On a limb with Claudia

Union of Earth and Water – Peter Paul Reubens (1918)

If you’re like me, you’ve heard a lot about the “obesity crisis” in the United States. Just for fun, let’s take a look at thirteen ideas about fat that you might not have read in the headlines.

Thursday Thirteen #8: Thirteen thoughts about fat.

1. Women with curves are smarter. Did you see this article? Scientists from the University of California and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed data from 16,000 women and girls and found participants with smaller waists than hips were significantly smarter. Bigger the hips? The smarter the woman.

2. And just what side of 50% do I fit on? We look at scientific studies and declare truths about ourselves. But I’ve never seen a study where half or more of the original population showed benefit from the (fill in the blank). And placebo is often the best thing they have tested. You have ask: ‘where do I fit in this study?’ More times than not, the study has nothing to do with you.

3. Studies show no evidence of negative effects of fat. Bet you didn’t know that. I asked Michael Roizen (co-author of the YOU series) and he agreed. He quickly added that being fat isn’t the problem. It depends on where you store fat in your body and then, depending on what you believe, the effects of that fat. Our terror of being fat is more harmful than actually being fat. Interested? Read Obesity Myth by Paul Campos or Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver.

4. Obesity strikes America. You’ve probably heard that. Funny thing is that the entire world is getting fat. 10% of Chinese children are obese. Yeah, those kids you were supposed to finish your dinner for. Worldwide, 40% of men are obese and 30% of women. If obesity is a world phenomena, maybe something other than “eat right/exercise” is going on.

5. Over 70? You better be fat. Why? Your chances of surviving a trip to the hospital increase when you are obese.

6. You are more likely to die from medical intervention than from being fat. That’s just a fact. The number one killer in the United States is the medical establishment.

7. The Fox moved into the chicken coop. The people who promote weight loss are the very people who stand to benefit from your business. The diet industry hoovered 35 billion dollars out of American’s wallets. Trust me. No one’s thinking about what is best for you and your body. They are counting on you to fail.

8. Doctors receive almost no education in nutrition and exercise. You know more about diet and exercise than your general practitioner. They receive little to no education about nutrition and/or exercise in medical school. They, like you, count on the media (read: Cosmo magazine) for their latest diet and nutrition information. If your doctor looks at you and says anything about diet and exercise – ask him or her what his percent fat is. Can’t answer? Don’t listen. Find someone who can answer the question and listen to them.

9. Taking an antidepressant? Plan to get fat. Not only are you taking a substance with little or not scientific proof that it works, you also can guarantee that you are going to get fat. With over 35 million scripts in England (2006) and 118 million scripts in the United States (2005), why do we wonder why people are overweight?

10. Is it fat? or stress? Take a gander at the death statistics with me. I’ll mark the ones where stress is a known co-factor in the disease.

Heart disease: 652,486 (Stress)
Cancer: 553,888 (Stress)
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 150,074 (Stress)
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 121,987 (Stress)
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 112,012 (Stress)
Diabetes: 73,138 (Stress)
Alzheimer’s disease: 65,965 (Stress)
Influenza/Pneumonia: 59,664
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 42,480 (Stress)
Septicemia: 33,373
(From CDC fast facts, 2004 Data)

Oh, did you know stress causes an increase in fat storage? In your lower belly? That’s right. Stress is the reason you are fat. Sadly, stress reduction is not a multi-billion dollar business otherwise you would know this.

11. BMI? The BMI is bullshit. Did you know that they measured the BMI of the entire NBA? According to the BMI, those athletes are obese. The most obese? Shaquille O’Neil whose actual body fat is 13%. Since we determine obesity statistics from BMI, you have to ask: “Is the world really getting fatter?”

12. Too much information. Every day we hear another study about what “works” for losing weight. A friend of mine told me this story. One day, she was hungry. She went to the local natural food center to buy lunch. Everything she reached for was “bad” for her. She set down fruit because it turns to “sugar” in her blood. She set down bread because it was “simple carbs” and she didn’t want to get fat. She looked at the salad bar but found it riddled with “starches”. Frustrated, and now more hungry, she left the store and went to McDonalds. If everything she touched was bad for her, why not just eat at McDonalds! I bet that’s happened to you. We have so much information that we have no idea how or what to feed ourselves. Food is the enemy. (Want some good advice? Jack LaLanne says, ‘if man made it don’t eat it.’ Stick with that and you’ll do fine.)

13. And, fat feels good in bed. Breast and hips are made of fat. It doesn’t take a genius to know that men like a little fat in bed. Ask Michael Ventura or maybe Joe DiMaggio.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we should all be as fat as we want to be. I’m saying that food is not the enemy. You can have the body of your dreams when you have to find the solution for YOUR body.

Don’t fall for bullshit. You are a unique individual with individual history, genetics, and experience. You solution should match you, not some study.

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