Americans are fat. Not just slightly chubby or just a little bit overweight, I’m talking dangerously overweight. And it is an impossible fact to deny. There are shows like My 600 Pound Life or My Big Fat Fabulous Life or Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition or, my personal favorite, Biggest Loser all over television. With the exception of the last two shows, these shows seem to glorify or at the very least glamorize obesity and send the message that weighing six or seven hundred pounds is a normal phenomenon. Last month, I explored the pressure on women to be thin and women’s desire to be thin based on societal pressures. However, this month I want to explore an emerging movement and trend within the United States claiming that being overweight and obese is acceptable, even going so far as to deny or negate the harmful health effects of being obese. If health and medical professionals across the world agree that obesity is a major and extreme health problem, then why is there a resistance to that news, especially within the United States? I am not in any way condoning body shaming or fat shaming, which is extremely psychologically damaging and hurtful; rather, I am just curious as to why American society is now becoming comfortable with obesity instead of implementing measures and institutions to combat this scary trend.
So, what exactly is obesity? The Center for Disease Control defines obese as having a BMI or Body Mass Index of 30.0 or higher. BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. While BMI does not measure body fat directly like calipers or underwater weighing, there is a correlation between having a high BMI with having a high body fat percentage and having obesity related diseases like diabetes or heart disease. And around two-thirds of all Americans fall into this category. So that means that around sixty-six percent of all adult Americans are obese. In 2011, the World Health Organization estimated that “1.5 billion people in the world are overweight and some 500 million are obese” (Allen pg. 96). Also, according to the article “Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue,” obesity amongst children is now a global epidemic with “22 million children under 5 years of age are overweight across the world… [and] the number of overweight children and adolescents has doubled in the last two to three decades” in the United States (Deckelbaum). So obesity isn’t just an adult problem anymore; it has trickled down to our children with just around “8% of children 4 to 5 years of age in the United States are overweight” (Deckelbaum). Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and there are no signs that the rates of obesity will decrease in the future. But what about Europeans? Are they as fat as Americans? During my time in Europe, I have seen a few overweight people, but no one that would make a TLC special. According to Joseph Nagle in “Why are Americans Fatter than Europeans” the myth that are no fat Europeans is not true; rather, the “number of overweight individuals between the US and EU are fairly close. The difference comes down to the obese, where in the States it is fairly common to come across an individual who is obese” (Nagle). According to the World Health Organization, obesity affects 10-30% of adults in the European Union and around 30-70% of adults are overweight. In Food of France, Root claims that the “French simply refuse conform to type… this quality of independence manifests itself… in the matter of food” (Waverly). This could be used to explain why France as a whole is one of the skinniest nations in the EU; they simply do not conform to the new notions and styles eating. But looking American obesity, if the rates are so high and continuing to climb, then why isn’t there more of push to get healthy, lose weight, eat more healthy food? If being fat is just a simple matter of eating too many calories and not exercising enough, why is obesity such a problem still?
In “Big Fat Myths” Alexandra Brewis explores the myths behind being fat and obese. According to her, the five biggest misconceptions surrounding being fat are—it’s all in our genes, losing weight is easy, fat is deadly, fat is bad and fat-loving societies contribute to being overweight. Many people often claim that are a genetically predispositioned to be obese or overweight; however, there are many factors that contribute to weight gain and no single gene is responsible for one’s size. The biggest determiner of size is actually socioeconomic level and geographic location. Poorer people who live in poorer areas are more likely to be overweight or obese. There is also a misconception that losing weight is easy and simple, it is just a matter of cutting calories or incorporating more exercise. Brewis states that “obesity is a disease or condition understood by many to be entirely under personal control,” which translates into the idea that being overweight is a personal decision therefore no help from others should be provided (Brewis pg. 464). The idea is that you chose to be fat so you can choose to be slim. However, “looking at the idea of weight loss in relation to the long-term, evolutionary history of our species suggests, in stark contrast, that losing weight should not be especially easy because the capacity to gain and maintain fat on our bodies is a particular and important human adaptation and fundamental part of our biology” or humans were not designed to lose weight, we were designed to conserve and store fat in case we did not have access to food (Brewis pg. 464). So losing weight is hard, and anybody that has ever been on a diet can attest to that. Most people associate fat with disease, but the science behind the correlation of obesity and mortality is confusing and contradictory. It is a fact that if a person is obese the prevalence of diseases like diabetes or heart disease, but many obese people can be in good health and can even be healthier than those people are normal or underweight. Going with the idea that fat is deadly is the idea that fat is bad. Fat women are typically seen as lazy or incompetent or undesirable; however, there is “no scientific evidence to suggest that obese people are more lazy or stupid than everyone else” (Brewis pg. 465). Because many people believe that being fat is a choice, obesity is seen as a huge personal failing and probably considered the most severe personal failing because being thin is linked to everything good in Western society.
differences in attitudes towards skinny and fat women
Obese people are given fewer opportunities than slim people and are consistently discriminated against in all aspects of life. But why? What is it about obese people that make everyone uncomfortable? What makes us so uneasy and hostile to people who are overweight? Being obese is now classified as an eating disorder and as a society as a whole, we accept anorexics and bulimics because they are skinny and we associate thinness with hard-work, perfection and beauty. Why does society believe that being obese is a personal choice or failure to be self-disciplined if it can be classified as a psychological problem or a mental health disorder? I think the answer to this lies in the reasons behind why someone is obese and our relationship with food and health in general.
Obesity is different than being a little overweight. Someone who is a little overweight may have thirty or forty pounds to lose, while someone who is obese may have upwards of two or three hundred pounds to lose. A little overweight can be contributed to eating too many cookies or not sleeping enough or not renewing the gym membership, but obesity is different. According to the American Psychological Association, a “study of obese people with binge eating problems found that 51 percent also had a history of major depression” (American Psychological Association). Watch any of the shows I mentioned earlier and almost every, single obese person has had some type of trauma in the past, whether it was sexual abuse, a parent’s early death, divorce, physical abuse, or any other type traumatizing event. So if we take into account that these morbidly obese people most likely had hugely traumatic event in their past and are suffering from depression or post traumatic stress disorder, then why do we not offer these people help? Instead of saying unhelpful things like go to the gym or eat more healthy, why can’t we offer support groups or therapy? But, with that comes the stigma of mental illness so obese people now face two huge obstacles in being treated with respect—being overweight and being honest about suffering from a mental health disorder. As a society, Americans fear both things, which contributes to the overall unwillingness to help obese people.
When I started looking into the obesity epidemic, I realized that it cannot be looked at by a single perspective. The obesity epidemic combines everything from the advertising industry and the food industry to American ideals and attitudes. The food industry is overrun with processed junk, which is advertised as low-cost and accessible. Fresh foods are considered a luxury and most of the American people cannot afford to feed their families local and organic foods. So our food and advertising industry capitalize on the American disdain of the poor and minority groups. Which means that Hamburger Helper is being specifically advertised to poor black or Hispanic families living in areas with no access to healthy food, also known as a food desert. This ties back into the idea from Brewis, which is that poor people in poor areas are more likely to get fat. Also, tie in the fact that minorities are more likely to experience abuse and not seek professional help, which can lead to PTSD or depression or any other mental health disorder. According to the American Bar Association, “77% of all Hispanic Texans indicate that either they, a family member and/or a friend have experienced some form of domestic violence, indicating that approximately 5.2 million Hispanic Texans are personally affected by the epidemic of domestic violence” (American Bar Association). Ron Finley, a community activist in Los Angeles, claims that “South Central Los Angeles is home of the drive-thru and the drive-by” (Finley). Combine these statistics and ideas with the fact that most of these people do not report the abuse or seek help after the abuse happens, it is a breeding ground for depression which can in turn lead to obesity later in life. To sum this up, our obesity crisis in American can really be traced back to the stigma attached to mental illness and the hatred towards minorities from majority groups in American society and our hatred and disdain for the lower class or poor people in our country.
Wow. With that knowledge, how can we as a society say that obesity is personal choice when most features of American society are designed against them? We give obese people no medical or mental help, no affordable healthy food and no way to remedy their current situation. American industry capitalizes on fat or obese people. And with industry making a profit, there is no way that this situation will ever change due to the desire to always make more money and keep making a larger profit.
I think that the topic of obesity is the most fitting thing to address at the end of this course. The obesity epidemic ties in every aspect of American culture yet we do nothing to fix this problem. It is uniquely American yet as Americans we are unwilling to face the facts. We are willing to let people die from being overweight because we won’t address the fact that it stems from our racism, aversion to the poor, the stigma attached to mental illness and our capitalistic, American greed. Obesity isn’t just a health problem; it is a reflection of current American culture and ideals. It is a reflection of our lack of empathy and sympathy towards people that are different than the white majority. It is a reflection of the fact that until the obesity problem affects wealthy, white people, no one will make any effort to change the system. I am fortunate. I am a white female from a middle-class background in a nice suburb of Dallas. I am not overweight. I am not a victim of racism and do not get looked down upon because of my socioeconomic level. I had access to local, healthy food growing up and did not suffer from any childhood trauma. The system is designed for people like me. It is designed to allow me to succeed and prosper. The odds are in my favor that I will not become obese or even really overweight.
But what about the kids who grew in South Central Los Angeles? What about the kids who grew in the ninth ward in New Orleans? Or the poor farm kids in Mississippi? What odds do they have? The system perfectly engineered obesity so it will affect these groups. And yes, white rich people can obese too but the likelihood of a poor minority being obese is exponentially higher. Because of this fact, obesity can no longer be looked at as solely a health problem. It can also be seen as an effect of being a minority in a lower socioeconomic level.
changing the food system in South Central LA.
Ron Finley offers a new way to take back one’s health in a food desert
Obesity also challenges the American ideal of traditional beauty. We like thin. We are comfortable with thin. We associate thin with perfection. We aren’t comfortable with fat, which can also explain the lack of empathy and help that obese people receive. Even medical professionals do not want to treat obese patients as any negative consequence is seen as a personal failure to be self controlled and disciplined.
Obesity is a problem that everyone should be discussing, not just the people suffering from it. Obesity affects everyone because we are all participants in the system that created and is continuing to fuel the problem. Until we open dialogue concerned with fixing this system, obesity will always continue to be a problem.
Bibliography
“Defining Adult Overweight and Obesity.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Apr. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html>.
Deckelbaum, Richard J., and Christine L. Williams. “Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue.” Obesity Research 9.4 (2001): 239-43. Web <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.507.3982&rep=rep1&type=pdf>.
Bahadur, Nina. “Diet Research: Number Of Americans On Diets Has Decreased, Attitudes On Weight Have Changed, Study Finds.” Huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post, 09 Jan. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/diet-research industry-decrease-study_n_2434316.html>.
Crooks, Deborah L. “Trading Nutrition for Education: Nutritional Status and the Sale of Snack Foods in an Eastern Kentucky School.” Nutritional Anthropology: Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition (2007): 452-62. Print.
Brewis, Alexandra A. “Big Fat Myths.” Nutritional Anthropology: Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition (2012): 463-68. Print.
Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Pima Paradox.” Nutritional Anthropology: Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition (1998): 469-78. Print.
Lieberman, Leslie Sue. “Evolutionary and Anthropological Perspectives on Optimal Foraging in Obesogenic Environments.” Nutritional Anthropology: Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition (2006): 482-88. Print.
Wiley, Andrea S., and John S. Allen. Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
Root, Waverley. The Food of France. New York: Vintage, 1966. Print.
“Obesity: Data and Statistics.” Www.euro.who.int. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. <http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/obesity/data-and statistics>.
Nagle, Joseph. “Why Are Americans Fatter than Europeans?” Www.travelrelapse.com. Travel Relapse, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. <http://travelrelapse.com/2013/02/21/why-are-americans fatter-than-europeans/>.
Patenaude, Frederic. “Eating Habits of Americans vs. French People and Europeans.” Www.renegadehealth.com. Renegade Health, 11 July 2013. Web. <http://renegadehealth.com/blog/eating-habits-france>.
“Statistics: Race and Ethnicity.” Www.americanbar.org. American Bar Association, n.d. Web. <http://www.americanbar.org/groups/domestic_violence/resources/statistics/Race_Ethni ity_Statisitcs.html>.
Finley, Ron. “A Guerilla Gardener in South Central L.A.” TED Talk. Los Angeles. Feb. 2013. Speech.