People come in all shapes and sizes. The human body has a tremendous capacity for variation, which is why everyone looks different. Someone may be happy with how they look, they may feel they need some serious changes, or somewhere in between, but all things being equal the only opinion that should matter is their own.
Sadly, that’s typically not how things work.
Some people are “overweight”. This is undeniable. Over a billion people are believed to be officially obese. From a health perspective, this isn’t ideal, given all the problems that being overweight can lead to.
However, another more indirect but still-harmful consequence of being overweight is the increased risk of “fat shaming”. Some folk really have a problem with people being overweight and see no problem with openly condemning them in public. Granted, you’ll always get those unpleasant sorts who think it’s OK to criticise someone for their physical attributes, be it skin colour, height, sex or whatever, but criticising people for their weight is still seen as surprisingly acceptable.
In some ways, you can see the logic of this. While someone’s skin, ethnicity, height, gender etc. isn’t something they can help, that’s not the case with weight. How much food you consume and how much exercise you do, these are both things we consciously control. Eating less and exercising more will stop you being overweight: basic physics that is. So, anyone who’s overweight is so by their own volition, and stays that way due to laziness and lack of effort; why should others make allowances for them?
No doubt this is true for some people who are overweight, but is it true for everyone? No, not even close. Human beings and the society we live in are frighteningly complex, and this means there are numerous ways that someone can end up being overweight, most of which defy the “it’s their own decision” argument.
For instance, it’s often dismissed as a cop-out when someone claims their weight gain is “genetic”, but there are indeed genetic factors linked to obesity. Before anyone gets worked up, genes aren’t that straightforward: it doesn’t mean that if you have specific genes you’re 100% guaranteed to be overweight, so why even try to avoid it. But it does mean that certain people are far more prone to gaining weight. Foodstuffs that a typical person could burn off with a quick jog may cause them to pile on the pounds like a Daily Mail article on immigration collects poorly-spelled comments.
The irksome workings of our brains are also involved. Studies suggest we actually have specific areas of the brain that result in compulsive eating and sugar addiction. This makes certain evolutionary sense: we evolved in the wild where food was hard to come by, so if we did find a source of high calorie foods, eating as much of it as possible would provide us with valuable stores for more scarce periods ahead. However, we in the developed world have created a society where food is abundant, and as this is a relatively recent change in evolutionary terms, our more basic neurological instincts haven’t caught up.
Perhaps this isn’t an excuse. If someone is so seriously affected by/finds it difficult to resist calorific foods, maybe they should just avoid them? Once again, this is a lot harder than this simple logic suggests. A lot of vitriol is aimed at overweight people because they “spend so much on food”, particularly if they’re poor. But data suggests that unhealthy, fatty foods are in fact much cheaper than the healthier alternatives. Also, healthy foods (the pre-prepared kinds) are often ludicrously expensive: I may be a Guardian contributor, but I still draw the line at spending upwards of £5 for a worryingly-green “energising smoothie” or some other crap. Maybe it’s my working class background, but I can’t contemplate paying paper money for a bottle of denser-than-average pond water.
While the link between income and obesity is confusing, it’s nonsensical to condemn a poorer person for eating high-calorie foods, as those are invariably the cheapest and most widely available option these days. It’s like rants about poorer people having “luxury” flat screen TVs. When was the last time you saw a TV for sale that wasn’t a flat screen?
But so what? So fatty food is abundant and cheap, surely you can still exercise to offset any weight gain? Only the lazy or lacking in willpower would argue otherwise.
This is a good point. Except when it isn’t. Because as well as motivation and commitment, regular exercise requires time! Someone working three poorly paid jobs to make ends meet (especially if in mostly sedentary roles like call centres, admin etc), or commuting four hours a day, or raising children as a single parent, or caring for a sick relative full time, won’t have the time needed to attend a gym and run on a treadmill for hours at a time.
The stress caused by challenging work/living situation is also a factor. Stress has numerous effects on the body, and one response to these is comfort eating. High calorie foods activate the reward pathway in the brain, giving us pleasant sensations which alleviate the stress for a short period. It’s a temporary relief though, so we keep doing it. And now we’ve still got the same stresses which haven’t gone away, plus we’re gaining weight and our health suffers. And so the cycle continues.
All this doesn’t even consider those who may have physical or psychological ailments, ones that are very common but aren’t immediately visible, but still impede any attempt to maintain what judgemental types might consider a “healthy” lifestyle.
And that’s what it often boils down to: the judgement of others. This can have a massive impact on how we see ourselves and our willingness to do something about a problem. In a society with a media where people are body shamed for even the most miniscule imperfections and the standards of beauty are often literally impossible to achieve, you often need a boatload of confidence to be overweight and overcome it and the negative preconceptions this invariably results in, such as women genuinely being paid less due to their weight. It would hardly be surprising if many people struggled with this, instead ending up lacking any motivation to get in shape just to meet the approval of those who love to criticise them.
Undeniably, there are countless more variables than those discussed here. There are plenty of ways to achieve a healthier lifestyle, but before passing judgement try to consider the fact that individual circumstances mean they may not be achievable by everyone, any more than someone living in poverty can just choose to get a better paying job.
And yes, perhaps people with weight problems do put extra pressure on the NHS, but then so do cars and alcohol, and people who use either of those don’t get such a hard time for it. In my personal experience, the type of person who’d condemn someone for their weight and the burden it causes on others is also the type to scream blue murder when they get a speeding ticket, or someone tries to cancel Top Gear.
The sad fact is, some people just love to judge and condemn others, and will find any excuse to do it, no matter the burden it places on society. Why don’t they just learn some self-control? It’s disgusting, it really is.
Dean Burnett is still trying to plug his book, but it’s not a diet book so don’t worry. He’s on Twitter, @garwboy
The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett (Guardian Faber, £12.99). To order a copy for £7.99, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99.
END
Be the first to comment