Some Weekend Reading for the Zaftig

Because "zaftig" is a nicer word than the value-and-judgement-laden "overweight".  (Which implies there is an absolute standard of what someone should weigh out there somewhere--maybe in the book of "Revelations"?)

I have known some things for a long time but have only figured out that they are, like, science and junk while studying nutrition for my kids.  I offer this as food for thought, as we enter the weekend, and hope that it will be encouraging to my readers.

1. People know how to eat, and telling/forcing/shaming them into eating in an arbitrarily determined "good" way does harm.

2. There is no connection between being zaftig (fat even) and having heart disease.

No, you heard that right.  None.  Zip.  Nothing, in the research, for 50 years.

3. People's weight is largely genetically determined and there is no sucessful method for achieving and maintaining a lower body weight than your body wants to be.  ("But, people who don't eat lose weight... like anorexics and junk..."  Yes, anyone who doesn't eat enough will lose weight and keep losing, but they also die.  This doesn't sound "sucessful" to me.)

4. If you trust yourself and your body, that will not automatically put you at an unhealthy weight, though it may be an unfashionable one.

Finally,

5. Weight perception in America is about status, power, and fashion, much the same as footbinding was in ancient China.  Even though footbinding was painful, debilitating, and probably shortened women's lives, they still did it because the social rewards were so high.  Because mockery, discrimination, and cruelty toward fat people are very acceptable in our society (can you think of a sitcom without a fat funny guy to mock? can you remember when movies had a funny, poor-grammar-using black maid for the same purpose? do you think either is okay?), people will take drastic risks in order to be thin.

So read up on Ellyn Satter's How to Eat series.  And then go enjoy your breakfast, scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and marmelade, espresso, and all.  I give you permission.

Cheers,

Breanna

P.S.  And, despite what you may think, I who write this have never been what society calls "fat".  Although I have felt fat, and I have worked after each pregnancy to lose weight.  While I always started in the past with restrictive eating to lose weight, I can't (and no one can) maintain it, so I always fell back into eating more or less what felt right and working on allowing myself more time to move in pleasurable ways--gardening, belly dancing, etc.  It does work, although I can't force myself to weigh 150 that way.  When I lost an unhealthy amount of weight by working 12-hour-shifts and not eating before my wedding, I hit 148 and felt like crap, so I'm not sure where I came up with the idea that 150 was desirable, but hovering between 160 and 170 is where my body is happy, and I am eminently healthy.  So Nyaaah!