Allow me to speculate for a post.
I'm interested in trying a little thought experiment.
What if all restrictions in eating (whether caused by dieting or by hunger, famine or war) were ended?
What if everyone in the world had access to the quantity and types of food they needed for survival and pleasure?
What if dieting as a practice was rejected by individuals and professionals?
Then what would happen?
My guess is, there would be fewer of the health problems that get associated with fatness.
Would there be less fatness?
I think that depends on how you define it.
If everyone had a way to determine what the "right" size was for them to be, based on their genes and what they needed to accomplish in life, and they had the "right" amount of activity and food for them, and the least amount of stress or barriers to a happy life, their weight would likely not be the source of many health problems. I do not mean to imply that there wouldn't be fat people. There would be as many fat people as would exist in a "normal" population without food restriction.
I try to think about defining "excess weight." In many cases, I think this might be current weight minus the weight that wouldn't have been gained if food restriction hadn't taken place. So for someone whose "genetic weight" might have put them, with proper nutrition, at around a size 20, maybe the "excess weight" of being a size 24 resulted as the body's normal response to restriction of food, and an attempt to shore up resources in case of another restriction.
Is there anything that can or should be done about "excess weight" by this definition?
I think not. I think that this is where HAES comes in. Good, enjoyable activity and good, enjoyable nutrition, and early detection and appropriate treatment of health problems. Ending fat stigma and discrimination. Addressing the root causes of lack of access to the
essentials.
Might heavier people still have higher rates of certain diseases? Possibly, but this might be due to the same factors causing the genetic heaviness to begin with.
Where to start?
I think that a good place to start is with Acceptance. A radical stance that although life is in a constant state of change, an attempt to force a change to our bodies that goes against our built-in defenses is foolish, wasteful and distracting. A decision to focus on treating our bodies with care and respect. To do things that feel good and are good. To treat others' bodies with respect. To strive to make certain every person has
"subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, recreation, creation, identity and freedom."So, thanks to food restriction (non-voluntary or through dieting), it's possible that there may be several generations whose health truly suffers because of the folly of ignoring the basic needs of the body. This suffering might be mitigated by a HAES approach. And if we were to end food restriction, then the generations coming afterward might fall in a lovely bell-shaped curve, with plenty of healthy people on the right side of the mean. Now, and then, you can't get too far on the left of the curve without facing immediate, dire health consequences.
I also think if we didn't have as much food restriction, we might have less "junk food." The artificial needs created for "junk" are driven by the artificial (or sometimes real) deprivation. I am not talking about a pie that is lovingly baked or a birthday cake or the occasional treat -- I'm talking about regularly consumed processed foods that are stripped of much of their nutritional value -- the types of food are often all that people in poverty can afford -- which can lead to real nutritional deficiencies if consumed frequently in lieu of "real food" but contain plenty of calories that relieve the sensation of hunger.
This is the first time I've committed these thoughts to page -- I'm sure others have had them -- but I'm curious what others think.
Comments (2)
I find this a very useful way of thinking, and I look forward to part 2. I have two children who are teenagers, and when they were little the current childraising advice was to offer healthy choices and let children eat what they want. We are the only parents I know who actually did that. So we are far still from a generation raised without a lot of pressure about food.
Dear Pam,
The fact that you took the advice, and other parents didn't, I think will give your kids an advantage. Thanks for leaving a comment, and encouraging me to write a "part 2."