It would be very surprising if anyone in this country was not aware of North America's "War on Fat." Since the l 950s there has been increasing pressure in this country to lose weight. You can't read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch TV without hearing the constant injunction to be thin. All the rewards - money, friends, jobs, sex, health are supposed to go to the thinnest people. Everything from sodas to breakfast cereals to cigarettes are sold with the promise of weight loss. Like evangelists at the pulpit, the diet and medical industries tell us to shed those "extra pounds" or face the consequences. In 1990, there were 53 million dieters in the United States who spent an estimated $33 billion on weight loss programs. One survey found 62% of adults are dieting and 18% are constantly on a diet.
One would think that with the enormous amount of time and money spent on weight loss, people would be getting thinner. Yet, US. Department of Health statistics show that Americans are getting fatter and living longer.
National Institutes of Health and other studies show that 98% of people who lose weight gain it back within five years. And 90% of those gain back more weight than they lost. The failure of weight loss programs is so great that a leading researcher has said, "Dieting is the leading cause of obesity in the US."
Most( companies claim that their program will work and many even claim that "they are not a diet." Yet these claims are not substantiated by research. The top programs are so cavalier in their claims that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating them for fraud and there have been Senate Subcommittee hearings looking into regulating the diet industry.
Study after study has shown that our natural weight range is determined by genetics. Twins separated a~ birth and raised in different environments were within a few pounds of each o ther's weight. More than a dozen studies have tried and failed to show that fat people eat more or differently than thin people. Some even showed that fat people ate less than their thin counterparts. One of the biggest problems with weight loss programs is that they assume that weight is regulated in the stomach. Our metabolism is controlled, like most of our bodily functions, by the part of the brain called the hypothalamus. We call this the set-point. Like a thermostat, our weight varies slightly with environmental factors such as temperature, food quantity, food choices, and exercise. Yet, this accounts for only about 10-15% of a person's weight range. So a person's weight may fluctuate naturally by 10-20 pounds.
Weight loss attempts which try to force the body's natural weight range to change, instead of resulting in a lower weight. actually reset the weight range higher in the body's attempt to compensate for starvation.
We are told that if one eats a sensible diet" one will maintain a low weight or lose weight. Yet. studies show that most diets proscribe an amount of food far below the normal amount of food people need. The normal daily intake for adults is 2400-3000 calories a day. yet most commercial weight loss programs range from 945- 1200 calories a day . The World Health organization defines starvation (the point at which the body is dying) as 900 calories or less a day. That means that most programs are starvation or semi-starvation programs.
While weight loss is rarely permanent, the damage it can do to your body can be permanent. When you don ' t eat enough to maintain your body, your body begins to consume itself. Most people think they are losing fat when they diet, yet study after study shows that dieting destroys muscle, bone, and even brain tissue.
The muscle affected most is your heart. The Framingham study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1991, found that the risk of dying from heart disease is 70% higher in those with fluctuating weights than in those whose weight remains stable, regardless of their initial weight, blood pressure, smoking habits, cholesterol level, or level of physical activity.
High blood pressure is another side effect of the mental and physical stress of dieting. The nutritional stress can also result in electrolyte imbalance, which is excessively low levels of potassium in the blood, and which can lead to heart attacks.
Recent studies have found a direct link between osteoporosis and dieting. Osteoporosis is a deadly disease in which calcium is leached from the bones, resulting in fragile and deteriorating bones. One study found that a single five month weight loss program resulted in "significant bone loss." Usually thought of as post-menopausal condition, now many women, especially dancers and athletes, suffer from osteoporosis.
In addition, older women who have maintained a higher body fat percentage are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis as well as many other conditions associated with menopause. Fat cells retain estrogen which helps maintain the calcium in the bones. And for young women, if they drop below 15% body fat, they lose menses (their period) and suffer from a host of estrogen deficiency illnesses including infertility.
The list of illnesses now associated with dieting is long and growing longer every day as new studies find our "cure" is killing us. The list includes: anxiety, depression, lethargy, lowered self-esteem, decreased attention span, weakness, high blood pressure, hair loss, gall bladder disease, gall stones, heart disease, ulcers, constipation, anemia, dry skin, skin rashes, dizziness, reduced sex drive, menstrual irregularities, amenorrhea, gout, infertility, kidney stones, numbness in the legs, weight gain, eating disorders, reduced resistance to infection, lowered exercise tolerance, electrolyte imbalance, bone loss, osteoperosis, and death.
One study found that even "successful" dieters, who have kept the weight off, have the chemical signature and many of the illnesses associated with anorexia nervosa even though they have an average weight.
The epidemic rise in eating disorders is staggering. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, 150,000 women will die from eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, this year. Studies now show that dieting is the precursor to developing these deadly diseases. Dieting alienates us from the natural process of hunger and sets us up for the real physical side effects of dieting, resulting in women and men who have learned to ignore their own "survival mechanisms" and literally starve and binge themselves to death. Current estimates indicate that one in five women is suffering from a severe form of an eating disorder, and eight out of ten have some of the symptoms of one or more of these illnesses. And more men are developing these disorders as well.
Normal eating does not need a meal plan. Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it - not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint in your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. It is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, bored, or just because it feels good.
Normal eating is three meals a day for some but it can also be choosing to eat between meals. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow. In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food. If you eat foods that are good for you and get regular exercise, you won't necessarily be thin but you will be healthier and probably happier.
Many dieters are upset because they aren't "normal" - they are upset about being "overweight". Over what weight? Over the weight charts, right? One recent study found that 64% of Americans weigh more than the charts suggest, and another 14% weigh "underweight" according to the charts. That's 78% of us who don't fit the charts.
The charts are a statistical report created by Metropolitan Insurance in 1959 and only slightly revised in 1979. The research was not based on medical studies, mostly included white males, and was economically biased. It does not reflect any real population. Because of this, the term "overweight" is inaccurate and, to many, offensive. Terms like fat or large are only bad if we think being fat is bad. It is a description, not a judgment: people do come in many sizes. The charts are not helpful, especially since dieting does not work.
Many of those so-called "obesity diseases" are already in our list of the risks associated with dieting. Most researchers who study fat people do not separate those who have been dieting from those who don't. In America, it is difficult to find a fat person who hasn't been yo-yo dieting most of his or her life.
Studies done cross-culturally in areas where fat is accepted found that the rates of the so-called "fat diseases" were lower than the American average, and indicate that it is the dieting and stress of being fat in a fat phobic society which causes many of our problems.
A lot has been said about the insurance studies linking heart disease and fat. Yet., Ancel Keys, who coordinated sixteen separate long-term studies in seven different countries concluded: "In none of the areas of this study was overweight or obesity a major risk factor for death, or the incidence of coronary heart disease."
With all the suggestions that we lose weight for our health, you would expect mortality studies to show that thin people live longer, wouldn't you? They don't.
The Seven Country Study, the Framingham, Albany, Tecumseh, Chicago People's Gas, and Chicago Western Electric studies all found that people 20-40% over the weight charts lived the longest. And although mortality, or the chance of dying, increases with weight, the people who actually lived the shortest life spans were those at or below the weight charts.
In addition to longer life spans, fat people can have lower rates of most cancers and respiratory diseases. Fat people have lowered incidence of pre-menopausal breast cancer. stomach cancer. lung cancer, meningioma. and colon cancer. They also have lower rates of bronchitis. tuberculosis. scoliosis, peptic ulcer. anemia, hip fracture, and vertebral fracture.
Most Americans have been taught to view fat as some sort of poison in their bodies. And while eating high quantities of fat may be bad for your health, fat tissue is a vital part of our bodies which provides energy stores, insulation from the cold, and cushioning for the rest of our bodies.
Different body types have different strengths and weaknesses. While a fat person might have more complications from a broken leg, they also are less likely to break bones in the first place. Looking at how to be healthy and happy in the body you have is more realistic and more productive.
The Dieter's Dilemma: Eating Less and Weighing
More
by William Bennet and Joel Gurin (New York: Basic
Books, 1982).
Rethinking Obesity: An Alternative View of its Health
Implications
by Paul Ernsberger and Paul Haskew (New York:
Human Sciences Press, 1987).
Some of the information in this pamphlet is from these books. Most is from recent studies. A more detailed explanation appears in Killing Us for Our Own Good: Dieting and Medical Misinformation by Dawn Atkins (audio and video tape) available for sale from:
P.O. Box 934 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Written by Dawn Atkins, NAAFA Research Committee Chair
© NAAFA
PO BOX 188620, Sacramento, CA 95818 Phone:(916) 558-6880 Fax:(916) 558-6881