Americans are fatter than they used to be ... Everyone knows the weight is causing sickness and early death. Government and industry say the pounds are costing us ... This generation will have shorter lives than their parents ... Studies show long-term weight loss elusive ... Doctors say to keep trying anyway ...
Does it ever seem like you're hearing the same things about weight over and over? Witnessing the depressing cycle of failed public initiatives and fruitless personal efforts to trim our waistlines, who wouldn't wish for a more hopeful angle or some alternative facts on the old story?
Fortunately, an alternative viewpoint is out there, and those facts are available, even if they can be hard to hear over the societal clamor of food fear and body bias. Getting to this information requires tuning out the loud "everyone knows" claims about obesity, shape and diet. It means questioning health "experts" who themselves have failed to question. It requires adopting a new, more skeptical mantra, like the one we use in the movement known as Health at Every Size (HAES). "Show me the data," we demand, and you should, too.
HAES advocates include scientists, doctors, therapists, dietitians, fitness professionals, and writers, among others. If more doctors, journalists and public officials were to seek their wisdom, they would do less harm, save tax dollars, and help people live longer, healthier and better.
I see information every day that shows that our obsession over body fat is a costly, crippling threat to health and well-being. I routinely tally the costs -- medical, financial and psychological- - of the un-winnable War on Obesity and the commercial juggernaut it supports (Low-cal snacks! Diet pills! Weight-loss centers where customers always come back!). And I conduct research and write peer-reviewed articles supporting the HAES paradigm with facts, replacing knee-jerk everyone knows statements with what is truly known about the meaning of body weight.
The evidence demonstrates that fat isn't the bogeyman it's made out to be, and that a focus on health habits, rather than weight, accomplishes the very goals collective thinness is supposed to achieve (if it were possible in the first place). Compared to control groups of people on weight loss programs, people who accept themselves and their bodies as they are tend to exercise more and eat better. They do better medically, on blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin sensitivity and similar measures, and feel happier in the long run. They adopt longer-lasting exercise habits. And guess which group weighs less, two years out? Neither! In the HAES study I conducted, both groups ended up with weights where they started, albeit with the dieters having endured another wearying and health-damaging deprivation-loss-regain cycle.
In other words, as long as we're focused on changing our bodies -- which the data shows isn't going to happen for most people, anyway -- we are missing the real benefits that come from caring for our bodies.
Every week or month, another example emerges of knee-jerk assumptions about what everyone knows, rather than what we actually do know, shaping decisions in medicine and government. Despite all the talk about "evidence-based" policy, for instance, Medicare is now covering doctor-prescribed weight-loss efforts while the evidence clearly shows that they don't improve health or result in sustained weight loss. The First Lady is devoting herself to eradicating childhood obesity, when the latest meta-analysis of 55 interventions showed an approximate mean weight loss of... one pound. These "health" initiatives have not just failed, they've backfired, contributing to the rise in weight-based discrimination and bullying, among many other damaging side effects.
What is known (even if everyone can't accept it yet) is that:
• Stable fat is blown out of proportion as a health risk (even dreaded "tummy fat"), but yo-yoing weights common to dieters do harm health.
• The "ironclad" notion that obesity leads to early death is wrong: Mortality data show "overweight" people, on average, live longest, and moderately "obese" people have similar longevity to those at weights deemed "normal" and advisable.
• Life spans have lengthened almost in lockstep with waistlines over the last few decades, which should make you wonder about the supposed deadliness of fat.
When you consider our cultural preoccupation with food and weight, the data on eating disorders and mental health (among thin people, too), and the social justice concerns that arise from waging a war against body types, fat stigma ranks as far more dangerous than rolls and rolls of fat. And when you see who earns what from the billions spent annually on weight-loss products, procedures, and pharmaceuticals, it becomes clear that commercial interests have tainted obesity beliefs, policy and research. (As a small example, take those controversial fat kid ads in Georgia; the for-profit health care company behind them also sells costly, unproven lap-band surgery to teenagers.)
Let me interject here that I know this post will bring out the usual crew of haters, bashers, the data-resistant, and the sanctimonious "I-lost-weight-and-you-can-too" testimonials in the comments section. For those tempted to participate, I say, "YOU are the obesity problem. But help is available." Any argument you can come up with, someone in the HAES or Fat Acceptance communities has already responded. Read the research review, or my discussion of fat vs. fat stigma for starters, and check out many more resources available on my website or read my book, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight. That world view is on the wane.
Based on real evidence, all these experts reject a fat focus in favor of more hopeful, more effective, and cheaper paths to good health. No matter what everyone knows, or says they do, HAES experts follow the evidence that it's how you live, not how you look, that makes the difference for health and well-being.
If you have had enough of what everyone knows about fat and want real answers, there's a whole community of well-informed folks to help you find them. The HAES community is growing, as is our professional organization, the Association for Size Diversity and Health, and a civil rights organization, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, advocating against mindless fat bias.
For more by Linda Bacon, Ph.D., MA, MA, click here.
For more on personal health, click here.
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David Katz, M.D.: The K-E Diet: Weight Loss Lunacy
Michelle Obama's war on childhood obesity - CNN
Amid 'War on Obesity,' Skeptics Warn of Stigma - ABC News
Anderson, Divest and atone. But ..... YOU'RE RIGHT!
OBESITY IS RELATED TO HEALTH HAZARDS (read on, I have a point)
Because most Americans got there on (I like this, I'm stealing it) "The Standard American Industrial Diet."
I equate it fat intake.
1980's - High fat diets lead to heart disease
1990's to 2000's - Oh, Saturated fats lead to heart disease, other fats (mono's like Olive oil) are actually GOOD for your heart
(But the previous studies weren't wrong , those "High fat" diets had lots of saturated fat.)
2010's - "Processed" meats lead to heart disease
(But the previous studies weren't wrong , those "High fat" diets had lots of "processed" meats)
The original studies from the 1970's were accurate, they just didn't look far enough.
And that's how statistics mislead us.
And after all that, all the studies can bite me! (pun intended) Eat like the people of Crete did ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO (give a take a few centuries), and you'll be much less likely to develop heart disease (how many studies did they have to create their diet - ZERO)
As for anyone who makes an unqualified statement that "weight loss" is healthy, go ask a cancer patient what they think. (Yeah, I'm irritated now)
Cardiac Rehab Nurse (and cardiac rehab patient before that, I learned the hard way) - California
Weight lost is hard but not impossible. Read articles that are about success not failure.
Our culture's obsession with weight loss (in the name of health--a thinly disguised hate mongering and scapegoating of fat people)/the cult of thinness is not healthy, and it's not working. Eating healthy and moving have to be their own rewards, regardless of the results in the weight department. And recent studies have shown that these activities positively benefit the health of people of all sizes, regardless of weight loss results. More emphasis on these things, minus the weight loss obsession, are welcomed. But uninformed comments like yours, no thank you.
I would agree that "diet" that one follows for a time usually does not work. But paying attention to what you eat in terms of fat, sugar and chemicals does.
As an educated woman, there are many people that "listen" to what you say, and it almost sounds like you poo-poo everything that we have learned about eating healthy. There is nothing wrong with eating healthy.
The only grump I have with the article is the idea that plumpness (let's call it that instead of the pejorative obesity) has increased over the years. If you look at photographs taken of ordinary middle aged people in the 1940's, you will see plenty of plumpness; if you look at the recommended weight tables in old health- and cook-books, you will see figures way above what we would consider acceptable today: case in point, a female 5'1" tall was considered "normal" at 120 lbs. Today we'd be tsk-tsk-ing and sending her to Weight Watchers.
All of the above being said, high fructose corn syrup has got to go.
Maybe part of it is that I've lived with heavy people my entire life. Watching other people balloon while I've remained the same or lost weight on the same diet, and then watching them abuse and punish themselves because of their weight, has convinced me that popular opinion is all wrong on the relationship between eating and fat. It's really become all about blaming and demonizing people for their physical appearance, when it should be about encouraging people to want to nourish themselves with healthy, nutrient-dense food.
People eat healthfully when they respect themselves and when they realize that it's the smartest thing to do. Making people hate themselves is not a good way to promote this mentality.
There are so many negative people and articles about every subject on the planet. You don't have to take notice of these negative attitudes. You have to choose for yourself. No one can define who you are unless you let them.
I decided to eliminate all wheat products and additives from my diet. Eat only complex carbohydrates and go for a walk everyday, a number of years ago. The weight feel off. How do I know, I don't. I refused to weigh myself ever again. I just bought smaller size pants when needed. When I refused to weigh myself anymore, it was like getting out of diet prison.
(I think you and I would get along real well--as long as we didn't discuss politics!) :))
~grans
But I am a little disappointed that a couple of comments from people who associate obesity with ill health and increased risk of morbidity and mortality have been replied to in a very antagonistic manner. I think it is worth remembering that the vast majority of us, myself included (certified personal trainer and masters in weight management) have been raised with this message, and that until provided with better information, are likely to go on thinking so. It is not (usually) a personal attack when somebody repeats these so-called facts, but an opportunity to provide detailed convincing evidence to the contrary. That evidence certainly exists and continues to mount. HAES defenders: not everyone is where we are yet. Let's stick to educating people with the data.
It may be true that obesity tends to be correlated with certain health issues, but as you of course know, correlation is not causation.
There's not much else I can say except that I support your efforts to end prejudiced and hateful behavior towards larger people. Thank you.
And a bit on another: "drug dealer" .... I had at one point in my life, come close to being at least a prescription drug case (Xenical) ...
So, somewhat late in life, I just had not felt like going off the diet for 7-1/2 years.
So, something like that "seems" permanent.
My weight lost (the last go-round, over 55 pounds) has slowly been creeping back up with little desire to return down. My mind thanks me (I can concentrate better now). My body doesn't. The rest of what you say is a little questionable.