I've been taking a look at what's not being examined re: the Western World's increasing body mass.
I don't think anyone will disagree that the subject of too much fat on one's body is a huge subject.
If you even suggest anything positive about it, you get an earful.
I wrote this article for Salon.com called "Big Love" about loving fat women, and 404 people wrote letters, some full of vicious bile you'd normally see reserved for, say, the President or terrorists. This, of course, along with the nice responses.
Some people simply couldn't believe that someone might not loathe fat---it just blew their minds, and I was labeled "sick" by some.
If you're going to learn anything, you have to open your mind; you have to say, "What I know may or may not be true. I'm going to listen to all sides, even if I've already made up my mind. New information may change everything."
I've recently come to the notion that our increasing size may be a natural and---dare I say it? perhaps beneficial response to factors unknown, despite the cries of "Diabetes!" "High blood pressure!" "Joint problems!" "Sleep apnea!" as well as judgements people have over what fat represents---laziness, sloth, a person out-of-control, and all that.
There are the obvious factors as to why people get fat. Too much available food and not enough moving the body is the most obvious. That's the one people yell about, to simplify it.
There are the factors below that; the ones scientists study, both "real" scientists and the ones towing the line of diet companies and the corrupt Government. Today, it's "it's a germ!" is the latest proferred theory. This may be true, but the fact that the NY Times magazine devoted a whole million-word article to it makes me say, "If one theory is given all this space, could it be they don't know why the hell we're so big either---really?"
Then there is the unseen, the unknown.
We don't "really" know why everyone is getting so fat. Or, why it's damn near impossible to keep lost weight off without a tremendous amount of effort and vigilance.
Deep down, everyone knows this. There is something else.
Someone once did a study about the preponderance of females born after major wars. No one engineered the occurrence---it just happened as a natural phenomenon, nature balancing itself out. More women = more children to replenish the population. Nothing to do with us---it was nature.
We're getting fat for a lot of reasons---no one's exactly sure why. It isn't black and white. If it was black and white, everyone who ate more calories than they used would grow fat, and everyone who cut their calories and increased their excercise would lose weight. We know that's not the case. I know a 43-year-old man who never excercises and who eats pretty much through the day. He's been 150 pounds his whole adult life.
I know others who eat 1,200 calories a day and to lose a single pound is a big deal, not to mention keeping it off.
There is a reason we're hoarding energy. And we may not know the reason.
Think about it---we're the hardiest of all our ancestors. We're the survivors. The rest were too weak to survive the harshness of life on planet earth before this modern age.
We're a hardy bunch.
Something unknown is happening---and somewhere, also unknown, our bodies are taking on more mass.
It may be nature's way of preparing us for something else.
Some condition where the biggest ones survive the longest.
I don't think anyone will disagree that the subject of too much fat on one's body is a huge subject.
If you even suggest anything positive about it, you get an earful.
I wrote this article for Salon.com called "Big Love" about loving fat women, and 404 people wrote letters, some full of vicious bile you'd normally see reserved for, say, the President or terrorists. This, of course, along with the nice responses.
Some people simply couldn't believe that someone might not loathe fat---it just blew their minds, and I was labeled "sick" by some.
If you're going to learn anything, you have to open your mind; you have to say, "What I know may or may not be true. I'm going to listen to all sides, even if I've already made up my mind. New information may change everything."
I've recently come to the notion that our increasing size may be a natural and---dare I say it? perhaps beneficial response to factors unknown, despite the cries of "Diabetes!" "High blood pressure!" "Joint problems!" "Sleep apnea!" as well as judgements people have over what fat represents---laziness, sloth, a person out-of-control, and all that.
There are the obvious factors as to why people get fat. Too much available food and not enough moving the body is the most obvious. That's the one people yell about, to simplify it.
There are the factors below that; the ones scientists study, both "real" scientists and the ones towing the line of diet companies and the corrupt Government. Today, it's "it's a germ!" is the latest proferred theory. This may be true, but the fact that the NY Times magazine devoted a whole million-word article to it makes me say, "If one theory is given all this space, could it be they don't know why the hell we're so big either---really?"
Then there is the unseen, the unknown.
We don't "really" know why everyone is getting so fat. Or, why it's damn near impossible to keep lost weight off without a tremendous amount of effort and vigilance.
Deep down, everyone knows this. There is something else.
Someone once did a study about the preponderance of females born after major wars. No one engineered the occurrence---it just happened as a natural phenomenon, nature balancing itself out. More women = more children to replenish the population. Nothing to do with us---it was nature.
We're getting fat for a lot of reasons---no one's exactly sure why. It isn't black and white. If it was black and white, everyone who ate more calories than they used would grow fat, and everyone who cut their calories and increased their excercise would lose weight. We know that's not the case. I know a 43-year-old man who never excercises and who eats pretty much through the day. He's been 150 pounds his whole adult life.
I know others who eat 1,200 calories a day and to lose a single pound is a big deal, not to mention keeping it off.
There is a reason we're hoarding energy. And we may not know the reason.
Think about it---we're the hardiest of all our ancestors. We're the survivors. The rest were too weak to survive the harshness of life on planet earth before this modern age.
We're a hardy bunch.
Something unknown is happening---and somewhere, also unknown, our bodies are taking on more mass.
It may be nature's way of preparing us for something else.
Some condition where the biggest ones survive the longest.
