Fat Pagan Pride

[pt_tangles]

I know I shouldn't have, but I have been reading the blow-up about the 'Pagan Obesity Problem' and the equally hyperbolic responses that claim that any mention of obesity causing health problems is body shaming and that obesity isn't really a health problem, it's a discrimination problem and if everyone would 'mind your business', then everything would be magical and puppies would shoot out of rainbow unicorn asses.

Uh, yeah.  Calling absolute bullshit on that one.  You are never going to convince me (no matter how many interwebz links you find) that being morbidly obese is healthy.  Your skeleton was not meant to carry 400+ lbs for 70+ years.  There have been multiple studies that show that things like cholesterol aren't weight related, they are gene and diet related.  That's old news.  But that isn't the only measure that decides if a person is healthy.

Also, if I read one more Fat Pride article that says, "I tried starving myself on an 800 calorie a day diet and exercise around the clock, and I didn't lose any weight', I think I will scream.  How can you live in such a tiny bubble that you don't know that starvation diets cause you to gain weight rather than lose it.  Your body is programmed to store fat to save your life in the case that food sources become scarce.  The minimum daily caloric intake for women is about 1200 calories a day (I know this because my journalling app kept yelling at me when I was too sick to eat much of anything for about a week - also, I looked it up).

And you know what?  Assuming that everyone who thinks that obesity is unhealthy is trying to shame you is not Fat Pride.  It's not any kind of pride.  It's a defence mechanism built upon years of hurt feelings.  Spitting venom at the 'norms' or whatever you want to call the 'others who aren't your kind of other', is not the way to deal with hurts.  It's not activism.  It's not pride.  

I'd say that it's about time that both extremes of this issue 'get over themselves'.

Comments

[pt_tangles]

I wasn't done with that comment :/ - anyway, I checked the same products in Canadian grocery stores and that ingredient specifically was not in them.

I think that part of the driving force behind our labelling laws is that an unhealthy populace is a financial burden on the gov't. For the states, unhealthy people make the drug/insurance companies and doctors money. When the gov't has to pay for health care, they have a vested interest in keeping you healthy.

[pj]

Well, with the national health insurance act that may very well change here, too, which would be wonderful. :-)

As for HFSC - corn as a crop is a HUGE business here and getting rid of that is problematic in hundreds of ways.

[pt_tangles]

I hope so too. It seems ridiculous in a dozen different ways to keep your people sickly. Even if it makes money in the short run, having an unhealthy populace cannot be good for the long term.

[pj]

An even bigger issue is here in the states people get awfully twitchy when they feel the government is telling them what to do when it comes to eating. There is no quick fix. Plus obesity is not just in the states, so it is a global mind shift, also, in countries wealthy enough to not worry about starving.