15 reasons you might be fat

[Guest guest]

15 reasons you might be fat

.... and two reasons why it might not matter

http://www.staging.canada.com/ottawa/news/story.asp?id=%7B21098583-440B-4536

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Elaine O'Connor

The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

If there's one thing North Americans are more obsessed with than weight,

it's who or what to blame.

You are a 49-year-old Canadian man, a well-off office manager in New

Brunswick, and you're late for work. This morning you get up in a hurry,

kiss your wife goodbye -- no time for breakfast -- and hop in the car for

the commute to the city.

On the way, you pick up a moccaccino and a muffin, park and take the

elevator to your office. You work through lunch and grab a Coke and a burger

late in the afternoon. After a gruelling day, you toss a frozen meat lasagna

in the oven and collapse in front of the TV, washing dinner down with a few

well-earned beers and low-fat ice cream.

If this scenario seems familiar, brace yourself -- statistically speaking,

you're one of the fattest people in the country.

An estimated 32 per cent of Canadian adults are overweight, according to a

2000-01 Statistics Canada study of 18.6 million people aged 20 to 64. That's

an astonishing six million Canadian adults. In the United States, 64 per

cent of the population is either overweight or obese.

The World Health Organization calls " globesity " one of humanity's most

neglected health problems -- more than 300 million people were obese in

2000. Being overweight is linked to heart disease, cancers, Type 2 diabetes,

stroke, hypertension, asthma, arthritis, sleep apnea, high blood pressure,

gallbladder and thyroid disorders.

We know this, and yet, we're getting ever-wider, ever-fatter, almost in

spite of our culture's strident and relentless anti-fat message and bias.

Our beauty ideals and magazine models have gotten steadily slimmer. Fat

people are treated as social lepers in the schoolyard and the dating scene.

Our institutions refuse to accommodate the overweight in theatre, transit

and airline seats. With so many social and medical censures on being

overweight, the question remains: Why are we so fat?

It's a billion-dollar question and scientists are fascinated by what

Canadian obesity researcher Dr. Lau calls a baffling paradox.

" Canadians are not only better-educated than people in most countries, we're

well-informed about nutrition and we're much more diet-conscious than ever

before -- and yet we're getting fatter, " says Dr. Lau, professor of

medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Calgary,

and president of Obesity Canada, a non-profit group that aims to raise

awareness on obesity issues.

In his mind, our economy and lifestyle are at fault. Each Canadian eats a

tonne of food each year, Dr. Lau says, and we're so busy with our jobs we

have no time for healthy home cooking or family activity. " The changing

economy actually dictates the way we live. Now we equate leisure time with

lazy time. Downtime is the same as doing nothing, where historically, this

has not been the case, " he says.

" We have failed as health professionals. We tell our patients to go out and

exercise more and eat less ... but it's not practical. People can't change

their lifestyles, because ... they are dictated by their working lives. We

now have become enslaved. We want to increase productivity, we want to drive

the costs down. To do that, there is human sacrifice. "

Ultimately, we sacrifice our health, and carry pounds like chains. Still,

other medical professionals cite genetics as the culprit. " Most researchers

working in the field now say our genes are responsible for about 50 per cent

of overweight we see in the population. I think it's more than that, " says

Dr. Bob Dent, director of the Ottawa Hospital's weight-management program.

" We have this human gene pool that has remained the same for 10,000 years at

least, but just look at the change in lifestyle that we have, " he says,

pointing to studies that show our per capita fat and calorie consumption

decreasing, just not enough to compensate for our flatlining activity

levels. In the 1940s for example, men burned 5,000 calories and consumed

3,400, while today they burn 1,800 and eat 2,500; women ate 2,000 calories

then versus 1,600 today, while burning just 1,500.

Here are a few of myriad theories floated in the health field -- so many,

they can selectively bolster almost any claim. Because if there's one thing

North Americans are more obsessed with than weight, it's who or what to

blame. Certainly, those suffering from eating disorders, medical conditions,

or psychological problems can find compelling reasons for their weight gain.

But scientists, health researchers, dieticians and doctors say the rest of

us are fat because of our social status and lifestyle, what and how we eat,

or due to biology and heredity. Many theories are surprising, simply because

they defy conventional wisdom.

1. You're fat because you're Canadian.

Canadians tend to look at our standard of living and health-care system,

then take a good look at Americans and conclude we're a pretty healthy

country. We're not. Canadians have a higher obesity rate than Italians,

Swedes, and Swiss, according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and

Development (OECD) data. If you live in Atlantic Canada or the Prairies,

statistically speaking, you're one of our largest citizens. We're trimmer

than Americans, British, Australians and New Zealanders, but it's small

comfort when you're the fifth-fattest country in the world.

2. You're fat because you're rich.

In Canada, the more you earn, the more you weigh. More than a third of all

people with a household income between $80,000 and $100,000 are overweight,

compared to a quarter of those in other income brackets, according to the

Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI).

3. You're fat because you're male.

Typically, women are seen as fat-obsessed, but men are the ones getting

fatter -- drastically and dangerously so. In the latest Statistics Canada

study, men accounted for more than half -- 3.4 million -- of all overweight

adults. In fact, men have the distinction of being fatter than women in

every single category -- a remarkable accomplishment considering that,

biologically, women carry more body fat and gain weight during pregnancy.

And more men are getting fatter, faster, every year -- in 1985, 52 per cent

of Canadian men had a healthy weight -- just 10 years later, only 38 per

cent had physiques remotely resembling a healthy ideal.

4. You're fat because you're married and middle-aged.

Married men were less likely to be in a healthy weight range than those who

were single, separated or divorced, according to a 2002 report by the

American Centers for Disease Control, but married women were more likely at

a healthy weight, albeit not for long. We're all getting fatter as we age --

by the time we hit the 45 to 64 age bracket, 42 per cent of Canadian men are

overweight and 34 per cent of women have packed on pounds.

5. You're fat because you own a car and appliances.

Even the little tasks that helped us burn a few calories here and there are

disappearing. But car culture and modern conveniences have all but

eliminated everyday tasks.

Using cordless phones instead of walking to a stationary one robs us of a

10-kilometre walk every year. Using a television remote instead of getting

up adds 10 pounds a year, says Dr. Dent. The electric typewriter added four

pounds a year; the remote garage door opener another two pounds -- the

effects of the personal computer have yet to be determined. Add this to our

aversion to exercise -- Health Canada states 63 per cent of Canadians don't

get enough -- and you have a recipe for disaster.

6. You're fat because you live in the suburbs.

It seems logical -- in contrast to downtown residents, suburban residents

don't get as much exercise. But according to Statistics Canada, those of us

in greater metropolitan areas are actually thinner than Canadians living

outside major cities. Rural residents, on the other hand, are doing their

part to put Canada on the obesity map.

7. You're fat because you're employed.

Blame for obesity has been placed on sedentary lifestyles, particularly the

prevalence of desk jobs. Even formerly rigorous jobs in manufacturing have

become computerized. Staying in shape is no longer a byproduct of being

productive, and eating well is often not possible for the time-pressed who

choke down fast food on the go. But some statistics show full-time workers

in Canada are less likely to be overweight than the unemployed, homemakers

or retired Canadians. Part-time workers are healthiest, according to the

CFLRI, with just 20 per cent overweight.

8. You're fat because you were bottle-fed.

Strange, but seemingly true. The longer babies are breast fed, the less

likely they are to grow into fat children, according to a 1999 German study

published in the British Medical Journal. Infants fed breast milk until

three to five months old were more than a third less likely to be obese by

the time they started school than babies fed formula from birth. The longer

babies breast fed, the less likely they were to start school as chubby

children.

9. You're fat because you supersize.

Between 1977 and 1996 snack sizes grew by 93 calories, according to a

University of North Carolina study. At the same time, burger patties grew 32

to 75 grams bigger and soft drink sizes doubled. In 1960, a regular serving

of Mc's fries had 200 calories. That same order today has 610.

Meanwhile, we're slurping " wet carbohydrates " like venti moccaccinos, cans

of Coca-Cola or beers -- beverages so loaded with calories they're

practically meal replacements.

10. You're fat because you eat low-fat foods. It's the cruelest of ironies.

Over the past 30 years, Canadians have turned to a low-fat diet, eating

blander, " safer " foods to cut down without cutting out their favourites. But

without fat to trigger feelings of satiety, we're eating larger servings of

low-fat goodies, thus more calories.

11. You're fat because you skip breakfast.

A 1992 Vanderbilt University study found women who added breakfast while

trying to lose weight lost 28 per cent more than those who skipped it.

People who regularly eat cereal for breakfast weigh eight pounds less than

those who don't, according to an American consumer survey.

12. You're fat (well, no leaner) because you're a vegetarian.

Put down that tempeh and sprouts sandwich. Hard to believe, but a 1999

Canadian study of vegetarian and non-vegetarian women found no evidence

those who go meatless are thinner. Researchers at the University of British

Columbia found body fat and dietary fat levels of 193 vegetarian and

non-vegetarian women were remarkably similar.

13. It's in your genes.

In men, the tendency to store stomach fat is hereditary. The famed German

beer belly is the product of innumerable oversized steins, but it's also the

fault of a gene called DD that 40 per cent of men carry, according to a

study in the ls of Internal Medicine. The study found carriers put on 50

per cent more weight -- an average of 9.9 pounds over 20 years -- than

non-carriers.

14. It's chemical.

Leptin, known as the hungry gene, is a chemical that regulates hunger. In

humans, it is normally present in the blood, but when it's missing,

scientists found people remain insatiably hungry, eating to the point of

morbid obesity. They can regain control with leptin injections, but

injections in someone who already has the chemical doesn't lead to a

reduction in appetite.

15. It's metabolic.

Contrary to popular belief, fat people often have a higher metabolism than

thinner people, because of the exertion of carrying extra weight around.

Diets destabilize the metabolism and so do more harm than good. Exercise

will increase it, and also build muscle mass so you burn more calories in

the course of regular activities. Conflicting studies argue your body has

internal weight regulators which are hard to reset. The fatter you are, the

slower your sympathetic nervous system -- the regulator that switches the

body into high gear during exertion and emergencies -- operates, according

to a 1998 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

- - -

Health and wellness articles often trot out the phrase " it's easy to be

confused " when discussing conflicting information about weight loss. True,

there are masses of the stuff. But is it really confusing?

Too much food, too little activity. Of all the rationales for why we are

fat, this is the only one that matters. " We're not doomed, " Dr. Lau says.

" Just because the economy is changing, doesn't mean we lose control. It

becomes a trend that we gradually accept, but we have to band together to

make sure we don't succumb to all these forces. "

Common sense dictates the only sound prescription for weight loss is eat

less, exercise more. Endlessly fixating on the how and why of fat simply

leaves little time for doing anything about it. And studies indicate that

weight-loss alone is not necessarily the most important thing: Lately, two

longstanding beliefs about being heavy have been questioned:

1. If you're fat you're unhealthy.

Wrong. Some research suggests you can be fat and fit. In fact, it's better

to be fit and fat than thin and out of shape, according to a 1998 study

published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Overweight people who

exercise live longer than those who are overweight and out of shape, it

found. Fitness, more than thinness, has a lot to do with overall health --

in the study, lean people who didn't exercise had shorter life spans than

the thin and fit. A similar 1999 study that followed 22,000 men over eight

years suggested just 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day could

actually negate health effects of being overweight.

2. If you're fat you're unhappy

Science and society have succeeded in labelling fat people as alternately

jolly or depressed. British studies in the 1970s found fat people less prone

to anxiety and concluded they were happier. In the size-acceptance movement,

which includes dating services such as Sizeable Encounters, support groups

such as Big Beautiful Women and Men at Large, and lobby groups such as the

National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, fat is beautiful.

Yet a 2002 University of Texas study claims fat people are more likely

depressed. The obese are less likely to be employed or married and have

lower incomes. Certainly, if you're fat and female in this culture, you're

not as popular. A University of North Carolina study found underweight

teenagers proportioned like supermodels date more often than overweight

girls and more often than girls with average body types.

About This Series

For several weeks, Citizen writers have explored issues of body weight and

image. How much of what we read and hear is a reflection of an anti-fat

culture rather than medical fact? How are we driven by images of bodily

perfection? How does all of this affect children? Is it possible to be

happy, healthy and fat? Today's instalment examines the reasons behind

obesity and why it may be nothing to worry about.

Feb. 1 -- The war on fat: It's not the weight -- it's the lifestyle.

Feb. 2 -- Digital diets: How magazines alter reality.

Feb. 3 -- Generation Supersize: Are parents more concerned about their

children's self-esteem than their health?

Today -- Weighty questions: We're heavy, for many reasons -- but so what?

Feb. 5 -- Picture imperfect: Why you should never take a portrait at face

value.

Feb. 6 -- Then and now: Kids are definitely heavier now than they were 15

years ago. Why?

Feb. 7 -- Get physical: What kids need to do to stay fit.

Feb. 8 -- A girl thing? No, boys are feeling body-image pressure more and

more.

Feb. 9 -- Goodbye, Norma Jean: The evolution of popular body image.

Feb. 10 -- Secret recipe: The hidden ingredients in what you eat that pack

on the pounds.

© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen