(no subject)
Okay, so this week is developing a theme, and I want to put some things out there.
I know you all know me, and love me, and care about me, and think I'm awesome and hot and all that jazz.
I went to the doctor today (basic Pill scrip appointment) and whaddya know, the joys of winter weight-gain have bumped up my BMI.
To 32.3.
So I am, in the common parlance, "obese".
Of course, so is Keven Mealamu, at 32.5. The tubby, unfit, poorly-nutritioned bastard.
So when you see an article screaming "New Zealand is third in the world for obesity"? You need to understand that those articles are talking about me. And a whopping proportion of our professional rugby players.
And when you say "oh, well you're different, I know you, it's just most fat people are unhealthy"? Guess who gets mini-lectures from doctors based on that number, despite being a non-smoker and having consistenly normal blood pressure? Guess who basically gets told, "Lose weight or we'll stop prescribing contraception to you"?
And yes, I know plenty of people will be quick to say, "you're right, BMI is bullshit". But here's the thing: it's all bullshit. Calories in/calories out? Is bullshit. Sustainable, significant weight loss that doesn't come back with some friends *within* five years? Does not happen. Fat people are going to TOTES DIE EARLY? Nope.
Fact is, ZOMGobesity is the new Avian Bird Flu is the new Reds Under The Bed. And I should not have to tell any of you how bullshit our media is at actually *reading* the studies they report on, or checking if maybe someone has a vested interest in freaking us all out.
Yes, I know it's received wisdom. I get that we all "just know" that "excess body weight is unhealthy" and "thousands of children are getting type 2 diabetes" and "refined carbs are the enemy"*. Just like lots of people know only idiot gay men get AIDS, and
But seriously? Unless I'm surrounded by people who actually do think that it's somehow easy breezy and fun being fat in our society, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if shaming fat people for being stupid lazy doughnut-eaters helped make them thin, there would be no ZOMGobesity epidemic. And in fact, worrying about weight? Dieting? Becoming obsessed by food and "health"? Is probably the reason so many people are fat anyway.
Finally, I'd like everyone to assess their attitudes to fat people (okay, if you like, make it the DEATHFAT people who you "know" are "unhealthy") and then consider: if you were a doctor, you might have killed this woman.
*Because talking about food like it's out to get us is totally ordered thinking.
I know you all know me, and love me, and care about me, and think I'm awesome and hot and all that jazz.
I went to the doctor today (basic Pill scrip appointment) and whaddya know, the joys of winter weight-gain have bumped up my BMI.
To 32.3.
So I am, in the common parlance, "obese".
Of course, so is Keven Mealamu, at 32.5. The tubby, unfit, poorly-nutritioned bastard.
So when you see an article screaming "New Zealand is third in the world for obesity"? You need to understand that those articles are talking about me. And a whopping proportion of our professional rugby players.
And when you say "oh, well you're different, I know you, it's just most fat people are unhealthy"? Guess who gets mini-lectures from doctors based on that number, despite being a non-smoker and having consistenly normal blood pressure? Guess who basically gets told, "Lose weight or we'll stop prescribing contraception to you"?
And yes, I know plenty of people will be quick to say, "you're right, BMI is bullshit". But here's the thing: it's all bullshit. Calories in/calories out? Is bullshit. Sustainable, significant weight loss that doesn't come back with some friends *within* five years? Does not happen. Fat people are going to TOTES DIE EARLY? Nope.
Fact is, ZOMGobesity is the new Avian Bird Flu is the new Reds Under The Bed. And I should not have to tell any of you how bullshit our media is at actually *reading* the studies they report on, or checking if maybe someone has a vested interest in freaking us all out.
Yes, I know it's received wisdom. I get that we all "just know" that "excess body weight is unhealthy" and "thousands of children are getting type 2 diabetes" and "refined carbs are the enemy"*. Just like lots of people know only idiot gay men get AIDS, and
But seriously? Unless I'm surrounded by people who actually do think that it's somehow easy breezy and fun being fat in our society, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if shaming fat people for being stupid lazy doughnut-eaters helped make them thin, there would be no ZOMGobesity epidemic. And in fact, worrying about weight? Dieting? Becoming obsessed by food and "health"? Is probably the reason so many people are fat anyway.
Finally, I'd like everyone to assess their attitudes to fat people (okay, if you like, make it the DEATHFAT people who you "know" are "unhealthy") and then consider: if you were a doctor, you might have killed this woman.
*Because talking about food like it's out to get us is totally ordered thinking.