From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/24/obesity-is-not-the-only-problem
It’s a lot easier to point fingers at fat people than address the real factors making everyone’s lives unhealthy
Jill Filipovic
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 February 2013
It’s hardly breaking news that junk food is bad for us. But just how bad – and just how much food companies know about the addictive components of certain foods, and just how much they deliberately target the most vulnerable consumers knowing they are doing damage – is still being discovered. The New York Times offers the latest installment in this weekend’s magazine with an article about the science of junk food addiction.
Nearly everything written about food in the mainstream media relies on the same narrative: Obesity is bad. That kind of reporting is part of what’s keeping us sick.
There’s no denying the fact that the American public has gotten larger in recent decades. Along with getting fatter, we’ve also seen a rise in illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Instead of focusing on how our health is hurting, most of the media coverage uses the term “obesity,” making the story more about weight than about health – to the point where it’s become an accepted truth that “fat” equals “unhealthy”.
That’s not actually the case, though. While “the obesity epidemic” may be a convenient catch-all for the illnesses and health problems related to our food chain, it’s a lazy term and an inaccurate one. Are we actually worried about public health? Or are we offended by fat bodies that don’t meet our thin ideals?
In all seriousness: What good does a focus on body size actually do?
If we’re actually concerned about health, then we should focus on health. The addictive qualities of our food, the lack of oversight, the high levels of chemicals and the government subsidies that make the worst foods the most accessible should concern us and spur us to action.
Nutrient-deficient chemically-processed “food” in increasingly larger sizes is bad for all of our bodies, whether we’re fat or thin or somewhere in between. So is the culture in which fast food is able to thrive. Americans work more than ever before; we take fewer vacation days and put in longer hours, especially since the recession hit. The US remains the only industrialized country without national paid parental leave and without mandatory annual vacation time; we also have no federal law requiring paid sick days. Eighty-five percent of American men and 66% of women work more than 40 hours per week (in Norway, for comparison, 23% of men work more than 40-hour weeks, and only 7% of women).
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/24/obesity-is-not-the-only-problem
