Canticles of the Unhomed
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Optifast Day 3 -- Fat Hatred
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| Dr. Arya Sharma |
His blog should be required reading for anyone who is interested in weight loss. Here is a world-class leader in obesity research sharing his insight in plain language without commercial bias or monetary agenda. He is not selling anything, he doesn't ask you to buy his program, his supplements or his exercise program. He doesn't promise that you can get a washboard stomach in 15 minutes a day. Everything he offers is backed up with rigorous scientific research and offered without comment or apology. More than anything he is a scientist and a doctor. In my opinion, a guy worth listening to.
One of the concepts that he exposed me to was the idea of weight bias and discrimination. Basically, this is the discrimination and prejudice that overweight people experience mostly from non-overweight people and even sometimes at the hands of overweight people.
Most of the time this anti-weight bias is very implicit and hard to narrow down. Just for example, take the Biggest Loser phenomenon. It turns weight loss and the real struggles that overweight people have with self image and self esteem into a spectacle. At worst it promotes weight-associated stereotypes, unrealistic weight loss goals, and simplistic messages about possible solutions.
On Dr. Sharma's blog he cites a study conducted by Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, published in the bariatrics journal Obesity where one group of people were shown one episode of the show, while another control group was shown a nature show. Afterwards, both groups were tested for their attitudes toward obese people. To quote Dr. Sharma:
"Levels of weight bias as measured by the Implicit Associations Test
(IAT), the Obese Person Trait Survey (OPTS), and the Anti-fat Attitudes
scale (AFA) at baseline and following the episode viewing (1 week
later), showed that viewers of The Biggest Loser had significantly
higher levels of dislike of overweight individuals and more strongly
believed that weight is controllable after the exposure.... Interestingly, amongst the participants, those who had lower BMIs and
were not trying to lose weight had significantly higher levels of
dislike of overweight individuals following exposure to The Biggest
Loser compared to similar participants in the control condition."
Anti-weight bias is not just mocking and name calling. It can be very polite, and very subtle. It happens every time someone comes to a conclusion about someone from nothing but their weight, or every time someone feels pity for the poor fat person as they waddle uncomfortably down the street or huff and puff up a flight of stares. It is that mixture of disgust and revulsion people feel when they see us. It happens every time we are underestimated or marginalized because we are overweight. Do you think that seats in movie theatres, cars and airplanes are designed to encourage overweight people to stick around or move along?
I close with another quote from Dr Sharma: "Given the impact that anti-weight bias has on all aspects of trying to
find solutions to obesity (from public health messaging to funding for
obesity research or treatments), not to mention its devastating
emotional and physical impact on people living with excess weight,
perhaps it is time to revisit social norms and acceptability of this
form of entertainment."
So yesterday was kind of a gong-show. I had my morning and lunch shakes, and then Magnus and I went to the flea market - thankfully no mini-donuts were in attendance. My buddy Ninja Steve was nice enough to accompany us, and though we did not find what we were looking for, all three of us came out with some treasures: a wallet and some socks for me, a silk ninja fan for Ninja Steve, and a John Deere excavator and a front end loader for Magnus. I had to rush home to get Miranda up for work in time, and in the hustle and bustle of getting Magnus ready for bed, I didn't get my last two shakes either. I was really hungry and it took all my willpower not to find something in the fridge. To be honest, I did go looking in the fridge but didn't find anything that I could just grab and go. If there had been some easily procured snacks in there like leftovers or something like that I don't think I would have been able to resist eating them.
The food cravings are becoming more powerful. I have been able to separate them from hunger. I don't want to eat because I am hungry, but I think I just miss chewing and swallowing. I miss the texture of solid food. What a strange idea.
Cheers.
:: written by Matt Thompson, 1:42 AM
