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Fat Pride Community Takes a Stand on Health Care
Most of the recent press about weight has focused on losing it. In spite of (or maybe because of?) a $30 billion a year weight-loss industry, Americans are getting fatter. Kids are gaining weight even faster than adults.
Doctors, educators and politicians have been working to fight this trend with changes to school lunch menus and projects like Operation Pull Your Own Weight, which has kids do pull-ups to stay fit. As these experts have raised the alarm, a cultural gestalt has begun around eating healthier foods. Family kitchens all over the country have been turning away from candy and toward more fruits and vegetables in their diets.
Now, the New York Times reports on some fat, happy people who are pushing back.
Groups like the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination are weighing in against a pulic discourse that they feel scapegoats fat people for burdening our public health resources. They’re speaking out about the value of weight diversity, writing books about being OK with your body type, and lobbying Congress to keep the new health reform rules fair for fat people.
What these groups want to see is a reform bill that includes a public health insurance option from which fat folks cannot be excluded based on their weight. They also want to make sure excess weight cannot be used as a preexisting condition.
Those seeking fat acceptance are fighting an uphill battle. Not only do they have slick media images of impossibly thin celebrities setting the cultural beauty standard, they have to compete with a lot of medical science telling us that thinner generally equals healthier.
Some studies, like one conducted by Linda Bacon, author of Health at Every Size, show you can be healthy and fat at the same time. But most medical experts agree that weight is a major indicator for a wide range of health problems.
What do you think? Is it time for more celebration of diverse body types? Should we be teaching our fat kids to love their size or helping them slim down?
Photo: Kyle May
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9 Comments
Robyn commented on Nov 13 09 at 12:23 amI think I weighed 110 pounds (I’m 5’1″), did kickboxing and aerobics 3x a week, ate 30 Weight Watchers Points per day… then slipped on some ice, sustained nerve damage in my knee that left me unable to walk for almost a year, then in constant pain for 2 more. I think it’s very hard not to be fat when you can’t even move. And I didn’t get hurt because I was fat or thin. I got hurt because it was snowing and I wanted to get inside. Some people don’t have a great deal of control over their bodies. Sometimes, our bodies control us.
Sierra Black commented on Nov 13 09 at 1:04 am@Robyn: Well said. Thank you.
jenny tries too hard commented on Nov 13 09 at 7:41 amIt is silly to blame fat people, esp. fat kids for major medical problems. When I was a kid, I’m pretty sure the knocks and bumps and sprains I got cheerleading cost my parents quite a bit more in ER bills than I would’ve cost them being sedentary. The reason we have expensive medical bills in this country is that we do the bulk of research and development, not because we have a lot of fat people.
baconsmom commented on Nov 13 09 at 12:16 pmNot all fat people are sedentary. Not all fat people eat too much. Not all fat people were once thin. The thing to encourage is HAES – Health At Every Size – instead of focusing on losing weight at any cost. Eating that crap they give you in Nutrisystem or Jennie Craig won’t make you any healthier, even if it does make you temporarily thinner.
If you’re interested in the Size Acceptance movement, I highly recommend checking out Shapely Prose or The Rotund, both FA blogs; or “The Obesity Myth” by Paul Campos.
Laure68 commented on Nov 13 09 at 12:51 pmIs it just me, or does it seem like the more we push dieting and weight management, the larger we get as a population? I can’t figure out why, exactly. I agree with baconsmom that eating processed “diet” stuff can’t possibly be good for you. I once read an interview with Michael Pollan where he said that, if you want to be healthy, never buy food that is labeled as “healthy”. These things are usually prepackaged crap with a deceptive label.
Weight is certainly not everything. I am in the normal weight range, but I have a friend who is technically considered overweight but is in much better shape than me. (She is more muscular.) But I wonder about people who are in the morbidly obese category. Is it possible to be healthy at this weight? This is not my forte, just something I am curious about.
ChicaDificil commented on Nov 13 09 at 2:39 pmWell I am underweight and have always been very underweight. I can also tell you that I have never in my life been able to do a single pull-up. I remember as a child flunking every single Presidential Fitness Test exercise except for Sit and Reach. I don’t understand what Operation Pull Your Own Weight is trying to get at.
Magnoliama commented on Nov 13 09 at 2:58 pmMy dear grandmother is 90 and has been fat all of her life. I know that anecdotes aren’t data, but she outlived all of my thin grandparents.
Noelle commented on Nov 16 09 at 11:52 pm@Laure68 – people who are “morbidly obese” (or “death fat” as we like to say :~), may be more healthy than lots of other people in different ways. As a personal example, I have great cholesterol numbers but iffy blood pressure readings and a genetic anemia disorder, none of which can be identified just looking at me or calculating my BMI which is currently 50+. Regardless of whether someone is healthy, or trying to be, or not trying to be, they should not be restricted from health care to the extent they need it. A common parallel: why aren’t we all up in arms about providing health care to smokers, skinny or otherwise? Those are folks that are actively, publically participating in an unhealthy behavior. In all the discussions I’ve seen, I have not seen *any* (and I’m happy to go read one if someone points one out) discussion of limiting health care or restricting a public option, for smokers. And to be clear, I am not suggesting we limit their care. I don’t believe trying to be healthy is a moral imperative; I believe providing basic human rights and needs is.
marj commented on Nov 17 09 at 2:19 pmWhy can’t we encourage healthy lifestyles without scapegoating anyone? Except maybe a food industry that targets kids with sugary empty calories…
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