Are you in denial about your weight?
A poll of a nationally representative sample of Americans, reported recently by HealthDay News, shows us that many of us overlook and/or underestimate our excess body fat. 'Denial,' it seems, is not just a river in Egypt.
Leaving aside the particulars of the survey and its findings, let's just address the fundamentals here: There are overweight people in many of our homes, and we don't see them! This is as understandable as it is ominous.
Our obesity "blind spot" is understandable because:
1. We have, to date, done a fine job of equating the fight against obesity with a fight against... the obese! This is wrong, woefully wrong, and overdue for a fundamental remedy. Yes, the proximal cause of excess weight gain is how we use our feet and our forks; but the root cause, to which we are all subject, is living in the modern world. Throughout most of human history, calories were relatively scarce and hard to get, and physical activity was unavoidable; we have devised a modern world in which physical activity is scarce and hard to get, and calories are unavoidable. That is why overweight and obesity are now globally rampant in both children and adults, but never were before. It is NOT because the current generation of Homo sapiens-adult and child alike-is less endowed with "personal responsibility" than any prior generation. We need, among other things, a very serious "fattitude" adjustment.
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2. Everything is relative, including weight. Obesity is, arguably, no longer "epidemic"-it is now "hyperendemic,"' meaning it is chronically among us at a very high level. We have gotten used to it; we see it everywhere. So, when we compare our own weight to that of those around us...maybe we're not so bad. That there is some comfort in this perspective is a good thing. But that it may cause us to ignore the health threats imposed by obesity is anything but.Which leads us to the ominous part.
Whether we see them or not, the overweight and obese are everywhere. Whether we acknowledge it or not, excess body fat is a clear and omnipresent danger, on the causal pathway to every major chronic disease that plagues us, from diabetes to cancer. Obesity is the reason why what used to be adult onset obesity is now routinely diagnosed in children as well, and euphemistically called type 2.
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Ignoring an enemy does not make it less of a threat. Obesity is an enemy to public health. So is discrimination and bias against those who suffer this common condition. And so, too, is denial that this threat is widespread among us.
So what are the practical responses to this latest indication that we have collective, selective obesity blindness, or are practicing communal denial?
1. Eliminate the stigma. We can acknowledge obesity more readily when we stop feeling ashamed. Unless you believe that the current generation of 7-year-olds has less personal responsibility than every prior generation, we can't blame the modern obesity epidemic on our own character; we can blame it on the character of the modern world. That does not exonerate us of shared responsibility for the solution, but it alleviates blame for the problem! And if we set aside the blame, we set aside the shame-and begin to see the problem with a clear eye.
2. Be objective. Take a tape measure and wrap it around your middle at the level of your belly button. If you are a woman and that circumference is more than 34 inches, you almost certainly have excess body fat in a dangerous place. If you are a man, the threshold is 40 inches. You may well have a dangerous excess of body fat below these cut points-but above them, the very high probability of it is a reliable reality check. To a lesser extent, your body mass index can clue you in as well.
You can calculate your BMI online with ease
3. Size up your kids. Obesity denial may be even more common when parents look at their children than when we look at ourselves. But with more and more kids succumbing to what were once chronic diseases of midlife, we can ill afford this! So, accept that you can love your child to pieces, while still admitting that the pieces may be a bit bigger than is in your child's best interest.
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We have met the enemy, and in this case, it is not us, whether or not we're heavy. It is what being heavy can do to us. We aid and abet that enemy with denial. So let's admit the truth-take the measure of this enemy-and get serious about winning this fight.
Obesity must, and can, be confronted and overcome. But only by those willing to admit that it threatens us and our children; only by those who see it.
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