The Lies We’re Told
You know what I’m really sick of?
The belief that people somehow eat themselves into obesity.
(If you don’t enjoy reading rants, now’s your chance to click away…)
To think that somebody would be able to somehow eat themselves into a 500lb body is so absurdly ludicrous, it would be laughable if it weren’t so infuriating.
Does the general public truly believe that people are just sitting around all day, eating enough bonbons to maintain that kind of weight? Or are we just parroting the lies we’ve been told time and again?
“Obesity is Killing the World!”
“We Need to Get Control of The Obesity Epidemic!”
“Confront the Childhood Obesity Epidemic!”
“Establish a Task Force on Childhood Obesity!”
“Combat…”
“Confront…”
“Battle…”
“War…”
Apparently, America is at war.
And it’s all the gluttonous children and evil food companies’ faults. People are so brainwashed by the news, it makes me want to scream, “Seriously?! GET A GRIP!”
But honestly? I used to think the same thing. (We the sheeple, right?) 🐑
Here’s why I changed my mind:
Everyone knows someone who’s naturally skinny, no matter what they do. Everyone knows someone tall, someone short. Someone with brown eyes, and someone with blue. Someone with curly hair, and someone with straight. Freckles, no freckles. Pale skin, dark skin. Long fingers, short ones. You get the point. The variation in our appearances is absolutely wild.
Any guess why there’s so much variation?
Genetics.
Breast cancer, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, down syndrome, thalassemia. We don’t like to admit it, but so much is determined by our genetics. Yet nobody’s out there blaming themselves for their height.
Why?
Because nobody’s marketing height-changing products to them.
Despite the scientific evidence that being taller correlates with a shorter lifespan, nobody’s being told to buy height-reducing lotions, supplements, subscriptions, or memberships. Yet.
Nope. We’re all entirely focused on our weight. Because we’re told that not only is it within our power to “control” our weight, but that it’s also our duty to do so. And when the products, subscriptions, and memberships don’t work? It’s our fault. We’re deemed as lazy, gluttonous, and remorseless.
But here’s the thing:
Weight is genetic, too.
“We show that thinness, like obesity, is a heritable trait with a polygenic component.”
“Family, twin and adoption studies have consistently demonstrated that ~70% of the variation in body weight can be attributed to heritable factors.”
“Identification of rare, penetrant genetic variants that affect key molecular and neural pathways involved in human energy homeostasis.”
“More than 75% of the variation was explained by genetic factors.”
The human race is varied in appearance. And body weight is just another expression of that variance. We can’t all be the same weight, just like we can’t all be the same height. And like height, our collective weights are distributed on a bell curve. As such, someone’s got to hold down the edges of that curve.
The furthest points of the bell curve are associated with negative health correlates. In regards to height, those taller than eight feet (at the very right end of the bell curve) have a higher mortality rate than those representing the shortest of our race. But ironically, despite our mad race to be thinner, the opposite is true for weight: those representing the lowest ranges of the bell curve are vastly more at risk of death than those whose weight sits them at the highest end. Think about it: if the average American BMI (26) were overweight, then why is our life expectancy still increasing?
Despite this, we’re force fed the narrative that having a larger body size is the result of our own doing.
We’re told: the more you eat, the fatter you get. But that’s an outright lie.
Statistics from The Healthy Eating Index sing a different tune: they show that those with BMI<20 and BMI>30 have similar calorie intakes. And within the study they conducted on a sample of men age 18-74, of those who ate only 60% of the recommended daily calories, 17% were obese. Contrast that with the men who were eating 120% of the daily recommended calories, wherein only 10% were obese.
What does this mean? It means obese people aren’t eating themselves into oblivion.
In fact, they’re more likely to be eating too little.
If you’re curious why - despite the evidence to the contrary - common narrative remains dead set against the truth, ask yourself this:
Who’s benefitting from these lies?
To answer this, we follow the money...
💸💨💨
Over the past two decades, the cutoffs for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hypothyroidism have all been lowered. Interestingly, obesity was no exception to the trend:
June 17th, 1998, CNN News reads:
“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Millions of Americans became "fat" Wednesday -- even if they didn't gain a pound -- as the federal government adopted a controversial method for determining who is considered overweight. … Critics worry that these lower weights will persuade doctors to start prescribing diet drugs for people who don't need them.”
This is a direct quote from a news article covering the day the NIH essentially shifted goalposts to redefine 65% of the American population as obese. Some worried this would increase unnecessary, harmful prescriptions… and that’s exactly what ensued.
As it so happens, “eight of the nine members of the National Institutes of Health task force on prevention and treatment of obesity have ties to the weight-loss industry, either as consultants to pharmaceutical companies, recipients of research money from them, or advisers to for-profit groups such as Weight Watchers."
Don’t get me wrong: doctors were no strangers to prescribing weight loss drugs.
As far back as the 1920’s, doctors began giving healthy patients unwarranted thyroid medication in an attempt to decrease their patients’ weight. Sensing the untapped market potential, only a few years later, drug companies began specifically marketing pharmaceuticals for weight-loss. Almost immediately, drugs like DNP, amphetamines, diuretics, laxatives, and fen-phen were being prescribed by doctors throughout the country, without a second thought to their potentially fatal side effects.
None of this was particularly healthful for any of these patients, but my main point is this: since the cutoffs for overweight and obesity were lowered in the late 90’s, weight loss drug prescriptions have steadily increased year after year, with rates more than doubling in the past five years.
All this to say: Despite the Big Bad Obesity Epidemic, actual statistics sing a different tune. The fact is:
The lowest mortality rates are seen in those with BMI 27.
Translation: being “pre-obese” is actually ideal.
So, why label the healthiest weight as pre-[word we taught people to associate with fear and negativity]? I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.
You might be thinking: “But wait a minute, Maria. Earlier, those studies you cited only claimed that around 70% of our weight is determined genetically… What about the other 30%?”
Yes, a lot is determined by our genes. But genetics aren’t the whole picture.
Enter: the social determinants of health.
The social determinants of health are a list of well-studied conditions that influence your health status. Referencing this list, you’ll see that despite our growing concern for what we eat, only ten percent of health outcomes are attributable to both food and exercise - combined. The rest is determined by things like genetics, community, financial stability, sufficient sleep, and a sense of purpose.
So, while I find health to be much more worthy of our concern than weight, it’s clear that genetics aren’t the only factor influencing our weight. More accurately: our genetics can be influenced by external factors.
What I mean to say is this:
While our genes are the same as they ever were, what’s changed while obesity has gone from rare to “pandemic” levels isn’t us, but the things surrounding us.
As it so happens, unlike the misinformation blaming ample food and supposedly lessening exercise for causing obesity, there’s actual, solid evidence implicating certain chemicals for enlarging our adipose organs. Namely: endocrine disruptors.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are hormonally disrupting substances found in everything from the air we breath, to the water we drink, to the lotion we put on our hands. Essentially, they interfere with the way our bodies’ hormones work. They do this by disrupting how hormones are made, broken down, and stored in the body; by mimicking hormones; and by changing our sensitivity to hormones. And most pertinently: they’ve all been shown to cause adipose organ hypertrophy.
So, where are these EDCs found? Initially, they were studied in nature for the deleterious effects caused by pollution. But now, we find them in pesticides, plastics, BPA-lined tins, synthetic fragrances, receipt paper, and non-stick pans.
We could drive ourselves crazy trying to purify our air, and filter our shower heads, but my main point in mentioning it is this: EDCs are f*cking with our bodies, and with our world. In the end, 600 million people globally are undernourished, while the same amount are obese. Essentially, we’ve been poisoned, and made to believe our symptoms are the result of our own shortcomings.
Point being: the last thing we should be blaming is food and exercise.
Circling back to my initial argument, I hope you see the truth: that your weight is almost entirely genetic. And for that minority that’s not predetermined? That’s kind of out of your control, too. Moreover, lest it needs clarification: adipose hypertrophy is not caused by laziness or gluttony, but by maladaptive hormonal responses to the chemicals we’re now steeped in.
Which brings us to the only logical conclusion to be drawn:
Stop fearing food.
Food will not make you fat. You need to eat. Unrestrictedly, and indiscriminately.
Your body needs all the support, energy, vitamins, and nutrients it can get to keep yourself healthy and resilient in a world that - let’s face it - isn’t exactly as compatible with our bodies as it once was.
Strip away the lies, and we can view food for what it truly is: an opportunity to get more nutrition.
I promise you: eating isn’t something you need to be afraid of.
XO,
Maria
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