Posted by Ellsee on Dec 29, 2009 in
Thinking Fat |
I suspect every fat person in America asks him-/her-self this question at one time or another, sometimes frequently. There are plenty of answers, most of which do not come from ourselves but the people and culture around us.
Here’s a list of the typical assumptions about why fat people are fat:
- Over-eating
- Lazy
- Don’t exercise enough
- Poor self-image
- Emotional eating
- Psychological protection
- Slow metabolism
- Poor eating choices (fast-food, junk food, etc.)
I doubt anyone can deny that these do not play a role in weight gain and overweight-ness among people, however, I also think these “reasons” have become the glib cliche rationales for those who do not, or have yet not struggled with weight issues to oversimplify fatness and the complexities involved in getting to “the fat” as well as keeping or losing it. Even the medical profession turns to the thin as some kind of “standard” for how fat people should conduct their lives in order to “shed the pounds” and be fat-free. Such a mindset ignores the fact that there are very real differences between the “fat” and the “thin”–I would dare say not just physically, but mentally as well. This is something I hope to discuss at another time.
Fat people get inundated so much by the world around them about their “problem” that it’s little wonder that as soon as the question is asked, the answers gush forth. Because the answers do not come from within, there seems little hope that any of the over-simplified, hyperbolized, often downright insultive, reasons provided will produce more than demoralization and a trip to McDonald’s. What’s the use? We fatties all “know” why we’re fat. There’s no sense in trying to figure out what every thin person knows already: Fat people are fat because they want to be. Otherwise, they’d be thin.
WOW! What a revelation! If only I could THINK myself thin, I’d be a glamorous size 6! I would instantly stop eating all the calories, take up jogging 10 miles a day and quit with the permanent scowl of self-loathing. [If you can't hear the sarcasm here, I question your sense of irony.]
But I digress. The question still glares me in the face: Why am I, not anyone else, not my husband, my colleagues, my family and friends, why am I, me, myself and I, FAT?
Here’s some thoughts about this in a linear form.
Yes, no doubt several of these reasons may fit under the “blanket” of pop culture rationales for my fatness. Yet, I don’t single out any one item as THE CAUSE for my obesity. I see them more as a complex puzzle, a fat “rubic’s cube” of sorts that is further wrapped up in layers of cultural perceptions, attitudes and messages about fat which all play a role in the “Total Fat Me”.
As much as I am responsible for my “fat-encouraging” decisions, so is our culture for its “fattitudes” toward people who are fat. We’ve come to recognize racism, and on a smaller scale, sexism, but fat-ism, is still something invisible to us–and a strange ~ism it is. But that’s a story for another day.
There’s a body of research that shows babies who were formula fed during the 1960s and 1970s are more likely to suffer from obesity than those breastfed during the same period. Apparently, the formula of the time increased the number of fat cells in the infant which could later be used to store fat. Moreover, formula fed babies worked less for their meal (from a bottle) and could gorge themselves before they could actually feel full. Consequently, as these infants grew, they were unable to modulate their intake of food since they needed more volume to make themselves “feel” full, even if they did not need as much to be healthy. I was fed both from a bottle and breastfed in the mid-1960s for my first three months. Then, I was bottle feed exclusively. I often do not feel “full” when others might.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4This one is common in many cultures and families. The partaking of a meal represents union and support. Love is demonstrated through the meal one makes and eats. This can become dysfunctional, however, when particular foods are singled out to indicate “more” love than others, or if food indicates partiality toward a particular family member, as it was in my family.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4Another blast from the past when food was scarce, children were admonished to eat it all lest they starve later wishing they had finished their meal the day before. Of course, it is important that children learn to TRY new foods and not be fussy about them. In our period of plenty of food, it would be better to encourage children to eat foods better for them than to simply inhale everything on their plate, regardless of its nutritional value.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4Having a parent steal food off a child’s plate only encourages animalistic behavior. When my father would steal the foods I liked the best, it only encourage me to eat them faster so that they would not be taken.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4Both my mother and paternal grandmother embodied this notion that the more a person ate, the more he/she appreciated the provider (cook), which was in these cases my mother and grandmother.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4This is another one of those crazy monkeys on the backs of the “diet” industry. The only consistently provable result of any regimented diet is weight-gain. In fact, people wanting to gain weight will often go on diets for a few weeks so that when they go off the diet, they will gain 5-15 pounds quickly. Diets starve the body of what it thinks it wants, whether it is actually healthy or not. When you go on a diet the first thing your body starts to crave is that which it cannot have. Go off the diet and you eat the item in excess. Furthermore, diets make most people bitchy simply because they deprive. I doubt I’ve ever seen a “happy” dieter, and if anyone claims to be, I’d wager they’re lying.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4The psychological cruelty imparted by one’s childhood peers can play a key role in body image. I know now that as a child I was not fat. But, telling me that at the age of 9 fell on deaf ears. It doesn’t matter what mom and dad
say about the matter. I cannot think of anyway to ameliorate this problem other than to make everyone of the bastards who called me a fatty be force-fed worms the rest of their natural lives. We can only hope Karma pays a visit.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4But, I try to walk and get out as much as possible. I get bored with bike machines and the like. And there’s so much more to life than over-exerting oneself physically. Yet, even when I was at my “peak” performance (in Japan), I still did not “measure down” to the right size. Some of us can tread the mill all we like and the fat will remain.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4Restaurant food has triple the calories of food prepared at home (maybe not, but it acts that way). Working makes me not want to cook and it’s so easy to just go to Red Robin.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4I’ve always hated the hypocrisy of those who make broad declarations and then fall way short. I don’t think saying I will make a change in diet indicates I will. I just won’t happen until I am sufficiently motivated to do so, and we all know change does not come quickly.
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4Just turn to the FoodTV Network or watch the Travel Channel with it’s excesses in both fine cuisine and “rustic” home-cooking, where the plates are mounded to the sky and everything has a layer of grease coating it. “Eat, Santa, EAT! Nobody wants a skinny Santa!”
Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.4 Tags: diet, fat, obesity, over-eating, reasons for being fat, weight-gain
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