big fat con
2004-05-11 15:21:32.551026+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
In light of that thread on weight management, here's The big fat con story:
The case against fat proceeds on the assumption that if a fat person becomes thin, that person will acquire the health characteristics of people who were thin in the first place. Although this assumption may seem like simple common sense, it is, like many commonsensical assumptions, quite dubious. If a person who is physiologically inclined to be fat loses weight, this does not transform that person into someone who is physiologically inclined to be thin. To understand the implications of this distinction, consider that bald men die sooner, on average, than hirsute men, probably because bald men have higher levels of testosterone, which appear to lower life expectancy. Given this, surely no one would conclude that giving a bald man hair implants would improve his prospects for long life.
The article points out that much of the increase in "obesity" and Type 2 Diabetes can be chalked up to the lowering of the ranges which qualify a person for each of those, not necessarily that more people actually have blood sugar issues.
It also flirts with, but doesn't fully say, that exercise rather than dieting is what's likely to have the positive health effects, and points out the cultural differences in notions of how heavy it's appropriate to be.
It's this last one that I find most interesting:
When asked to define "beauty", the white girls described their feminine ideal as a woman 5ft 7in tall, weighing between seven and seven and a half stone (ie, someone thinner than the average model). By contrast, the black girls described a woman whose body included such features as visible hips and functional thighs.
Perhaps in looking to explain the preoccupation with weight and size we should glance toward the industries that beneit most from selling insecurities.
Not that I'm planning on putting back on what I've lost any time soon; I have more energy now and I'm getting more exercise. Just a reminder that our notions of health are as politicized and driven by issues of the consumer culture as anything else.