Dinosaurs are NOT Food blogger Ginger Bakos continues her quest to dispel myths about food, kid food, healthy living, and all the lies of the food industry with this most recent post.
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Disclaimer: This post is not attempting to treat any medical condition or to replace any medical or nutritional advice given by a licensed professional. It also is not in any way saying that you should go out and eat as much of whatever you want whenever you want. It IS saying that it’s time to let go of our obsession with losing that “extra 5 or 10 pounds.”
I don’t follow celebrity gossip or chatter much. And despite being inches away from writing my first ever rant on this blog about Nicole Arbour, I typically stay away from “trending” news. Recently, though, this quote by Khloe Kardashian popped up on my Facebook feed as I was sitting down to write this article
“For a long time, I had insecurities about the way I looked physically. Sadly those insecurities were given to me by others. I personally felt I was beautiful bigger.”
It made me sad. Here is someone who personally liked herself as she was put on this Earth, but felt like she had no choice but to spend every waking moment crafting a new body in order to be accepted. That, to me, is nuts.
If fitness is your thing, and it keeps you juiced and you WANT to do those things for yourself (not for others), I am going to be the first one cheering you on. If however, you eat well, and you are quite happy to take a walk most days or hop on the elliptical, and call it good, I’m going to be right there to tell you what a great job you’re doing, too.
Because they are both valid; they are both healthy.
This thin worship thing we have going on these days is troubling. It’s troubling that about 15% of Americans are dieting (not to be confused with changing your diet) trying to attain an ideal. I’ve talked quite a bit lately about dieting, and shared a great article by Brandi Davis about being thin and the troubling message it sends to our kids, especially our girls.
Really, though, it all comes down to one thing: we equate thinness to health and longevity.
The thinner you are, the healthier you are. Right? Not so fast…
What if I told you that there has never been a study that could provide direct correlation with thinness to longevity? What if I told you that despite the fact that obesity increases your risk of certain chronic diseases (but only in certain circumstances), the reverse has never been proven? We have a tendency to oversimplify information as humans. If A, then B must be true. Yet, the evidence does not stack up that way.
What if I told you that losing weight, especially if you are not obese (read: if you are simply considered overweight), can damage your health? What if I told you that “metabolically fit” overweight people were no less healthy than “metabolically fit” thin people? You’d likely say I was confused. Yet, the above have all been proven to be true.
In fact, some researchers and scientists are actively concerned that when studies about weight and its effect on health are studied, that researchers who get results such as these often are reluctant to publish them.
Why?
Because even among the science world, people are prone to conformity unless they are simply willing to buck the norm. Many of the greatest scientific advancements come ONLY when someone is unwilling to accept the current way things are done. It’s no different here.
There is concern that the reason obesity is connected to disease is because they are of greater focus in the medical field. And while on the surface that might sound reasonable, it really isn’t accounting for thin or average weight people at all. See, doctors are less likely to test thin people for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases we associate with excess weight. As a result, thin folks are slow to be diagnosed, and worse, often not until a chronic disease has done irreversible damage. And thin people are less likely to be concerned about their health in general, and often blindsided by Type 2 diabetes diagnoses.
The biggest problem here? Thin people are nearly twice as likely to die from diabetes than their obese counterparts, which would make thin people’s diagnosis equally if not MORE imperative.
There is a greater issue of the medical field not taking diet into account when talking to patients about their health, but it’s one we’ll cover another day. It is definitely related to not testing thin people for metabolic disease, though.
Still though this misconception that thin equals healthy proliferated, despite being proven in several different scenarios that it doesn’t.
While there is need for further research, it’s clear that our assumptions about weight are misguided, and are doing a disservice to everyone thin, average and heavy folks alike.
Here are a few helpful articles on the subject:
http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/05/can-you-be-fat-and-fit-or-thin-and-unhealthy/
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/27/why-being-thin-doesnt-always-mean-being-healthy/
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1309174
And here‘s a good point/counterpoint article.
So what DOES equal healthy?
I’m so glad you asked. While exercise is not directly correlated to “healthy weight” without a change in diet (and we will talk about the ills of BMI at a later date), it is directly related to how healthy a person is-regardless of weight.
“You have to remember it doesn’t take that much to be fit,” says Church. “To qualify as fit, it takes about 30 minutes of walking five days a week on average. That’s not a ton of caloric expenditure. It is actually quite easy physiologically to be overweight or obese, but also qualify as physically fit.” Federal guidelines recommend at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week.” – from TIME
No matter what you weigh, regular exercise can reduce your risk of:
Heart Disease
Stroke
High Blood Pressure
Physical ailments and disability later in life
Diabetes
Osteoporosis
Back pain
Anixiety and Depression
General Stress
The other thing that makes a big difference is what you eat. Though even at that is dodgy endeavor.
*Stay tuned, because next, we will cover why there is no such thing as “good” food and “bad” food.
Ginger Bakos is a Family Food Coach in Stow, Ohio committed to freeing families from the “kid food” cycle and guiding them to a healthful and positive relationship with real food. She writes and speaks on the subjects of family food, eating psychology, and teaching healthful eating habits to kids. You can reach out to her at ginger@dinosaursarenotfood.com.