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Jul 21, 2008 12:15pm
The first sign of a problem is denial. Deny there is a problem. Am I fat? Of course not, look around. I look like everyone else. Stores sell XXXL shirts because it is normal. Restaurants serve portions that big because it is normal. Fast Food stands are everywhere because they are so convenient and so tasty. I don’t have a problem. The rest of the world wants me to have a problem, but I don’t!  This is pretty much the level of conversation I have when talking about our food and health system.  In 1999, BBC wrote about people’s denial. Then Forbes wrote about it in 2006. This month, the Chicago Tribune talks about the perceptions of obesity are changing. With larger people everywhere, individuals who are slightly overweight may now think of themselves as average and those who are heavier may think of themselves as having only a minor weight problem, the study’s authors suggest. This year, we started to talk about Airlines charging by weight. People went nuts, saying that it was inhuman. I say we should do it. Or at least put a surcharge. We keep talking about obesity and overweight with white gloves, making sure to crop out the faces of people on those fat images. I say put them on. Lets start to face what we have become. How much more disconnected from our body, from our health can we be?  

The first sign of a problem is denial. Deny there is a problem. Am I fat? Of course not, look around. I look like everyone else. Stores sell XXXL shirts because it is normal. Restaurants serve portions that big because it is normal. Fast Food stands are everywhere because they are so convenient and so tasty. I don’t have a problem. The rest of the world wants me to have a problem, but I don’t! 

This is pretty much the level of conversation I have when talking about our food and health system. 

In 1999, BBC wrote about people’s denial. Then Forbes wrote about it in 2006. This month, the Chicago Tribune talks about the perceptions of obesity are changing.

With larger people everywhere, individuals who are slightly overweight may now think of themselves as average and those who are heavier may think of themselves as having only a minor weight problem, the study’s authors suggest.

This year, we started to talk about Airlines charging by weight. People went nuts, saying that it was inhuman. I say we should do it. Or at least put a surcharge.

We keep talking about obesity and overweight with white gloves, making sure to crop out the faces of people on those fat images. I say put them on. Lets start to face what we have become. How much more disconnected from our body, from our health can we be?  
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