We are amidst that time of year again when New Year’s resolutions create a bombardment of weight loss commercials. The media promises that the New Year can bring a “new you” if only you try hard enough (and “buy this product!”).
Our obsession with weight loss and our fear of fat are not new, but they have become absolutely overwhelming within the past twenty or so years, ever since our society started creating panic about obesity. It is true that we are getting heavier: today’s average American adult is seven to 14 pounds heavier than he or she would have been thirty years ago. But many of the statistics that get thrown at us do not tell the whole story. They are meant to scare us into hating ourselves so that we will buy in to this multi-billion dollar American culture of fat-shaming.
The Centers for Disease Control claim that nearly seven out of 10 Americans are either overweight or obese. The categories of “overweight” and “obese” are based off of body mass index (BMI), a standardized scale that relates height and weight. We are told that people who are overweight or obese have a much higher mortality rate than those who are in the “normal” BMI range. But the relationship between weight and mortality is actually more tenuous then general society would have you believe.
Recently, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study by Katherine M. Flegal and her colleagues that analyzed the correlation between being overweight or obese and mortality. Flegal analyzed almost one hundred studies that looked at the relationship between mortality and weight, and she actually found that those categorized as “overweight” or “class I obese” actually had a lower mortality rate than those in the “normal” category. This is highly counterintuitive for those of us who have believed what the news has told us our entire lives.
Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean that our public health officials should go out and tell Americans to start gaining weight. Remember, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Those in the “overweight” and “class I obese” categories perhaps have lower mortality because they pay attention to their health more than those in the “normal” category. But correlation does not imply causation when the results of a scientific study are reversed, either. There is no evidence that definitely proves that moderately higher weight is a risk factor for death. The slight increase in mortality risk observed by some studies could easily be caused by stress, social stigma, socioeconomic status, or “yo-yo dieting,” meaning to diet and then put the weight back on (as 95 percent of dieters do).
The fact is you can’t make assumptions about people’s health from their appearances. It has been shown that it is far more dangerous to “yo-yo diet” than it is to be overweight. Studies also show that an active, overweight person has the same mortality rate as a thin, active person and half the mortality rate of a thin, sedentary person.
The ramifications of our constructed societal panic about weight are pervasive and tragic. There is a generally accepted belief in America that if you are “fat” it is your fault. You are unhealthy, lazy and a burden on the rest of us. Nearly every human being in America hears this message from society and internalizes it, causing lifelong self-esteem problems, poor relationships with food and real health problems not caused by weight but by the obsession with it. We need to start listening to the full story of our “obesity epidemic,” stop the tragic cycle of fat-shaming and respect one another.
— Lindsay Lee is a junior in mathematics. She can be reached at [email protected].
