In parts one and two I talked about my history and views on being fat. But the personal is political and the obesity epidemic is a giant political issue right now. And, despite the fact that many people would consider me part of the problem, I don’t hate everything being attempted to halt the growing weight of the US population. And, increased weight does correlate to increased health problems. Correlation is not causation and absolutely there are skinny folks who have health problems, too.
To my own mind though, the obesity epidemic is a visual indicator of a decreasing level of health. We’re just not as healthy as we were. There are a huge number of reasons this is true and I don’t think it’s just those of us who are obese who are the unhealthy ones.
There is much about modern life that leads us to leads to poor health. Food policies, economic policies, transportation policies, zoning polices all contribute. Stress, pollution, food additives, sprawl all affect health of individuals and health of the population.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that everyone who is obese is healthy, that’s just silly. And I’m certainly not going to tell you that if they’d just exercise a little bit and eat a little healthier that weight would drop off. That’s equally silly. For better or worse many of us have bodies that are very, very good at holding onto fat. We can gain weight and our bodies seriously resist any attempt to lose it.
Many of these things are out of individual control. Many of the ways to permanently lose weight (if there is actually such a thing) are so time and labor intensive that they don’t fit into our lives in any rational manner. I don’t think that “the obese” have a responsibility to me or you or society in general to lose weight. But I do think there are societal changes that will help people be healthier: increasing walkability, better food options in food deserts, fixing the federal farm subsidies, more education on nutrition. These things will help people become healthier.