Messages and Obesity
14 05 2008Today I had a nice, thought-provoking meeting with my thesis adviser, Dr. Forestiere. I am writing my undergraduate honors thesis on the rhetoric used by President Bush regarding Iran and its impact on American public opinion. I am finishing up the “results” section, and was having trouble expanding beyond the obvious results I got from my study.
Dr. Forestiere explained to me to think about the broader implications of what I found (that what the President says is a significant factor in forming people’s opinions about foreign events), and connected it to my interest in fitness. She said something along the lines of, “What you found out in your study can even be applied to the messages formed about obesity,” which got me thinking about how we have gotten to where we are today in America.
I thought about how obesity became such an epidemic, and how it finally has become so unacceptable in America that organizations such as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance are being formed, yet it’s still acceptable to eat poorly and live a sedentary lifestyle. The conflicting messages that we receive are interesting; it’s funny how there’s a commercial encouraging the viewers to pick up a sport and adopt healthier habits, and then right after that one goes off, there’s a McDonald’s commercial talking about how great you will feel if you bought and consumed its Big Mac with Super Size fries.
The messages we receive strongly shape not only how we view and comprehend society, but also how we view ourselves. These messages don’t only come from the media. Dr. Forestiere sent me a link to an article from CNN discussing the impact of the relationship mother’s have with food and body image with their daughters’ health. How many times have you said (or heard someone say) around a little kid “Oh, I can’t wear that, it makes me look fat” or “I’m not going to eat today, I don’t want to get fat.” Now little kids refuse to wear certain clothes or eat a cookie because they’re worried about getting fat.
Messages are powerful, and I want to know the role of messages in determining how people view and feel about obesity. That would be a fun master’s thesis, don’t you think?
You know I want your two cents; leave a comment!
Strange…We tell our kids to live - Eat healthy, exercise, don’t smoke, turn the other cheek, work hard in school, etc…
And then we ’show’ them how to live - Smoke, drink, watch tv, give the car in the other lane the finger - followed by a few F-bombs,take the elevator, watch sports on tv but never participate, and most of us haven’t cracked a non-fiction book since we finished our schooling.
Irony can be a b**ch
Exactly. And then we wonder why kids today are so messed up.
The problem is that there isn’t actually much difference in the amount of exercise and the type and amount of food people who are obese eat as opposed to people who are a healthy weight. As a culture, we all eat badly and don’t exercise enough - as a culture. The big problem I see is singleing people out for moral opprobrium who really don’t behave differently than the rest of us.
What the fat acceptance movement is about is saying that they won’t accept society’s call for them to live differently because of their particular biological reality. How do you ask someone who is 100 pounds overweight and lives on 1800 calories a day as it is, and gets some exercise to live in pretty much a constant state of hunger until they reach the weight that our medical community deems healthy? And then what do we ask of them as their body’s metabolism begins it’s inevitable crank down and the body begins it’s assault of chemicals that make the dieter hungrier than they have ever been? What do we require of them in the situation that 98% of all dieters eventually face and fail?
What you’re doing is asking one group of people to live differently than the majority of people - that’s rough. You’re telling people with a biological inclination to be obese that they have a duty above and beyond everyone else’s to eat right and exercise. You’re assigning a cost to be paid by the person for the biology they’ve been endowed with. That doesn’t go over well.
None of us know what the answers are, but it does well to remember that eating healthy and exercising can add enormous stress to our already unreasonably taxing lifestyles. Our grandparents in the 50s worked 7 hours less on average per week than we do, and had single income families. There was a lot more time for cooking and shopping than there is now.
All of that sounds a bit like I’m making excuses. What I’m trying to do is put it in a context that is much larger than you indicated being aware of in your post. I will add that I am all in favor of kids not having computers or tvs in their bedrooms.
I understand your view and I also support no tvs and computers in a child’s bedroom. But the problem of obesity is not all genetic. Why is it that now there are so many more obese adults and children? Our genes haven’t changed, the lifestyle has, indicating that for most people, being obese is a consequence of lifestyle choices. I am aware of several medical conditions that affects weight, such as thyroid problems, but even that is being overdiagnosed.
I also understand that people think there is *less* time for people to live a healthy lifestyle, but in reality, people choose what to make time for. How do other people do it? You may argue that college students are able to better manage their time because they’re not in the real world, but it’s hard for me to understand how grown people, especially those without children, make the excuse that there isn’t any time to cook healthy meals, etc. I watch my sister, who has 3 kids, works full-time, and has a husband that works nights (and sleeps all day), manage to feed her children well and keep them physically involved in exercise. For some people, living healthy is a choice and it’s all about the priorities. If you put in the time for the big things in life, you’ll be able to fit in the little things too.
I’m not encouraging people to be thin; I’m encouraging people to be healthy. There’s a difference. Sure, some people are predisposed to being overweight; in fact, a significant number of people carry the gene. It’s whether or not the gene is expressed that matters. There are a number of environmental factors that can determine if that gene is expressed, particularly what kind of lifestyle one lives.
I don’t just want obese people to change their lifestyle; I want as many people, big or thin, to live healthier. You don’t have to be big to be unhealthy. It’s just a fact that the more obese you are, the more likely you will die early, have heart attacks, type II diabetes, etc.
Also, for that person that’s 100 pounds overweight and eating 1800 calories, you have to remember to ask about the quality of the calories. As a whole, our society is unhealthy and have major lifestyle changes to make, but I focused on obesity in this post because that is what my professor and I discussed today. That’s why I think this would be a great issue to do a thesis on; that way, I will be able to widen my lens.
Lori,
I just wanted to clarify something.
Are you talking specifically about the very small percentage of the population that is dramatically overweight ( i.e 400+ lbs) or are you speaking about the run of the mill 300 lbs male or the 250 lb overweight female?
Either way, I agree that it shows a real weakness of character when a fat person is mocked, teased, stared at…
You are 100% right that the majority of the western world eats a very poor diet. In this time of nutritional affluence, having a body that is efficient at storing excess calories is socially & medically unlucky.
My brother was always the type of guy who could eat whatever he wanted and never get fat. Always had abs. Not me. To achieve his level of bodyfat required a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Over time it just became second nature. A lot of time to be fair.
On the other hand, I am confused by your comment - “What you’re doing is asking one group of people to live differently than the majority of people - that’s rough. You’re telling people with a biological inclination to be obese that they have a duty above and beyond everyone else’s to eat right and exercise. You’re assigning a cost to be paid by the person for the biology they’ve been endowed with. That doesn’t go over well”.
No one is asking anything of the overweight.
We are all on our own journey. And some times it sucks. At one point in America’s history, having darker pigmentation reduced your societal status peer to property. That sucked. People stare at disabled individuals. Dwarfs. Really ugly people.
At this point in time, we have a very definite beauty image. Lean, healthy, broad shoulders & narrow waist for men, 0.8 waist to hip ratio for women.
Attractive people are favored by everybody.
And when you say ” it does well to remember that eating healthy and exercising can add enormous stress to our already unreasonably taxing lifestyles. Our grandparents in the 50s worked 7 hours less on average per week than we do, and had single income families. There was a lot more time for cooking and shopping than there is now”, you are being very selective.
Their workday may have been 7 hours, but they WORKED a heck of a lot more than we do today. Technology has made our lives so easy. And if we are going to look in human history for the time when man was at his physical peak, we have to go back to pre-agricultural times.
We ate lean protein (venison,fish), grasses,fruits & vegetables. Grains were rarely eaten as the process required to make them edible was time consuming and labor intensive. Dairy products were also much less available then today.
Our bodies are meant to eat this way and meant to move & work all day long.
Like I said before, the naturally overweight person is thrifty with the calories they ingest, while the naturally lean person burns them off as heat.
So what do us heavy people do? Give up? No way, fight harder & smarter.
And forget the doctors. Doctors used to advertise cigarettes. Today they are legalized drug dealers
Much love & support
Good point on the workday, DR. We do work longer, but most of our work is done sitting down, at a computer screen, wolfing down a cheeseburger when we do remember to eat.
(reading. nodding. great post and commenters. nothing to add as Im still mulling)
When you’re done mulling, add your thoughts
I just returned from training a client.
He is a 51 yr old male who has had a lumbar/thoracic spinal fusion for the past 35 yrs. This condition limits his ability to bend and twist his spine as well as impacting the orientation of his hips/pelvis/shoulder girdle and forcing him to wear 1 built up shoe.
This is also a guy who busts his ass during his workouts with me, skis the toughest hills in Whistler, plays competitive tennis and works 60 hr workweeks at his successful home renovation/interior design business.
This morning, I put him and his 16 yr old stepson through a very tough workout. His stepson is quite the athlete, but the old man destroyed him.
This guy has every reason to skip working out and watching his diet.
But he doesn’t.
His decision. His actions. His life.
Indeed! I just got inspired to work out. In a few hours, after work.
Our lives are the result of the choices we make with the resources we are given.
Really excellent point. It’s no wonder that we’ve got so many health problems, what with all of the confusion in the mixed messages.
Good post Jay. It would be interesting to hear how you tie obesity to Bush’s rhetoric.
Re: Lori
“…but it does well to remember that eating healthy and exercising can add enormous stress to our already unreasonably taxing lifestyles.”
WHAT???????
Eating healthy and exercising gives you more energy, improves your mood, allows you to sleep better, supresses chronic diseases, and last but not least it improves your sex life. Do any of those sound enormously stressful to you??????
Thanks McBloggenstein. I don’t know how often Bush speaks about obesity, but I will find out. Maybe I’ll do more than his presidency, to get a better picture of how rhetoric regarding health has changed (or not changed) through the years.
Also, it’s interesting to note that when someone’s life becomes stressful or taxing, the first thing to be pushed aside is their health, which is the one thing we need to make it through stressful times.