Fight obesity, but don’t moralize weight

As The Daily Princetonian reported Friday as David Mendelsohn mentions in his column today

I am fully aware of the health risks of being obese, since both obesity and diabetes run in my family. Several of my family members have died from diabetes or other obesity-related health problems, while others continue to struggle with their weight and health. Yet I still feel that critics of No Fat Talk Week missed the point.

The most striking statistic cited by the Eating Concerns Advisors, who organized the awareness week, is that 54 percent of women would rather be hit by a truck than be fat. The fact that the majority of women would rather be dead than be fat suggests that the way we talk about fatness is not psychologically healthy.

This is why I supported No Fat Talk Week. Certainly doctors should talk about weight with patients who are overweight or obese. Public health researchers and politicians can also discuss the causes and possible social and policy solutions to the obesity epidemic. But the everyday fat talk thrown around in the United States is not about health. There is a moral undertone to much of our discussion of obesity. Overweight children are bullied and overweight adults are less likely to be hired. We make snapshot value judgments of those who are overweight, assuming they must be lazy — surely if they had more willpower or just exercised more they would be thin. But this ignores the fact that people can be genetically predisposed to obesity and that others with faster metabolisms can eat endless amounts of empty calories and still stay thin. It also ignores the environmental effects of fast-food advertising, sedentary lifestyles and high levels of stress at school or work. Some studies show that stressful working conditions contribute to obesity above and beyond diet and exercise. Fatness is also seen as unattractive. In a society that values females disproportionately for their looks, this type of judgmental fat talk is bound to make women in particular have low senses of self-worth.

Earlier this year I attended a body-image workshop cosponsored by the student group Let’s Talk Sex, the Program in the Study of Women and Gender, the Women’s Center and the Eating Concerns Advisors. Nearly every female student who attended said she was unhappy with her weight. Yet when I looked around the room, only two of these students appeared to be even somewhat overweight. Furthermore, these students also expressed feelings of shame and inadequacy.

This may be an unrepresentative sample of female students at Princeton, as only about 30 students attended the workshop. Nonetheless, it suggests a trend. More than 50 percent of Princeton students think they are overweight, according to ECA co-president Julia Kearney ’11. A cursory glance around campus is enough to show that for many, this is a body-image problem.

Whether or not these students develop eating disorders, our society’s moralizing obsession with weight has psychological consequences. It also may undercut the motivation of those with genuine weight problems to address them. Those who are overweight or obese would be best served by social support, not social stigma. People who are overweight know they should diet and exercise; they know obesity is a health risk. In my experience, most of them are trying to lose weight. Being told they are ugly or lazy only lowers their self-esteem without promoting healthy behavior. The stress itself may make their task biologically harder, as the elevated glucose levels that are triggered by the physiological stress process increase irritability, hunger and physical cravings for fat-laden foods (they are called “comfort foods” for a reason).

A better approach to helping all individuals become healthier is to focus on health in a positive light rather than looking at weight negatively. At the body-image workshop, we talked about valuing our bodies and wanting to nurture them. Such an approach does not equate thinness with healthiness. Nor does it cause low self-esteem. Rather than basing value judgments of ourselves and others on weight, it instills an appreciation for the uniqueness for our own bodies and creates a strong desire to protect them. The emphasis shifts from “should” to “want.” Focusing on the process rather than the result allows people to feel healthy and respectable when they lead healthy lifestyles but are unable to lose weight. To the extent that dieting and exercise can reduce obesity, a positive approach is more likely to inspire this behavior and reduce obesity. At the same time, such an approach is less likely to cause feelings of shame or low self-esteem that might lead to unhealthy dieting or eating disorders.

Miriam Geronimus is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from Ann Arbor, Mich. She can be reached at mgeronim@princeton.edu.