are viewed as aesthetically distasteful. The financial costs of obesity-related illness grow higher every year, and it is easy to blame fat people, along with smokers, for the ever-increasing price of health insurance.
Unfortunately, the obese are an easy target for our ready-made willingness to believe the worst about someone else. Many studies have shown that normal-size individuals are more likely to be hired than an obese candidate with similar qualifications. Others often regard obese people as lazy with no self-discipline or concern with their health or appearance. How often have you thought, "How can she look that like that?" or "You would think he would lose weight rather than trying to squeeze into this airplane seat."
In contrast, if a thin person is seen eating a slice of pizza or a cheeseburger, no comment is made about the food choice.
Don't stigmatize and blame the obese for their weight gain. Some of the blame should be upon our society. Consider:
1. Do we really need at least half a supermarket aisle devoted to sugar-filled soda and another entire aisle stacked with cookies, chips, and candy?
2. Who is stigmatizing the fast-food restaurants for concocting ever bigger and more caloric sandwiches?
3. Does anyone point a finger at the calorie pushers on the Food Network? Why do so many recipes require vast quantities of olive oil, cheese, bacon, heavy cream, egg yolks, butter and sugar?
4. Am I the only person to notice the schizophrenic nature of women's magazines that have the diet of the month in one section and the fattening recipe of the month in another?
5. Must restaurants serve food in gargantuan sizes or use lots of butter or olive oil to add some flavor or aura of freshness to a food?
6. Let us not forget the toxic work and commuting schedules of many Americans leaving little or no time for exercise. Do they have to wait until they are in a retirement home to get to a gym?
7. Have you noticed the weight of shift workers? Probably not, since you may be asleep when they force their bodies to stay awake in order to work. Obesity as a consequence of shift work has been known for decades but no one has figured out what to do about it.
8. Anyone stressed lately? Unemployed? Going through a divorce? Living with teenagers? Alcohol and fatty, sugary foods deaden stress but at a substantial caloric cost.
9. Why is it so easily forgotten that eating helps emotional and physical pain?
10. And why is weight gain from certain medications ignored? Antidepressants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic drugs have turned many skinnies into fatties.
Every behavior that has health risks should be changed, if possible. We all should increase our sleep and exercise and vegetable consumption, drink less alcohol, and decrease the time we spend with our iPads, iPhones and computers. If you smoke, you should stop.
Decreasing obesity means altering our culture of eating too many calories, exercising and sleeping too little and helping people resolve problems that cause emotional overeating. These actions will be considerably more helpful than muttering something nasty about an obese person sitting next to you on a plane.
Follow Judith J. Wurtman, PhD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/stopmed_wt_gain
John Robbins: Being Fat in America
OAC Obesity Action Coalition - Obesity Stigma
Stigma of Obesity Not Easy to Shed
Numbers 8 and 9 - Exercise and about 9 other HEALTHY coping skills.
Number 10 was me for awhile, however, if your medication makes you obese, it then becomes a health risk and you should be talking to your doctor. There are always other options.
I am one of those people that says "It's your fault." I doubled my weight on medication. I lost most of it by switching medications, skipping dessert and walking around in circles because I have agoraphobic issues and could not leave my driveway.
I don't subscribe to all of this "blame someone else" way of thinking. Take responsibility for your own actions, your own choices and what they do to you. Plain and simple.
If you have a medical reason for being overweight, fine. If you make choices that lead to your weight, deal with the fact that you will be judged the same way you would judge someone for wearing too much makeup. They didn't have to do it, but they did... ooh lets blame runway models for that one!
Most people in America were never really educated on nutrition and proper eating habits, so remove that from the equation. Secondly, serving sizes, etc. have always been generous in this country.
What changed in the last 20 years? Technology. The food producers wanted to increase "share of stomach," and developed additives which would suppress your natural feeling of fullness, and enhance the taste of engineered food products. Calories are packed into these processed foods like never before.
I've lived all over Asia and Europe, and I am SHOCKED at how large Americans are whenever I visit home. Most of the world eats more natural foods. I live in India and enjoy fresh food every day. I haven't had an instant meal in years. I rarely see obese people in Asia or Europe (yes, they get bigger with age, but not morbidly obese).
Americans today NEED to be better educated about what they're eating, simply because they're eating different food than the previous generations did.
I find it appalling that parents teach their children that food can be a cure-all for emotional or physical pain. If you're given a cookie everytime you skin your knee, you're going to learn that food heals pain. It's Pavlovian. One learns what one is taught. And it's a terrible lesson.
Similarly, parents need to stop "rewarding" proper eating habits with junk food. I watch my sister-in-law promise chocolate cake to her kids as a reward for finishing their vegetables - another terrible lesson! Food's not a reward. Treating it as such does terrible things to one's relationship with food.
People need to take responsibility for their choices. If you put garbage into your body, you're not going to be as healthy as if you make smart choices. Have a cheeseburger for lunch. Just don't have a cheeseburger for lunch every day. Have a slice of pizza. Just don't eat the whole pie. It's not rocket science.
I have a diabetic, overweight brother who still eats nothing but crap because we're not a society that denies itself anything - which is also why we have such massive credit card debt (but that's another news article).
Eat what you love, but don't blame the Doritos because you aren't willing to work off the calories.
Uhh, everyone. Where have you been?
However, listing 10 reasons why the obese can abstain from responsibility for their physical condition is, well, irresponsible. Granted, there are a few on the list that are reasonable (specifically #s 6, 7 and 10). But blaming restaurants and supermarkets for the obesity epidemic isn't only silly, it's backwards - the availability of food that is bad for you is a SYMPTOM not a cause of the problem. Might I add one more to your list of external pressures on individuals that may lead to obesity;
#11 - Reasons for obesity that disempower the personal responsibility of the individual.
Most obese people--once obese--will never be thin. If they could be thin--don't you think they would be. you can look at the dieting studies for yourself. Even weightloss surgery--they tell patients to look at two or five year outcomes--because 20 years later most (not all but most) will have gained back the previous weight loss.
The best thing to do is to prevent weight gain to begin with by focusing on childhood (horray michelle obama). But children who are TEASED for being fat are more likely to be fat as adults (no surprise there).
So if you want to fight obsesity--don't stigmatize the HUMAN BEINGS who are obese. You don't know how they got where they are--whether it was poor childhood habits, being teased, emotional problems, sex abuse, genes etc. You don't know how they got there.
But once they are obese it is important for all people--no matter how thin or not thin--to be as healthy as they can be. Stigmatizing people doesn't help--you haven't walked in their shoes. Shame is a horrible motivation for a person to take care of their body....
Just some information.
I am not saying anyone should ditch their family, but sometimes it is just too much temptation when people bring doughnuts, cookies candy etc in the house.
I know we are all responsible for the choices we make, but help from family members can go a long way in helping someone who is trying to lose weight.
What is needed is education- many people out there do not know how many calories are in any given item or how many calories they should be eating to maintain or reduce weight. There also needs to be an understanding that food marketers are not your friend- they're not trying to do you a favor by offering 2 for one deals and suggesting that you visit their restaurant multiple times a week. Take it from someone who's been there- moderation is possible, you just have to want it more than a greasy burger.
#1: Don't walk through those aisles. I mostly shop the perimeter of the store where the 'clean' food is located. #2: Don't visit fast food places. Eat at home or prepare healthy lunches/dinners to take to work. #3: If the Food Network is pushing unhealthy recipes then don't watch it. Put on an exercise video or don't watch TV that much and go take a walk. #4: Don't waste your money on magazine such as those. Save your money and use it to buy healthier/organic foods. #5: Only go to restaurants once in a while and not on a regular basis. It should be a treat and not a daily/weekly occurrence. #9: Exercise, it also relieves stress and emotional/physical pain.
Bottom line is that life is about choices. Either choose to be healthy or not.