This post is not to mock, poke fun at or flick with a wet towel, but to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about the problems with fat and obesity.
Over the last few hundred years, through medical science, improved nutrition and better living conditions, humans have increased their life expectancy. Now, for the first time in generations, Australians, and many people around the world, can expect to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents and we have our own behaviours to thank.
While there hasn't been a lot of attention on the potential adverse health effects of fatness until the last 10 years or so, I think ignorance can only go so far.
"[World's Fattest man] Mr Martin revealed how he started cutting back in September when he became bed-bound by two giant hernias which are the size of four bowling balls."(1)
That's when he decided to start cutting back... Were there really no clues before that? Trouble breathing; inability to fit in a chair? Needing other people to bathe you because you can't even reach all the parts of your own body due to no other reason than its sheer enormity?
A new advertising campaign has been launched in Western Australia to try and make people think about the effects of fat on their health: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-24/watch-the-livelighter-toxic-fat-ad/4149900
Amazingly, some have called this controversial, partly for fears it will encourage eating disorders (2). This seems somewhat incredulous to me, as the number of dangerously underweight people is far outweighed (no pun intended) by the numbers of obese people.
The reality is eating feels good. The person who said "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" was probably delirious from low blood sugar.
In modern Australia, nutritious foods such as fruit and vegetables are readily available and affordable to all. I have heard arguments to the contrary, but those proponents will often tout the affordability of fast food in the same breath. If a McDonalds meal is $7-10, and for the same price you can buy 1kg of apples, 1 kg of carrots and 1kg of broccoli- I refuse to believe that argument. The problem is the convenience and availability of high-calorie foods- to cook a nutritious meal takes some planning, time, effort and a limited amount of skill, whereas to visit a drive through window takes virtually none.
The effort part becomes more problematic with the resistance to exercising too. I am very guilty of this one- exercise is uncomfortable; it hurts; is inconvenient to fit in a schedule which holds other options like relaxing (or blogging?). Gyms, and exercising for the sake of exercising are new concepts too though- food used to require hunting, digging, walking, carrying, farming, grinding grain, slaughtering animals etc.- now a few clicks of a mouse will gave someone bring a 4000 calorie pizza to your front door in under an hour.
Fatness can even be partially determined before you're born- poor nutrition during pregnancy can lead to future obesity for the baby. (3)
Although born a healthy weight, and presumably well nourished, as an over fed child I developed plenty of fat cells. The number of fat cells you have as a child stays with you for life- you never lose them, even if you shrink their contents through diet and exercise- and it is more likely that you will always be fat. (4)
So why should we care?
For many, the concern is not their health or wellbeing as it's not immediately obvious to them- how they look is what affects them daily. This is reflected in shows like the Biggest Loser-Singles, which are are filled with people crying about how they can't get laid because they're obese (NB - Coming soon- Things that shit me: Vapid TV). While that's obviously an extreme example, the social acceptability, or lack thereof, of varying body shapes and sizes is a strong influence on many. While we often don't obtain what we perceive to be the "ideal" body, we feel guilty or bad about ourselves because of it and, ironically will often comfort-eat in compensation.
Those who are of a more socially acceptable size may not be aware of the health risks they run, potentially having visceral fat and being "thin-fat". (Don't know what this is? See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QlBr41vLWI)
My father is a slim-looking person, weighing about 75 kgs at approx 180cms tall he has a recommended BMI (5). Yet he has type 2 diabetes- the likely cause of which is visceral fat. My mother's family are all overweight or obese, and have high cholesterol, high blood pressure and conditions like angina- caused by their fat. Although I may not look "fat" on the outside, either or both of these situations are my likely future, and a lack of awareness and action will all but guarantee it.
It's not a problem of weakness, an inability to resist food, only eating bad foods, lack of intelligence or any one factor. "If it were easy we wouldn't have about 300 million obese people in the world" (6).
1- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140307/Keith-Martin-Horrifying-life-worlds-fattest-man.html#ixzz21Wzq22qY 2- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-24/expert-backs-graphic-anti-obesity-ads/4150136
3-http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7482-study-shows-why-poor-prenatal-nutrition-leads-to-obesity.html
4- http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/05/04/fat-cell-number-is-set-in-childhood-and-stays-constant-in-ad/
5- http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmi-m.htm
6- Globesity - Fat’s New Frontier http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2012/s3550234.htm
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