In Search of Perfection
When I was younger, I constantly felt overweight and self-conscious. Even though I wasn't overweight, I thought I was because I didn't match up with the long-legged, slim-hipped ideal I saw all around me. All through high school I hid underneath baggy jeans and oversized t-shirts (fortunately it was the 90's, so I got away with it). When I got to college I began to realize that even though I didn't fit the ideal, I was still beautiful and sexy and damnit, I didn't need to be constantly dieting and obsessing about my weight. I started wearing tight clothes that showed off my ta-tas and round hips. But now I'm not in college anymore and a decade of being content with my body has led me to the point where I am overweight.
So I'm very concerned and conflicted about an article that came out this week in the Times: In Obesity Fight, Many Fear a Note From School. This article describes the emerging practice of sending "report cards" home with students detailing their body mass index. The article describes the responses of some students and families to this practice. One story that I found very moving was about an 6 year old who decided that she needed to go on a starvation diet because her teacher thought she was fat. I did some research today and learned that, according to the Eating Disorder Coalition, 40-60% of high school girls regularly diet and 40% of 9 year old girls have dieted. These girls are getting messages somewhere that they need to "diet" to have the right bodies.
On the other hand, we are seeing what the result of not paying attention to diet looks like. Obesity is an epidemic; today's school children are the first generation in the history of the world that have a shorter life-expectancy than their parents and it's because of obesity-related diseases.
I saw Super Size Me this week and it scared the crap out of me because even though I don't regularly eat fast-food, I know how easy it is to do so. I don't eat fast food, I make moderately good choices, I am moderately active and yet I have slipped from round-figured into overweight as a result of choosing not to make obsessive dieting a part of my life. American culture makes it almost impossible to eat healthy without going ridiculously out of our way. Check out your sodium and sugar levels in your low-fat foods. Its scary. The only way to get food that is simultaneously low-fat, low-sugar, low-sodium, and high-fiber is to eat nothing but raw vegetables, skim yogurt and flax seeds. Nothing out of a box or a can.
So I guess we do need to diet to have the right bodies. Is 9 years old too young? Apparently not. I don't know. I'm conflicted. I don't want our young girls to be obese, but I don't want them to be anorexic, either. And they have little chance of avoiding either with the crap that they get fed in school lunches.
What does healthy look like? What does beautiful look like? One of the other stories in the Times article was about a Homecoming Queen from PA who wears a size 20. I want to kiss her. I want big women to know that they're beautiful. But I also don't want them to have diabetes. Where is the balance?
posted by laurenj @ 11:15 PM
2 Comments:
I have found that I got a ton healthier living with people who actually cook thier food, from scratch. We hardly ever have anything that comes from a packet or a box. We do eat canned veggies, but half of them are home canned by one of my roomies grandmas. It is kind of awesome. It makes me frightened of the crap I used to eat, and I am still eating red meat and lots of meat with this diet (whole freezer full of farm animal from before mentioned roommates family farm).
I want people to like themselves healthy. Because true health is beautiful. But I don't know if there is a right way to look healthy. I think that size and shape is going to vary in a big, big way.
Yeah, this is a hard one. i know that in my household we could be doing a lot better in the area of food preparation. i do make a lot of food at home, but some of it is boxed. Thankfully none of us have to vigilantly watch our sodium intake... i like-a the salt. My hubby can eat whatever and still be tiny because that is just the way his metabolism runs, but since he is so small he won't have much of an indication of when he is unhealthy (like when he got blood workup done and his triglycerides were that of an overweight person) I doubt that Mr N. will have to worry too much either about weight... but it's not just about weight, it's about health. and when i feed my son i need to be thinking about that more. as far as children go, that is hard to. childhood obesity is a problem, but we don't want kids to "diet" to get skinny, rather watch what they eat to be healthy, and i bet more often than not their weight would drop too. But it's hard to have the right motivation for eating right, when everything around us is telling us to do whatever possible just to be skinny. They need to have more education about well rounded health starting in grade school.
anyway, i hope you are well and are enjoying getting back to work. we miss you.
-P
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