The War on Weight: It’s a Marketed Lie + How to Stop Fighting Your Body
The United States is engaged in a war. A fight against fat and obesity — against bodies. In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General officially declared a “war against obesity” (Herndon, 2005). Since that time, Americans have spent billions of dollars each year trying to defeat the enemy — fat — by losing weight.
Americans spend upwards of $60 billion dollars a year — in everything from diet drinks to gym memberships — in their quest to fight fat and obesity. Despite these efforts, obesity rates have drastically risen in both adults and children in the last two decades, with now more than four out of every ten American adults being considered obese. Not surprisingly, body dissatisfaction is also at an all-time high.
Around eighty-percent of women in the U.S. don’t like how they look, and seventy percent of normal-weighted women wish they were thinner. Further, over eighty percent of ten-year-olds express fear about being fat and over fifty percent of teenaged girls and thirty percent of teenaged boys employ harmful and unhealthy behaviors to control their weight, like purge vomiting, missing meals and fasting, smoking, and taking laxatives.
Fear of the ‘enemy’ — a fat body — drives these behaviors and attitudes. But why are we so afraid of fat?
Many would answer, ‘well being fat is obviously unhealthy and puts you at risk for all kinds of sickness.’ New research and studies contradict this belief, revealing that the medical community has made false assumptions and broad claims about the so-called connection between obesity and poor health.
For example, a 2004 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), that estimated obesity was the cause of 400,000 American deaths each year. Later it was uncovered that the researchers who made this claim, “simply assumed that obesity was the primary cause of death,” without clear medical evidence or scientific reasoning to support their assumption. After an official congressional inquiry, the CDC was forced to re-investigate and amend their earlier report.
In the end, the CDC conducted another study and researchers found that “moderately ‘overweight’ people live longer than those at a ‘normal’ weight.” And instead of causing 400,000 deaths, less than 26,000 Americans die each year from obesity/being overweight, which is a smaller number than those who are estimated to die every year from being ‘underweight’.
Another example of the medical community spreading false information about fat and obesity is when William Kilsh told the Houston Chronicle in 2002, that, “‘If we don’t get this epidemic [of childhood obesity] in check, for the first time in a century children will be looking forward to a shorter life expectancy than their parents.’” This scary and sobering statement was, as Kilsh himself acknowledged later to the Center for Consumer Freedom, not made from ‘evidence-based research’, but rather, ‘intuition’.
In short, the claims about obesity that have driven the American people to wage war against fat have not been based on solid research (Bruno, 2017). So why make them?
Money.
One glimpse at the industries who champion and lead the fight against obesity reveals that they have everything to gain from fighting the so-called ‘epidemic’ of obesity.
For government health agencies, an epidemic of obesity justifies increasing their budget allotments and programs, scientists who research and conduct studies on the popular issue receive grants and recognition, weight-loss surgeons’ services are covered by Medicare and health insurance providers (not to mention they have an increase in patients), and pharmaceutical companies can legitimate the need for, and release new drugs, which increases their stock prices.
Then there are the thousands of companies and individuals who’ve gotten rich by selling fad diets, weight-loss pills and products, exercise programs, and gym memberships. They have everything to gain from a nation-wide fear of fat and obsession with losing weight.
J.E. Oliver contends that for the American health establishment, “an obesity epidemic is worth billions.” Which means that the very people who preach obesity is an ‘epidemic’ and that being overweight is a major health (not to mention aesthetic) concern, benefit the most from the ‘fat crisis’.
In short, Americans have been convinced by profit-seeking companies and industries that peace with our bodies, health, and happiness will only be reached when we defeat fat and obesity.
So the war rages on.
But just like any war, there are protestors. People who have seen and experienced the devastation that results from the battle against larger bodies, and now advocate for a ceasefire and a peace treaty.
Health at Every Size (HAES®) is one of these protestor movements.
The Health at Every Size approach allows people to stop fighting against their bodies and instead make peace with them.
HAES® gives everyone, regardless of their size, the freedom, knowledge, and tools they need to pursue a healthy, happy life — without the prerequisite of weight-loss.
Launched in 2010 by Linda Bacon, PhD., HAES® is a weight- and body-neutral, fat-positive movement. Dr. Bacon shares that for years she battled with body shame and disordered eating, but finally, while in college, went on a quest to find freedom from her struggles. After seeking help and breaking free from the destructive cycles of restricting food and hating her body, she began to see,
“this wasn’t just my individual problem.”
Bacon soon realized she wasn’t alone in her struggles with body image and food issues. People all around her had similar stories to the one she broke free from. This realization prompted her to take what had before been a personal journey, and consider it from a bigger perspective.
Dr. Bacon determined to learn everything she could about food, exercise, body size, and their connection to health, earning multiple degrees and a Ph.D. in nutrition, body image, physiology, and psychotherapy. Her quest and extensive education led her to a revolutionary discovery:
Thin does not equal healthy, and fat does not equal unhealthy. All bodies — small or large — should pursue healthy behaviors and can enjoy wellness, regardless of whether their weight changes.
The HEAS® promise is this: “You can feel better about yourself. You can feel loved, accepted, and vital — and you can improve your health — regardless of whether you lose weight” (Bacon, 2010).
The USDA called the Health at Every Size program, “the ‘new hope’ for people struggling with their weight’” (Bacon, 2010).
If making peace with your body and pursuing health regardless of your body size interests you, please go check out Dr. Bacon’s book, Health at Every Size, for more information on this topic.
