Our Love Affair With Fatness

[Note: This post gets a little personal. If you're a male person, be forewarned. Considering that most of my readers are female, I think you'll understand.]

There's something about fat that makes us feel comfortable.

Yes, we hate how our body looks and the fact that our jeans are a tad too tight. Most of us cringe at the thought of wearing a swimsuit in public. We say we want to lose 20 or 30 pounds--next week, or month, or year, when things "settle down" and we have more time. We all like the idea of being thin and trim.

But when it comes down to it, most of us are okay with having a little (or a lot!) extra weight, and I think it's safe to say that many people actually LIKE being fat. Once you have that extra fat, and I'm talking excess fat (like the spare tire around the belly), it settles in, makes itself cozy, and like an unwanted house guest, won't leave because you've made it too comfortable.

For women, this subject gets a little touchy, especially when it comes to womanly parts. Like the hips and the chest area. I have heard some women say, "Yah, it would be nice to lose weight, but I'm afraid if I do, I'll lose my ______(insert womanly part, such as hips or chest)." A shame, in my opinion, to put your health at risk because you're afraid if you lose the 20 pounds you need to in order to achieve a healthy weight, you'll also go from a C-cup to a AA (this concern is largely unfounded, btw, unless you become extremely thin, although I'd take a flat chest and healthy, lean body over a buxom overweight body any day).

On a personal note, I inherited the hips and lower-body curves of my pear-shaped grandmother, and there's no amount of exercise or weight loss that will change this fact. My hips are much smaller than they were in my pre-vegan days, but they are hippy hips nonetheless, and nothing short of plastic surgery is going to change their predisposition to curviness.

Further, I'm not well-endowed in the upper body area, never have been, never will be. "Just put some meat on ya, and you'll get bigger [cup size]," I've been told. Nope, not true at all, at least for me. My genes dictate to my body that all excess fat MUST go to the hips/buns/thigh area of the body. No amount of weight gain will change the fact that I really don't (even when nursing!) need to wear a bra.

Yes, a certain amount of fat is needed to "pad" the body. But much less than I think we realize.

I went to South America for four months some years ago. The natives down there were much smaller. Not only in terms of height, but in build and weight. I do not recall having ever seen an obese person. When I came back to the U.S., I was completely blown away by the fatness that is America. I remember shopping at Wal-mart just shortly after my return to the U.S. and being shocked to see such morbidly obese people. I was appalled to see these four hundred pound ladies, pushing carts full of Doritos and frozen pizzas to the check-out stand. A stark contrast to my experience in South America.

I think a lot of people in the United States stay fat because we can. We don't lose the weight we need to because we are attached to our fat. Somehow, we get used to looking at ourselves in the mirror as fat people and we think, "This is who I am." And being fat now doesn't carry the social stigma that it once has, because nearly everyone (especially if you're over 40) is carrying around some extra weight.

What to do about this problem?

Doctor John McDougall, has said, "The fat you eat is soon will be the fat you wear." Fatty, empty-calorie foods, are the number one culprit to our fatness. It's much easier for your body to store fat as fat than it is for your body to store carbohydrates converted into fat.

One Florida doctor, Dr. Jason Newsom, the head of the Bay County Health Department, decided to confront the issue head-on. Part of his attack involved posting electronic messages outside the county health building such as "Sweet Tea=Liquid Sugar.", "Hamburger=Spare Tire.", and "French Fries=Thunder Thighs." Eventually his brash methods cost him his job and was fired. People were upset and threatened lawsuits.

Really, why are people so upset? Again, I think people are comfortable with their fatness and they don't like anything that might disturb it. It's as if Dr. Newsom, by saying, "Doughnuts=Diabetes" he is issuing a diabolical personal insult of the worst kind. "French Fries=Thunder Thighs"--I suppose this hits too close to home and people don't appreciate it. Well, people need to lighten up. If they don't like what they hear, they don't have to listen to it.

We need more people like Dr. Newsom who are willing to rock our proverbial boats, and get us to become uncomfortable with the fat we eat, and the fat we wear.

Like all love affairs, our love affair with fatness cannot last forever. When it ends, all we will be left with is poor health and faint memories of a good time.