The conventional wisdom is that we are fat because we eat too much and exercise too little. Too much food in, and not enough energy out.
OK, so, if this is true, why? Why do we eat too much, when only a generation or so a go we didn't? Have people, over the last 30 years or so, suddenly become lazy sloth's who cannot control what they put in their mouths, or is something else going on? And does becoming fat, in itself, change the ability to lose weight?
Phew, what a lot of questions!
Old photographs are really interesting things. Unlike paintings and drawings they often show what is really there. I say 'often' because even with old photographs they can be manipulated, but this is more common nowadays.
It is interesting to note that many early photos show quite obese women...as long as they are poor, yet richer women are almost invariably thin. Poor men and poor children are, likewise, thin.
These are fisher women from Scotland.
And these are more wealthy women golfers. I actually have no idea of their wealth but the fact they have the leisure and the resources to play golf makes me assume they have a greater disposable income than our fisher women.
Now let us make a few more assumptions. Fisher women would have worked very hard indeed. Historical records show this. And whilst our golfers obviously play golf, we can assume they do not work as hard..or burn as many calories... as fisher women.
Maybe our fisherwomen simply overeat. After all we know we get hungry after exercise. But what food would they have access to? Well, fish of course! But then fish is a cash crop to them. If they could sell their fish we can assume they would. They may only eat any fish they fail to sell. And with that fish, what else would they eat? Honestly I don't know, but I know women, and mothers. I know that if there was not enough food to go around, a mother would feed her children before herself. She would also give better food to the children. So let us say she had some potatoes, some bread or oat cakes and some fish, and maybe an egg or two. I think a mother would give the fish and eggs to her children, and probably her husband who has to go fish in the deep seas. She would say, "I'm fine, I'll just have some bread"
Now I know I have made a lot of assumptions here. But often in early photographs poor women are fat and poor men and children are painfully thin. Rich people are usually pleasantly slim, but not skinny. And yes, this is a generalization.
So we can assume our fisher women, who are undeniably fat, have not been laying on the sofa eating chips. In fact they are probably working harder than most people today and eating less. And they are fat.
So what is all this about? Maybe something else is going on that doesn't just end up with fat people are just fat because they are lazy and they eat too much.
Now let us have a look at now-a days. In our current society obesity is a disease of the poor, but not exclusively of the poor. However the poor are over represented in the statistics. Just try googling 'the economics of obesity' if you would like proof of this. Also more women are obese than men (according the NHS statistics from the UK) but this gap is closing fast. So making an assumption again. Something makes women get fat more easily, or did, than men. But this is changing over recent years.
And I think we can safely assume that not many people actually want to look or live like this.
I think we can assume that these women would give a lot to be of normal weight and size. After all we know fat people get a raw deal in all walks of life, from getting and keeping jobs, to finding clothes to everyday humiliations of chairs and busses and toilet cubicles to the insults hurled at them by young men in noisy cars.
Now-a-days it is almost impossible not to know the message of healthy eating, so we can also assume our two women enjoying the sunshine above, know that they should not eat fats, and if they do they should only eat polyunsaturated ones. They should eat wholemeal grains and lots of them so they feel full and do not get hungry. If they do get hungry they should fill up with lots of fruit. They should eat almost no meat and if they could just have an occasional bit of fish or chicken breast then that would be best of all. Maybe processed carbohydrates are not too good for you, but don't worry, just have a small amount of cake made with raw sugar and wholemeal grain. After all its almost fat free, and it is the fat that makes you fat. And of course with healthy eating comes healthy exercise. These women should take up jogging.
It's not worked has it?
We stopped eating the fat, we ate the brown rice and the pasta and the wholemeal bread. We ate wholemeal bread for breakfast. No butter of course, just some low fat spread that said it was 50% less fat (less fat than what?). Or we had the muesli, with the rolled oats and the nuts and seeds and tiny bits of dates...and raw sugar of course. Lunch would be a salad with a no fat dressing ('all the taste none of the calories') and we would have this with a wholemeal roll with more low fat spread. Supper would be a grilled chicken breast with more salad and pasta. And as we had been so good all day maybe a desert of some strawberry fat free yogurt.
Or maybe we were desperate, and so we paid a lot of money to buy their 'meal replacements', the drinks and the bars. They were endorsed by doctors and we were desperate. This time, please, please, this time make it work.
We did it didn't we? We did what they said. We followed their rules. And it didn't work.
We got hungrier and hungrier and fatter and fatter. And they said it was us. We were lying, cheating. If we had followed the rules we would be thin by now.
But it wasn't us. We weren't lying and cheating and sneaking chocolate bars on the side. At least not then. the chocolate bars come later when we realise it will never work. When we did all they said and we were still fat, fatter even, so why should we bother? Why not just eat the chocolate and be blowed with it.
And the real tragedy of this is that it warped our minds. Food, once a source of celebration and family togetherness was now a source of worry and guilt. I'm fat so people must not see me eat. So we eat at night, or in the bathroom, or when we are all alone. And we become overeaters.
This post has to end. But I want to go further with this. I want to talk about what they did to our food, that made matters so much worse. That not only made us overeaters, but made sure we would remain so.
But just out of curiosity....did you, like me...put ON weight on the low fat diet? Did you get fatter with every diet you did? Let me know, and I will be back soon to chat about what they did to our food, and why.
No comments:
Post a Comment