"Fat Politics"

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: BOOK REVIEW
'Fat Politics': Healthy skepticism on obesity
By Jim Rossi, Special to The Times

'Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic'
J. Eric Oliver
Oxford University Press: 228 pp., $28

Pima Indians living in southern Arizona today are among the heaviest people in the world. The average Pima woman weighs 200 pounds; men weigh more. Before the 1940s, most Pima sported lean, muscular physiques. As their agrarian culture and low-fat diet was transformed into the sedentary lifestyle and a diet of highly processed food common in mainstream America, the tribe's rates of obesity and diabetes skyrocketed.

Why have the Pima changed so much and what does it say about America's so-called obesity epidemic? First, obesity is not a disease, J. Eric Oliver asserts in "Fat Politics"; it is a symptom, not a cause of, the nation's health problems. Second, the University of Chicago political science professor contends, the "epidemic" is mostly a myth.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 60% of Americans are overweight and one in four is obese. But that's only because body mass index (BMI), the U.S. government's official measuring stick, considers weight solely as a function of height, ignoring tremendous natural variation in body type, percentage of body fat and overall fitness. As a result, Oliver contends, the incidence of obesity and its associated health risks have been grossly exaggerated by government researchers, pharmaceutical companies and the weight-loss industry to make money and fuel prejudice. "By worrying about our weight, we are focusing on the wrong target," Oliver writes. "e are not getting diabetes, cancer, and heart disease because of how much we weigh; we are getting these problems partly because of how and what we eat" — and too little exercise.

Although Oliver agrees with "Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser that we eat too much unhealthy food, he chastises Morgan Spurlock's documentary "Supersize Me" and many weight-loss experts for equating weight gain with poor health, fueling prejudice in otherwise intelligent people. "Not only do they assume that fatness is inherently bad, they also presuppose that fat people (that is, minorities and the poor) are too ignorant to know that they should be thin."...

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/cl-et-book4nov04,0,7992039.htmlstory?coll=la-home-health

[classics]

1. Nice post.

Though I doubt it will get much attention here, where the 'raging food monster' belief is still chic.

[OzarkDem]

2. Agree, not enough scientific evidence regarding obesity

Most of the research supposedly linking obesity to all health problems is weak and inconsistent. Some of it is downright ridiculous. Most of these studies show only a possilbe "correlation" between an illness and weight/diet/exercise, but no causation. As a foundation for public health remedies, they're pretty poor.

The obession with diet & excersise is the conservative alternative to affordable health care and research into the real causes of disease (environmental pollution?) Its much easier to blame people for getting sick than to find a cure or provide them with treatment.

[Nikia]

3. I don't think that anti fat is really about health

If it were, people who were in the "healthy weight range" or healthy and in the "overweight weight range" would never be encouraged to restrict their calories or lose weight for the sake of losing weight.
I have an eating disorder and attend a support group. Being thin does not mean being healthy. We are flooded with information about being heavy as unhealthy. The information about being underweight as unhealthy is less visible. While many articles about eating disorders are helpful, it seems that most talk about the sickest people. I suppose that if they talked about people who weren't as sick, we'd have to question low calorie diet plans for people who are not obese.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Hmmm - must get another dozen doughnuts so I can mull this over...

Ummmm - dough-nuts!

[FloridaPat]

5. Our food is crap. Fruit most of the time is tasteless because it is picked

way before it is ripe to ship it to the stores before it rots. Veggies are picked days before the get to market and are almost as tasteless as fruits. I have even managed to pick up a steak at the grocery store with no taste.

When was the last time anyone picked up a Hershey chocolate bar that was bad?
When was the last time anyone picked up a fruit and it was tasteless/rotten/unedible?

Look at labels on foods. Until this century, whey was given to pigs. These same people who did that ate pigs, ears, intestines, livers, hearts, brains, stomachs - but not whey. Now whey is in everything.

Other things are in all foods - hydrogenated fats and msg. MSG is used in nursing homes and hospitals to get sick or elderly people to have an appitite and eat more. We now have genetically modified food.

And then there is exercise. Kids don't go outside and play anymore. They do video games and computer stuff. Adults do the same. Everyone watches TV. We have a sick country that benefits the drug companies, insurance comapnies, and hospitals. Not to mention the food industry. No one makes money if we were all healthy.

[Nikia]

6. I work in the processed food industry

We use multiple ingredients in our products that can cause emergency health situations when consumed in sizeable quantities. Yes, they have been approved for human consumption, but sometimes one wonders how it affects us over time to be consuming several of these ingredients on a regular basis.
Processed food is about money. It is cheaper than fresh food because it is filled with cheap ingredients instead of regular food components. It does also keep longer. Although it is nice for consumers not wanting to make frequent grocery trips, it is even nicer for food companies. They can sell most of their product before it goes bad and take advantage of flucuations in food commodity prices to make more while certian things are cheaper and more readily available.

[BJW]

26. More More!

I'd love to hear more about your work and the industry from an insider. Have you thought about writing separate topical posts? I'd read 'em!

[AndyTiedye]

11. Let the People Dance!

And then there is exercise. Kids don't go outside and play anymore. They do video games and computer stuff.

and the usual answer is to push them into soccer or some other
team sport. That may work for kids with some athletic ability, but
those who don't simply learn to detest exercise.

We are taught in "phys ed" that exercise must either be a competitive sport,
or mind-numbingly boring calesthetics in a smelly gym.

If gym teachers were selling sushi, the best they would be able to
come up with is "cold, dead fish is good for you".

Dancing is very good exercise, and it's infinitely more fun
than anything the gym has to offer!

But when kids want to get together and dance, TPTB call out the SWAT
team! http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/82205utrave.cfm

Obesity among kids (and adults) was less of a problem before the
powers-that-be shut down raves in most parts of the country, and
the places that still have an active dance scene have less of an
obesity problem than elsewhere.


Let the People Dance

[AwakeAtLast]

12. I teach Music, and in my classroom WE DANCE!!!!

So many folk songs have very intricate dances. Doesn't matter what country you choose, you will find many that will fit the bill for good exercise. Now, mind you, we don't dance the entire time, but I try to mix it up as much as possible! When I see kids recreating some of the dances on the playground, I know I have expanded their repertoire of activities.

[AwakeAtLast]

7. I tried to eliminate processed food from my diet - I've lost 40 lbs.

since May. It was not a hard thing to do, and I did not increase exercise. I especially avoided anything with high fructose corn syrup. It is amazing how much better I feel! :)

[neebob]

13. Same here

I've lost 51 pounds since May, (1) replacing processed and junk foods with whole and raw foods, and (2) planning and recording and adding up everything I eat. I wasn't even exercising at all until about two weeks ago, and that's because I was having trouble keeping my calories down (read: resisting junky snacks) and only lost 6 of the 51 pounds in September and October. So I joined a gym and have been going every weekday. The first three months, the pounds just flew off, faster and more easily than they did when I was 30 and much more disciplined in following a specific program - i.e., Weight Watchers.

I'm now 45, and I really did eat that much and it's not too hard to lose weight in my forties - not hard at all, except maybe for the time and effort I've put into creating and managing the massive Excel workbook that contains the record of every little thing I've eaten, including pieces of gum, since May 10. I'm pretty close to pinpointing my daily caloric need.

I feel great, too, and even better since I started working out.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. Way to go!

I have hit a plateau, too, so I have looked into ways to add some more exercise. I don't think it will take much, though, considering how well you eat this way.

If you need any extra support, just PM me!

:hi:

[neebob]

19. Back atcha with the way to go

And since I'm kicking this thread, I'll add my comments on the article in the original post. I'll just have to assume it's a fair representation of the book being reviewed. While it doesn't come right out and say that obesity is not unhealthy, it could easily be twisted and used to support that argument.

I don't know about other countries, but anyone who's lived in America for more than a couple of decades should be able to look around and observe the so-called obesity epidemic. There are many more, much fatter people there used to be. There are certainly a lot more exremely fat kids than they were in the sixties and seventies, when I was a kid. The few kids I thought were fat, who were picked on for it, would look like stick figures standing next to some of today's kids.

It's simply not a good thing to be as heavy as so many of us are these days. I don't think it's a disease; it's just a result of diet and inactivity. For the vast majority of us, it's a matter of calories consumed vs. calories burned. Duh. It's just not this impossible situation requiring medications and invasive procedures.

And I'm the last person to defend the government, but I don't think it's quite the bogeyman it's being made out to be in this case. Yeah, the government's all about making money and companies making money. I'll even go as far as to say it's in the best interest of many of those companies for more people to be sick, and some of them actually try to make people sick and keep them that way, and the government supports that - but fueling prejudice? I don't think so.

The government has been all over issues of weight, fitness, and nutrition - never mind how effectively - for as long as I can remember. They put out standards that are based on averages and ranges designed to cover a couple hundred million people of all different shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. With regard to weight, those ranges are tied to BMI.

At 6'1", I'm certainly not an average woman, but I find that I fit within the BMI-based ranges. For me, obese is anything over 230 pounds; overweight, 190-230; and normal, 140-190. That's a huge range, allowing for "big bones" or a "slow metabolism" or age or any other excuse I might come up with for weighing more than 190. My ideal weight is probably about 165, exactly in the middle of the range. At 19, I weighed 155 and was not too thin. At 30, after I had my son, I got down to 170 and felt and looked about the same as I did at 19. I didn't feel fat until I got back up to 190, and while most people wouldn't call me obese at 230, it's simply not healthy for me to be packing 65 extra pounds or for a shorter person to be carrying the equivalent of that.

No one in their right mind would say it is.

My current weight has nothing to do with politics, and while I wouldn't argue that there's not a powerful economic force at work with some groups of people, you'd have a hard time convincing me their obesity is the government's doing. Mostly they just buy and eat too much of what's convenient and exercise too little.

[slor]

8. Thanks for posting n/t

[NWHarkness]

9. Right about Spurlock

I found Supersize Me to be very offensive to fat people.

[Broken_Hero]

10. I agree with a lot of this....

being FAT doesn't' always been being more healthy, or even being in less shape than smaller counterparts. I am a big man, and i have always thought, that because people are smaller/thinner that they are in better shape, which is FALSE. When i lost substantial weight in my senior yr of HS, i joined track and as a team, we would run as a team for warm ups. At that time i was about 280-290, and i was running faster, and stronger than some of the people who were under 200lbs. I also noticed that i could out push up about half the team. And this is a track/field team, the whole team was small except us field/throwers, and thats when i realized size/weight doesn't necessarily mean that you are fat/slow/lazy, or that you are in better shape.

When i lost all my weight during my senior year, i was 235lbs. And according to the physical therapists and what not, they said my ideal goal was 190lbs...and i was like, no freaking way, at 235 i felt so damn small, i really did, and i was like, you know, i'm still considered fat cause i'm 45lbs heavier than what THESE standards want me to be, i was shocked, but i didn't care...i was Happy, ...btw, i am 6'4 and at the time, i could fit into size 38 jeans...with a belt! how much smaller did/do they want us to become?

I have always struggled with my weight, but no one that ever knew me, or was a friend of mine thought i was lazy, or weak, or overtly unhealthy from it, albeit there were times when i knew weight effected me greatly, on one end of the weight spectrum i was 425, and on the lower end, i was 235. People just have to find their comfortable niche with their weight/body/soul...damn even now i'm struggling with it, but i know being over weight isn't what its all hyped up to be...i think it more of a society self image thing, primarily based on vanity, but with health reasons thrown around it to make it sound somewhat noble.

As far as obesity with native americans/minorities its basically the money/food issue. They can only afford so much, so they have to spend money on food that is cheap and will last/stretch out...like bologna, kool aid, sugar drinks...chips, hot dogs and what nots. My wife and I are both American Indians, and diabetes runs rampant on my wifes side, and on my side its not so bad, only a few have it, but on my wifes side,...her parents, her brother, her aunts, her grandparents had it and died from complications of it, its sad. Another thing, that you guys might find interesting. Fry bread is not a traditional indian food, when the US govt came into the picture they gave "most" indians lard and flour to survive on for food, well you can imagine how the indians dealt with that? do you see it? yeah, thats how fry bread came into existence...albeit some tribes had some forms of bread, but essentially fry bread was a side effect of the US relations with the american indians.

[catmother]

14. but fry bread tastes sooo good.

[msongs]

15. for the price of 2 medium pizzas eaten in 10 minutes you can

buy a turkey and all the extras and feed people a family for a bunch of meals: first dinner, left overs times ?, soup from the bones.

even better ratio when you consider all the other crap that will be consumed along with the pizzas.

Of course your mileage will vary if your pizzas are the $3 frozen kind made from cardboard and red paint with rubber cheese substitute that will not spoil if left out in the sun for a week :-)

Msongs
www.msongs.com/chinadepot.htm

[shanti]

16. high fructose corn syrup

the evil of evils....and why there are so many obese and diabetic now.

[Swamp Rat]

18. Speaking of 'Fat Politics' ...

:D

[BJW]

20. First, Throw Away the Bathroom Scales

Our culture teaches us to obsesses on the number of pounds we gain or lose as a measure of our progress. I am a MUCH happier person since throwing away my bathroom scale, and I highly recommend it to everybody.

Fretting over pounds and going on strict diets and tracking small gains and losses creates negative feedback loops leading to progressive weight gain.

Without a scale, I instead simply pay attention to how I feel. I don't predicate self-esteem, or define success, on a what a scale shows. I'm officially off the merry-go-round of obsessing over the number of pounds lost or gained.

If my clothes start feeling tight, or if I start feeling self-conscious about my image in the mirror, well then I give more attention to what and how much I've been eating until my clothes fit better and my self-image is back more in alignment with how I want to appear.

Works like a charm.

[neebob]

21. That's an option, but why so adamant about it?

I've battled my weight all my adult life, and I'll even cop to being obsessed with it, but I don't see it as a specific number. It's a quantity of fat that makes me look and feel unattractive, and it varies in relation to how much of it I had before. The scale is a tool that helps me measure it - along with what size my clothes are and how they fit and how I think I look. I use that tool every day. I don't think it's a bad thing, and I don't get why others feel compelled to tell me or anyone else to stop doing it.

The scale itself and the number it registers do not affect my happiness. It's the physical feeling that accompanies the number going up or down. I'd still have the feeling even if I didn't know what the number was.

[patdem]

22. How do you know if you have never been without it???

That binky..or security blanky..you call a scale is just something you need to feel better or worse...depending on the ups and downs...I suggest you put the scale in the same trash can you did your binky..and your blanky..and accept yourself!

[neebob]

24. I have been without it

and it's pretty presumptuous of you to say whether I need it or what it has to do with my self-acceptance or whether I've accepted myself. I haven't given you enough information to make that judgment, even if it was appropriate for you to do so. And by the way I never had a binky or a blanky.

[BJW]

27. Ugh!

What you wrote comes across as mean-spirited, demeaning and unkind. Was this your intention?

[BJW]

25. A Second Thought??

I'd like to encourage you to re-read my post, and then also re-read your post.

Please give more thought to what you actually wrote. Your post really reinforced for me the idea that by using weight scales we're falling into traps by teaching ourselves to uber-focus on "weight" instead of "feeling" and working on matching up internal and external self-image and acceptance.

Now, with that said, I do get on a scale every once in a while. When I take my animals to the vets, I get on the dog scale, but it's more like a game--wondering if I can guess how much I weigh. Even though it's months or years between weighings, I cab guess my weight within five pounds. I bet nearly every woman could guess their weight too even if they haven't weighed themselves for a long time.

I'm not convinced that you can relate to why I feel it's so liberating to just get rid of the weight scales, but I sincerely hope that one day you will.

Dieting to achieve and maintain a certain weight doesn't work! When we do this we set ourselves up for persistent failure and obsession.
Keep in mind that weight scales don't measure just fat loss, we could also be losing bone and muscle mass from obsessive dieting and malnutrition.

What really matters to me now is if the clothes I want to wear fit and that I'm free to focus on things other than my weight. I just can't express how much happier I am without a weight scale in my home.

[neebob]

29. I thought about it before I actually wrote it

Yes, my happiness is linked to my weight, though not entirely or to a particular number. I was taught to focus on my looks - constantly told how pretty I was and then criticized for being vain. Only in the last few years, after gaining quite a lot of weight and noticing the difference between how I was treated in my twenties and thirties and how I'm treated in my forties have I realized the extent to which I've operated on looks.

So the weight is part of a larger issue, but even that isn't on my list of oppressive, crippling, urgent issues. I have a couple of those to keep my mind occupied and plenty of other reasons to feel good about myself and be happy. And my weight is something I can control. I'm not going to beat myself up for being concerned or even obsessed with it.

I also know about fat vs. muscle and bone loss and how everything works. I'm not crash dieting or exercising purely to lose weight, if you happened to read my first post and somehow thought that. I sat on my ass for 11 years, ate too much, and got fat. I didn't like it.

The scale is one of a few ways to measure my progress in changing something that bothers me. I don't feel the need to throw it away until following simple laws of physics stops working. Then I might agree that I'm setting myself up for failure and begin to see the scale as the instrument of my oppression.

In the meantime, it's there and I don't have to use other facilities to find out how much I weigh. I'm not that good at guessing, which is why I bought the thing in the first place.

[jmm]

23. I agree. Too many people focus on numbers.

One of the reasons I had to get out of retail was because I got tired of trying to explain to some women that the smallest size they could fit into often made them look bigger because it didn't fit their body right. If someone is trying to lose weight then I can see how setting a goal of a particular size or weight could be helpful but even then health and self confidence should be the main priority. I once stopped seeing a doctor after he told me I was three pounds over weight and had better do something before "the situation" got out of hand. I was, and still am, happy with myself and healthy so I ain't gonna let a number get to me.

[Selatius]

28. My diet has pretty much been built around breads, vegetables, etc.

I avoid fast food as much as possible, and I see meat as a rare delicacy, not a stable of a diet.