The most highly addictive substance
May. 7th, 2009 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chargirlgeniusNope, still not on a diet. But I want to talk about food, overeating, and exercise.
I’ve had a few people point me towards fat-acceptance blogs, and while I’ve read a few of the articles and enjoyed them, I just can’t read them as a matter of course. I’m not dieting, but that doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily happy with my weight, my lifestyle, or my eating habits in general.
No, dammit, I’m ANGRY about it.
The reason I’m not dieting isn’t because I think that I’m naturally supposed to be the weight I am. It’s not because I’m accepting this as just who I am. It’s because diets work for very few people, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not one of them. Dieting just fuels the food imbalance that I’ve come to have in my life.
I’m not naturally fat. Frankly, I don’t think many people are*. We’re naturally a bunch of different shapes and sizes, but naturally, my body is designed to eat whole foods, fruits and veggies, meats, grains, fats, etc. I don’t buy the “genetics made me fat” argument that I’ve seen people make time and time again. If this genetic fat were a real concept it would have always existed, not just since the advent of the drive through. It would exist in other first world countries, the countries where many Americans have their genetic roots. It wouldn’t just start happening in these countries when they started adopting American ways of eating. And yes, I know that there have always been fat people, but all you have to do is travel around the world a little to know that modern American society is different.
*By fat, I don’t mean 10-20 lbs “overweight” according to the faulty BMI charts. I mean 40-50 lbs overweight or more.
Problem is, I think that *some* of the fat acceptance blogs start throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I’ve heard that stat that says that overweight people live longer than underweight ones. That’s fine. But I want to know where that came from. First of all, did they control for the underweight people who were underweight because they were sickly? Did they just consider “overweight”, and not “obese”? Just because people who average 10 lbs overweight (I’m going to stop typing the quotes, but you can fill them in with your mind) live longer doesn’t necessarily mean that people who are 50 lbs overweight live longer.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s pathetic that the medical establishment overlooks everything else, and continually prescribes “lose weight” in lieu of looking for the real problem. That’s bullshit. I think that people shouldn’t be judged by their weight, and that the media should have representative populations, etc. etc. I agree with pretty much everything I’ve read about thin privilege. My beautiful and fat friends are still beautiful.
I think that fat-acceptance gains a lot of popularity because, as a society, we’ve spent so much time blaming individuals (or even ourselves) for being fat. We’ve stigmatized it to such an extent that I can’t blame people for saying “STICK IT!”
It’s obviously the right sentiment, but is the right answer to just completely accept weight? To accept 5’6” and 240 as “this is natural”? To accept that when we travel to foreign countries we’re almost always the largest ones in the room?
Isn’t it possible to be more subtle than that? Let’s stop placing the blame on the individuals, but I’m going to stay angry. I’m not ashamed of myself, I’m not blaming myself, and I’m not feeling bad about who I am or what I do.
But I’m pissed.
I’m pissed because our society is fucked up about it. I’m pissed because the American Government lets food companies push theirdrugs products to us, with absolutely no regard as to its health or appropriateness. I’m pissed because we, as a society, consume products, not food. I’m also pissed because our society has created an environment where it is virtually impossible to move from place to place without the benefit of a car, and we all have to drive to the gym to get enough exercise to stay fit.
I used to cite the old Peter Jennings special, How to Get Fat Without Really Trying. (Better yet, google it, I don’t know how well that link works.) He discussed agricultural subsidies, the role of big business food companies like ConAgra, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and how the government will suggest that all people have to do is a few situps instead of regulating the way that food is advertised. It’s still a fabulous and relevant piece, but it’s far from all that’s out there.
I just heard another interview on NPR yesterday. David Kessler (for my regular readers, don’t let the similarity of that name to another fool you… ;-D ), the commissioner of the FDA from 1990 to 1997, has just released a book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. I haven’t read the book yet, but it extends on Peter Jenning’s piece.
His basic premise is that food companies are marketing a highly addictive substance, and they know that they are doing it. They’re filling foods with fats, salt, and sugar, when they don’t need to have those ingredients, essentially dumbing down our food. They’re processing foods so much that they go down easy and fast, and it ends up being as addictive as cigarettes.
The marketing bombards us at all times of the day, everything is open late, you can get tacos 24 hours a day, and we’re becoming conditioned to eating all of the time. You won’t see somebody in France driving and eating, or walking and eating, but it’s normal here in the US.
I haven’t read it, and I’m still debating reading it, because I know that “diet” books are triggers for me. I’m afraid that he might introduce some sort of diet. I don’t know.
It doesn’t end there. I’ve written over and over again about the physical environment that has been created around us. I don’t need to get into the details again, suffice it to say that our environments are generally not walkable, and natural movement, walking, bike riding, etc. can be rather hazardous to our health, in modern suburban, exurban, and much of urban society.
A couple of months ago, somebody on my flist linked to a study that said that we need to get 250 minutes of intense exercise a week in order to maintain a healthy weight. That’s flipping insane. Let’s ride around in our little boxes, live in neighborhoods where to take a walk or bike ride is taking your life into our own hands, or at very least doesn’t accomplish anything like buying milk or going to work*, and drive over to the gym so we can fake some movement for 250 minutes a week. As we add more lanes to I-66 and drive-thrus to Starbucks and strip malls with acres and acres of parking lot so that you have to drive to a store just across the street.
*I’m not suggesting that individuals are at fault for this, rather it’s become practically the only way to find an affordable house anymore.
So, what’s wrong with this picture? I’m fat. And so are a lot of my friends. Some fatter, some thinner. And we’ve all had enough of fat being stigmatized, of being told that we’re just stuffing our faces, somehow have less willpower than anybody else, etc. I think we can all agree on that. But I’m not “accepting” being fat. I’m dealing with it, but I’m still pissed off about it. But let’s wake up and realize that while it’s not us who are to blame, there IS blame to be had. PLENTY of it.
(And while I enjoy reading Kate Harding, if one more person throws me a link to her when I say that my weight is making my joints ache, I think I’m going to scream.)
I’ve had a few people point me towards fat-acceptance blogs, and while I’ve read a few of the articles and enjoyed them, I just can’t read them as a matter of course. I’m not dieting, but that doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily happy with my weight, my lifestyle, or my eating habits in general.
No, dammit, I’m ANGRY about it.
The reason I’m not dieting isn’t because I think that I’m naturally supposed to be the weight I am. It’s not because I’m accepting this as just who I am. It’s because diets work for very few people, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not one of them. Dieting just fuels the food imbalance that I’ve come to have in my life.
I’m not naturally fat. Frankly, I don’t think many people are*. We’re naturally a bunch of different shapes and sizes, but naturally, my body is designed to eat whole foods, fruits and veggies, meats, grains, fats, etc. I don’t buy the “genetics made me fat” argument that I’ve seen people make time and time again. If this genetic fat were a real concept it would have always existed, not just since the advent of the drive through. It would exist in other first world countries, the countries where many Americans have their genetic roots. It wouldn’t just start happening in these countries when they started adopting American ways of eating. And yes, I know that there have always been fat people, but all you have to do is travel around the world a little to know that modern American society is different.
*By fat, I don’t mean 10-20 lbs “overweight” according to the faulty BMI charts. I mean 40-50 lbs overweight or more.
Problem is, I think that *some* of the fat acceptance blogs start throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I’ve heard that stat that says that overweight people live longer than underweight ones. That’s fine. But I want to know where that came from. First of all, did they control for the underweight people who were underweight because they were sickly? Did they just consider “overweight”, and not “obese”? Just because people who average 10 lbs overweight (I’m going to stop typing the quotes, but you can fill them in with your mind) live longer doesn’t necessarily mean that people who are 50 lbs overweight live longer.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s pathetic that the medical establishment overlooks everything else, and continually prescribes “lose weight” in lieu of looking for the real problem. That’s bullshit. I think that people shouldn’t be judged by their weight, and that the media should have representative populations, etc. etc. I agree with pretty much everything I’ve read about thin privilege. My beautiful and fat friends are still beautiful.
I think that fat-acceptance gains a lot of popularity because, as a society, we’ve spent so much time blaming individuals (or even ourselves) for being fat. We’ve stigmatized it to such an extent that I can’t blame people for saying “STICK IT!”
It’s obviously the right sentiment, but is the right answer to just completely accept weight? To accept 5’6” and 240 as “this is natural”? To accept that when we travel to foreign countries we’re almost always the largest ones in the room?
Isn’t it possible to be more subtle than that? Let’s stop placing the blame on the individuals, but I’m going to stay angry. I’m not ashamed of myself, I’m not blaming myself, and I’m not feeling bad about who I am or what I do.
But I’m pissed.
I’m pissed because our society is fucked up about it. I’m pissed because the American Government lets food companies push their
I used to cite the old Peter Jennings special, How to Get Fat Without Really Trying. (Better yet, google it, I don’t know how well that link works.) He discussed agricultural subsidies, the role of big business food companies like ConAgra, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and how the government will suggest that all people have to do is a few situps instead of regulating the way that food is advertised. It’s still a fabulous and relevant piece, but it’s far from all that’s out there.
I just heard another interview on NPR yesterday. David Kessler (for my regular readers, don’t let the similarity of that name to another fool you… ;-D ), the commissioner of the FDA from 1990 to 1997, has just released a book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. I haven’t read the book yet, but it extends on Peter Jenning’s piece.
His basic premise is that food companies are marketing a highly addictive substance, and they know that they are doing it. They’re filling foods with fats, salt, and sugar, when they don’t need to have those ingredients, essentially dumbing down our food. They’re processing foods so much that they go down easy and fast, and it ends up being as addictive as cigarettes.
The marketing bombards us at all times of the day, everything is open late, you can get tacos 24 hours a day, and we’re becoming conditioned to eating all of the time. You won’t see somebody in France driving and eating, or walking and eating, but it’s normal here in the US.
I haven’t read it, and I’m still debating reading it, because I know that “diet” books are triggers for me. I’m afraid that he might introduce some sort of diet. I don’t know.
It doesn’t end there. I’ve written over and over again about the physical environment that has been created around us. I don’t need to get into the details again, suffice it to say that our environments are generally not walkable, and natural movement, walking, bike riding, etc. can be rather hazardous to our health, in modern suburban, exurban, and much of urban society.
A couple of months ago, somebody on my flist linked to a study that said that we need to get 250 minutes of intense exercise a week in order to maintain a healthy weight. That’s flipping insane. Let’s ride around in our little boxes, live in neighborhoods where to take a walk or bike ride is taking your life into our own hands, or at very least doesn’t accomplish anything like buying milk or going to work*, and drive over to the gym so we can fake some movement for 250 minutes a week. As we add more lanes to I-66 and drive-thrus to Starbucks and strip malls with acres and acres of parking lot so that you have to drive to a store just across the street.
*I’m not suggesting that individuals are at fault for this, rather it’s become practically the only way to find an affordable house anymore.
So, what’s wrong with this picture? I’m fat. And so are a lot of my friends. Some fatter, some thinner. And we’ve all had enough of fat being stigmatized, of being told that we’re just stuffing our faces, somehow have less willpower than anybody else, etc. I think we can all agree on that. But I’m not “accepting” being fat. I’m dealing with it, but I’m still pissed off about it. But let’s wake up and realize that while it’s not us who are to blame, there IS blame to be had. PLENTY of it.
(And while I enjoy reading Kate Harding, if one more person throws me a link to her when I say that my weight is making my joints ache, I think I’m going to scream.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-08 12:19 am (UTC)For the record, I don't "fake movement" when I go to the gym.
I don't embrace being fat, and I don't much care to diet either. I do know I need to eat better, and I absolutely know I need to exercise more. I don't know that I've found the right mix, but I do know that I lost a ton of weight when I was underemployed in 2002-3. I couldn't afford to eat for convenience, and I had a physically taxing job.
What I'm trying to say is that I have all the opportunities and temptations of a thinner person, and yet I'm not thin. The closest male neighbors to my home are all fit. Same America, same town, same street. I can't in good conscience blame any of those for my condition. I know what substances and habits are bad for me; I'm a grownup.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-08 02:10 am (UTC)Look, I'll not deny that we all have a personal responsibility to deal with this. But just because we make our own choices doesn't mean that we have to stand for the way we're treated by those pushing products, not food, on us. Food execs know that they are intentionally creating addictions.
You're a grownup now, but when do you think that your eating habits were set? Have you watched kid food advertising lately? What they market towards children? It's no different than cigarette advertising aimed at the kiddie set.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-08 08:34 pm (UTC)As a person who has struggled with weight my entire life, I agree with the sentiment that being fat is not ugly, or a personal flaw, or defect. However, I know that I make my own choices. Its not just about what is going to make me fat. I also choose to eat things that I am allergic to. WHY... I don't know why. I know when I am eating it, that it is bad for me. It will hurt me, and I shouldn't Why do I eat it anyway? Sometimes I make good choices and it works, but most of the time i don't and it doesn't.
I don't think that indoctrination comes from the media or society. I think it is based on psychological coping mechanisms I developed as a child. furthermore, because of my lifestyle, I now have type II diabetes, which further contributes to my hunger and sugar cravings (sugar up sugar down).
then we have the millions of years of evolution working to make us put on weight even when we eat very little. A yo-yo diet just makes your body resistant to weight loss.
I feel like everything is working against poor little me in my quest to attain a healthy weight. My psychology, My body, My environment. With all of these things working against us, its no wonder that some of us fail to maintain a healthy eating and exercise plan.
Even 30 years ago people were healthier... I think what we all need are moms (the stay at home kind). Moms to make a fresh healthy dinner (and do all of the shopping and gardening that make that inexpensive and possible). Moms to hug us when we are feeling blue, so we dont run to the refrigerator, Moms to take care of household chores so that when we get home from a long day of work, we dont have to sit down and do an hour of bills and paperwork. Basically someone to help out with the domestic stressors and duties of everyday life. sadly, most moms now have to work, or if they are lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, its only when they have too many kids for the lack of a second income to be an economical choice. (yet again putting too much work and stress on the family.) Then the woman has to deal with the OH, you're "JUST a MOM." Thats a big job and an undervalued one. If our society put more value on the things that have been traditionally women's work, then I think there would be more people willing to take the financial sacrifice of a second income to have one parent stay at home and be the domestic parent.
And who can afford to buy a house and pay the mortgage on one income? Especially when you have to have a car, and pay all the school fees and buy all the little things? Sure if you live in the middle of no where, maybe you can afford to buy a house on one income, but where do you work?
We need smaller communities. I mean as far as the locations of things, not the number of people. But we run on a system that is based on the scale of economy. one big school for the kids instead of many small schools. One big department store for shopping instead of lots of little stores downtown. I get it that we cannot undo the infrastructure of the country. But how about high speed trains so that people can commute from WV to DC in less than 2 hours?
Our whole Lifestyle is broken. There is no easy or quick fix. So many people with poor coping skills. All people really need is Fresh Air, Good food, and some exercise. Its amazing how much of that we go without how often.