The Obesity Thing

[Juniper]

My mom kept a bit of a diary when she was a teenager - really just some papers folded together; they were quite poor. She had a weight problem and was sensitive about it. Because of her weight she felt shy with boys and absolutely certain, in the way that teens are absolutely certain about things, that she'd never have a boyfriend. I remember one line from this diary: "I would like to slim down, but I don't know what to do differently or what to eat."

Granted this was the 1950's, but even then people knew that losing weight = eating less fats and sugar, less in general. Surely she'd heard about that in PE class?

I didn't understand that for a long time. "Duh," I thought. Want to lose weight? Just eat less and take the long way walking home from school. How can anybody be that ignorant? I was thin, after all. Thin people don't understand why it's hard not to be thin. (I do now!)

Yet it's true - poverty makes you fat. I suppose if you were truly starving that wouldn't be the case, but few people in the US & UK are starving. If you look in the most impoverished, economically downtrodden regions--say, Appalachia or the deep South--you'll see almost to a person big rolls of fat, moony faces and little piggy eyes. Including the little kids. And you think: they can't be THAT poor, looks like they're eating fine!

Yep. They're eating eggs, potatoes, bread, cheese, fried meats, and washing it down with sweet tea and Mt. Dew. Cheap foods. Comfort foods. Foods that make you feel full and satisfied. Foods they are familiar with and know how to prepare, almost without thinking about it, certainly without needing a cookbook. So for a while they can delude themselves into thinking they're doing all right, eating things that taste good. The Food Stamps people don't care if you buy a bag of carrots or a chub of ground beef. They also deal with what is called "food anxiety." When your cupboards aren't always full, when you know what it's like to go to bed hungry, you think about food a bit more than an ordinary person would. It probably also alters your metabolism and brain chemistry, making you crave fats and carbs more than an ordinary person; the body's hedge against starvation.

These people in the UK say they're eating "salads." Salads aren't really that healthy, especially when you dump on a bunch of dressing. It's also open to ambiguity. What kind of salads? Potato? Chicken? Pasta? "I eat salads" is the standard reply of the fat person under scrutiny; it's like a default answer. People who are thin because of a chosen lifestyle usually don't eat a lot of salads. They eat a variety of healthy foods.

I have my own theory about how to manage people on government aid, but most people wouldn't like it. It involves education.