Judy wrote: [...]Women are expected to eat and exercise in a way that makes them lose their periods, girls do not develop breasts, young women in their twenties have advanced osteoporosis, and they often suppress their natural appetites with cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.[...]
Dear Judy and co vocalisters,
Judy, aren't you exaggerating a bit?
Everybody knows there are much much more women (and men!) unhealthy because they eat too much, than those who suffer from underweight. Besides: experiments with animals have shown, that those who are underweighed, live much longer.
Obesitas *is* a huge health problem in the US, and it is growing fast. In Europe it's becoming a problem as well, since most Europeans are so stupid to copy the American way of life, and especially the bad things from it, like pop-music, coca-cola, hamburgers and worst of all: those utterly ridiculous movies and series made in Hollywood. Be critical and watch tv one evening while thinking how it influences you and your children, not only the programs but also the commercials, and you'll see where people are being stimulated to eat continuously and to be thin at the same time.
The reason why weight is out of control of large groups of people, is cultural and psychological rather than medical for the vast majority of people. If you see food all the time, it is very difficult not to get hungry. If you see and hear commercials about food all the time, the same applies. If you live in a town with people that do have non-ideal eating habits, it will affect you. Not to mention what happens if you have been raised, thinking that you have to eat 'enough' to stay healthy or grow. Nobody has to teach their children to eat; when they're hungry, they'll eat, and at the end they'll always eat enough, mostly more than enough. But the fear that children (and grown ups) don't eat enough, is related to the fact that people associate being thin with being ill. The opposite is true of course. But people see other people getting thinner when they are ill, and make the association thin = ill. Thus they are confusing cause and consequence. Furthermore: it is quite normal for many girls and boys between 10-15 to be thin, almost skinny: they're growing, and that shows normally. If you want children between 10-15 to look more round, you're helping them to get a weight problem later. You don't have to eat much to get overweighed. You just have to continue eating slightly too much over a long period of time, let's say ten years, from 15-25. Then you've got a problem: to get rid of that in a normal way, is very difficult and will take a long time, and from what I have understood, there are no miracle diets. An even bigger problem is, that many people have learned to see food as some kind of reward. If you have been raised like that, it is hard to get rid of it. It even happens that when people feel bad about their weight, they eat to make themselves feel better: a perfect viscous circle!
Although the Body Mass Index is nice thing, everybody can see what is over- and under weight: no matter what evolution did to us, people don't come with accessories like swimming belts, nor is there a skeleton-only variant of the human race.
Having a couple of pounds too many is not a problem, but being 20% or more overweighed is. I hate to see the increasing amount of people growing up to become unhappy, overweighed people, trapped between the wish to be thin and eating habits they cannot change anymore. I don't say all overweighed people are unhappy. If you cannot change your weight, for whatever reason, you'd better accept it: you'll see that other people will accept it too. But in this tv-influenced society many people are more or less bound to be both obese and unhappy about it. And that is a small tragedy.
Best greetings,
Dré
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