Is there an ‘obesity epidemic’?
I figured now that Thanksgiving is behind us and we’ve loosened our belts a notch, it’s time to talk about America’s dreaded “obesity epidemic.”
I put “obesity epidemic” in scare quotes not because I don’t believe that the health of Americans has taken a nosedive in the last few decades, but because I think the problem is overblown. And — as we’ve surely figured out by now — the more we focus on it, the worse it gets. Plus, I think we focus on the wrong thing by emphasizing outward appearance, rather than true health, which can’t be assessed by looks alone.
This week, self-described “fit mom” Maria Kang was banned from Facebook for a few days for posting what the social media site dubbed “hate speech.”
Maybe you’ve seen Kang’s picture, which went viral on social media at least in part because so many took offense to it. In the photo, Kang is posed in a sports bra and teeny shorts with her three young children. She looks like a fitness model, which she is — tanned, toned, flexing her ab muscles. It’s not the photo that caused offense, though. It was the caption: “What’s your excuse?”
Kang wasn’t banned because of this photo. The ban came after she criticized plus-sized women who snapped pictures of themselves wearing lingerie and shared those pictures with the lingerie company Curvy Girl, as part of their “Regular Women” campaign.
Kang wrote about being “annoyed” and “frustrated” by campaigns that widen the definition of beauty to include larger women, though she insists that she’s not trying to insult overweight people.
“I’m not bashing those who are proud and overweight. I am empowering those who are proud and healthy to come out and be the real role models in our society,” she wrote.
Kang’s reaction to the lingerie shots is not about concern for people’s well being. It’s about being personally offended by other people’s bodies and feeling that her priorities are objectively superior just because they work for her.
A few things have changed since the 1970s, when everyone seemed to be slim: bigger portions, more convenience, less movement, tough economics (and limited access to healthy foods in poorer neighborhoods) and, most importantly, we’ve become obsessed with weight. That obsession struck in the 1980s with fitness videos, classes, and later low-fat and no-fat everything — all big moneymakers that made it their business to tell people they weren’t good enough, unless they were as lean-looking in Spandex as Olivia Newton John.
In the case of the low-fat/no-fat craze, it sent us into the loving arms of sugar and carbohydrates, so-called “healthier” alternatives. We’re learning now how wrong that was.
The more we zero in on this “epidemic” and shame people who find themselves a part of it, the more destructively we treat our bodies. It becomes an unwinnable battle.
Shame begets overeating to self-soothe, which begets decreased health. Or, shame begets extreme diets, diet pills, diet fads and over-exercising which begets a ruined metabolism and decreased health (and in many cases, weight gain).
One thing, I’d argue, hasn’t changed since the 1970s, and that’s our discipline.” Being strongly motivated and self-controlled is not the answer to obesity. Far from it.
“We should celebrate any person who makes their fitness and nutrition a priority,” Kang writes.
But we already do that; no one can argue that we don’t prize fit bodies over any other kind. It hasn’t lessened obesity. And why should we prize the physically fit? We’re allowed to have different priorities. A physically fit person is not superior to those who spend their time volunteering, hanging out with their families, writing novels or learning to knit.
We don’t “owe” anyone our good health. It would be great if we could all get to a place where we want to take good care of ourselves, but shame won’t do that.
Fitness gurus harp about virtues like “discipline,” “hard work” and “dedication.” But here’s the thing: we’re all different. Dedication to something should be a choice, and, in fact, has to be, in order for the habits to stick
Studies show that intrinsic motivation — motivation that comes from within ourselves — is more effective than extrinsic motivation, which comes from an outside source (like a “fit mom” telling us how to live our lives).
You can dedicate your life to all sorts of things: helping others, raising a happy family, traveling, running marathons, biking your way across America. But, in order to accomplish any of that, you have to want it more than you want anything else in your life.
If you happen to want physical fitness more than anything else, by all means, make that your life’s priority, as Kang does.
But think how boring the world would be if everyone did that.