The money in fat.
I don’t like to talk about “the money in fat.” The idea that there are whole industries invested in making sure that people continue to be fatphobic… is just… well… icky.
But if I was going to broach this uncomfortable subject, I’d start by point out that the whole obesity epidemic thing can be traced back to insurance companies. Yes, insurance companies trying to deny us fatties is a long-standing tradition. You might think the current fat scare started with science, but no, it actually started with actuaries.
There was this guy Louis Dublin, around the 1920s, who made his own little crusade out of convincing the medical profession that fat is bad. The pinnacle of Louis Dublin’s efforts came after his death when in 1996 former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared “War on Obesity.”
Even before that we had the diet industry tempting us with promises of conventional beauty (i.e., becoming thin.) And losing the fat continues to be a growth industry. In 1989 the US weight loss market was worth somewhere around $27 billion. As of 2009, that number was up to around $58 billion.
The surprising part of the money trail is the one that leads to government agencies and scientific research. Public opinion influences who gets funding. In the case of this particular moral panic, that means obesity research and obesity prevention programs are the winners.
A great example of this is the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) who shifted big chunks of it’s fiscal budget for 2010 to “strategies” in the fight against fat.
Le sigh. Like I said, I hate to talk about all this.
My aversion to thinking about “the money in fat” probably stem from a desire NOT to feel like the world is out to get me.
The optimistic part of me really believes that if you ask most people if they think us fatties should be discriminated against they’ll say no… right before they go into the “but I’m worried about fatty health” argument. I think they rationalize their fat hate behind a health argument.
So, I have hope for people. But I don’t feel that same hope when money comes into the picture. If we talk JUST from a fiscal perspective, the outlook for us fatties can seem really bleak because recent history has not been kind to us.
Which is why I try to focus on the people part and not the money part. I may be totally deluded, but I feel like I can do something about the people part. If all I can accomplish is the tiniest shift in public opinion, I have no problem counting that as a victory.
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Books to read if you want to learn more about this mess:
The Diet Myth by Paul Campos
Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata
Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver
Another good book is “Forbidden Body: Why Being Fat is not a Sin” - a British author I read a whike back.
interesting article here on slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2260757/
I’d rather be fat and physically unappealing to people than skinny with a hard and callous heart and closed mind.
3 decades ago, my aunt was diagnosed with a brain tumour and not expected to live - if she had been slim, she would have died.
She survived that first couple of years because her body had fat reserves to draw from for the times she couldn’t keep food down.
the idea of skinny being attractive is 20th century, not classical
in previous centuries, being skinny meant you were sickly and didn’t have enough wealth or resources to eat.
nina -
Right on! I totally agree with you.
“She survived that first couple of years because her body had fat reserves to draw from for the times she couldn’t keep food down.”
Even the science agrees with what you observes in your aunt. Patients that have had a heart attack survive longer if they’re fat than if they’re thin…and I think it’s for that same reason, the body has reserves to pull from when it’s stressed…this is ALSO one of the main points of the “obesity paradox.”
This whole mess just isn’t as simple as fat being unhealthy or deadly. My new favorite phrase, which I totally stole from a commenter here, is “If fat was a disease…we’d all be dead by now.”
“Patients that have had a heart attack survive longer if they’re fat than if they’re thin”
Patients are less likely to HAVE a heart attack if they aren’t fat.
Ms Chen -
They are also less likely to have a heart attack if they never get old, or are wealthy, or don’t ever get stressed, or get enough exercise, or don’t have a particular set of genetic, and so on.
The list of possible reasons why people have heart attacks is long enough to make anyone’s head spin. Personally, I DO NOT subscribe to the school of thought that believes NOT BEING FAT will assure someone NEVER HAS A HEART ATTACK.
Especially since after the point a person turns 65 their chance of having a heart attack goes up exponentially. The strongest correlator to heart disease is, after all, age.
I don’t know if you just jumped into the conversation to continue the fat=heart attack mythology or if you really were trying to inject some nuance into the conversation. I suspect the former but if you’d like to prove me wrong, I’m more than willing to have a in-depth conversation about the subject of how fat relates to heart health.
Ms. Chen, I suggest you do some research, since being thin will not keep you from a heart attack. My father was 6 foot tall and 125 pounds his ENTIRE LIFE. He worked at physical labor until his 80′s. He had 2 heart attacks. Would you like to explain that?
oh, plus yes, there is huge money in fat
in the early half of the 20th century, not many were fat and there was no diet industry
with more and more processed food diet companies and companies selling plans, we’re fatter than ever before
many of the illnesses associated with “fat” are also stress implicated
and it’s very stressful to be fat in North America - in other countries were fat is, if not acceptable, at least not a big deal - fat people there don’t have the same health issues
it’s processed foods and lack of exercise that are the problem
So basically, you agree that fat people are a major problem, you only disagree with whether or not we should be *blamed* for being a problem.
Sorry, but I’ve gotten a little tired of this idea which exists in some portions of the FA community that it is totally ok to view fat people as problems that need to be solved, just without actually blaming us for our own failure directly.
I am not a problem that needs to be solved, and I am sick of being treated like one.
Erin S.
Not to speak for nina, becasue only she can tell us the exact motivation behind her words, but I didn’t feel like she was saying that “fat people are a major problem.”
As for myself, *I* don’t think fat people are a “problem that needs to be solved.” I belive firecely in body autonomy and body diversity.
Or maybe I’m not understanding what your meaning…if you feel up to it, I’d love a chance to understand a little better where your coming from.
Probably not going to explain this well, but this tendency to shift the blame for fatness onto food deserts, lack of exercise options, and processed food isn’t really any better than the typical internet yahoo blaming fat people for just eating too much. By shifting the blame for fatness onto the environment, it merely serves to acknowledge fat as still being something that NEEDS to have blame assigned to it. That it is a negative thing, something that still needs to be fixed but without assigning the blame to the person who has this unfortunate negative trait.
It is as if one is saying that it is only wrong to treat fat people poorly if it isn’t something they can control. And that is not true, it is always wrong to treat people poorly.
For the record, I have the same problem with people who say that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, or sexual orientation because it is not something the person can control.
One’s right to being treated as a being worthy of basic human dignity should not be predicated on whether or not you can control the trait that some segments of society wish to use as an excuse to deny one their rights to being treated respectfully and as an equal member of society.
Ah, I see.
Well, I don’t think that identifying a narrow set of causal factors is assigning blame and removing personal responsibility
or giving people permission to be mean to us fat folk.
I actually agree with what you’ve said here, but that’s not what I was going for.
In the 90′s, when I came out as a lesbian, there was a famous line about homophobia would end if all the gay people turned purple so that everyone would see how many of us there were.
My response was, right, because that worked out so well for black people.
People discriminate against anyone they view as other.
So the focus of why they are discriminating is actually not even relevant.
We evolved to be xenophobic, because way back it was an advantage
but it’s not now - and we have to not turn the mild xenophobia that’s basically a mistrust of others
into discriminatory hatred of others that results in cruelty and even violence.
http://tinyurl.com/yeprxtn
Well, the average weight has gone up over the past few decades. I don’t think it’s wrong to try to investigate why this has occurred-and citing food deserts as a cause seems both more accurate and more responsible than saying that fatties just eat too much!.
Maybe the issue is really with the word “blame”. We can look for the cause of obesity, because we want to understand how our bodies work, without treating obesity as some super-awful thing that needs to be BLAMED on someone.
No I wasn’t and I am not at all sure how you inferred that from what I wrote.
My comment was more about an industry being created where there didn’t need to be one and then using advertising and the fashion industry to make people - especially women - think that they were fat to create the need.
Not only has the size of the clothing that’s we’re supposed to fit into dropped from a size 14/12 - but what used to be a 14 is now an 18 - so the sizes have shrunk.
the smallest clothing size used to be a 1 - now there’s a zero size.
And industries do collude with one another - in the 1940′s Lucky Cigarettes got some fashion designers to use their signature green colour in clothes so that their cigarette packages would basically appear as an accessory.
Lucky also staged a Women’s March for Equality where at the end, the Women all light up cigarettes to demonstrate their point.
the man who came up with all these advertising techniques was Mr. S. Freud’s nephew.
if I were conspiracy minded, I’d think that this was a modern version of the whale bone corset - all about keeping women helpless, vulnerable and disappearing.
It’s like any industry. It dies if you don’t have the public brainwashed.
It’s the same reason I buy a new piece of shit Pottery Barn living room set and redecorate my house every three years and my mom had the same stuff for thirty years.
I have been told that my distressed wood and earth tones are outdated and vile and I must now go with minimalist black and white stripes with grey walls. So like a good sheep I go do as I’m told.
It’s just that I don’t think the same ideas should apply to humans or the way they are treated.
dufmanno -
By default, I don’t think capitalism or corporations are moral. When money and competition is involved, it seems like our humanity goes out the window. But I think that’s the point of regulation. And regulation is, ultimately, driven by public opinion. Which is how I rationalize that convincing the public to be outraged is the best route to change.
Oh, and I’m an Ikea sheep. I think my Scandinavian heritage is drawn to the language of the old country. I just love the funny sounding names they give to furniture.
I love Ikea too - partly because of my Icelandic side - the colour palette and efficient designs appeal to me - but the assemble yourself attracts my butch lesbian side.
that said, we only buy the all wood pieces, not the sawdust and glue “furniture” board stuff.
Advertising works, no matter how media savvy a person you are.
systems and companies are amoral, they don’t have anything driving or making decisions.
people can make moral choices by buying from companies who’s management structure is inclusive of more than white men, who take environmental impact seriously, have good employee practices and make decent products.
the problem is - who has time to do all the research?
I haven’t seen a copy of “Shopping for an Ethical planet” in a while.
but yes, outrage has to occur and public opinion has to change - it’s what drives legislative (and regulatory) changes.
You know, I don’t think of it as the world is out to get me. I think of the world is out to make as many bucks out of me as it can. I don’t think they want to get me or hurt me… just milk me for as much money as possible.
Well this cash cow is DRY when it comes to the fat phobic buck!
sleepydumpling -
A tiny, teeny part of me does thing the world is my opposition. I think it comes from always being the weird kid. Even amongst my geeky peers, I am very much of my own mind.
My husband and I were talking about this, and he said “individuals can be moral but large groups can loose sight of their morality.” And I think that’s the point here. Corporations loose sight of their morality and it’s our business to put them back in the right.
well, everyone is in several niche markets being targeting.
right now, I feel like being middle class is the biggest target on my back.
squeezed for property tax, transit levies, parking taxes, gas taxes - taxes on taxes……
we’re taxed way more now that the level that inspired the boston tea party
Let’s not talk about taxes. I live in the highest taxed city in Texas. My house cost 56K, the property taxes qoutstripped the housepayment years ago. Middle class? What’s that?
Off topic but I was gobsmacked at the thought of a 56K house. 56K doesn’t buy you much here!
56K? for a stand alone house?
That doesn’t buy a 800 sq foot condo in Vancouver, they’re going for 250K.
man, I would love to only owe 56K on my house.
“if you ask most people if they think us fatties should be discriminated against they’ll say no… right before they go into the “but I’m worried about fatty health” argument. I think they rationalize their fat hate behind a health argument.”-Exactly
“The surprising part of the money trail is the one that leads to government agencies and scientific research”- I don’t find it surprising at all. There are too many people in it for the money and do not care about humanity.
“I may be totally deluded, but I feel like I can do something about the people part.”- Your not deluded. Just keep doing what you are doing. I have the same mission myself. If I can help influence one person, then I am good.
Hidi -
I’ve got a bit of a science geek in me, and it was a huge surprise when I realized how much money drives research in this country. I suppose that was a bit of naivete on my part. I suppose I had some romantic idea of the purity of science.
I still think the moral code of scientific community provides us with people like Katherine Flegal, who believe that the facts should be balanced regardless of what they end up saying.
“…the facts should be balanced regardless of what they end up saying.”- I agree 1000%
I like science myself and it’s sad there are people in this society who will manipulate it for selfish reasons.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing we need to be talking about. And, don’t forget to include the food industry in the money loop.
Rhi B.
a.k.a. @AngryFatWoman
Rhi Bowman -
I would love to see the diet industry put under pressure about the effectiveness of their claims. At the exact same time, I kinda understand why the USDA doesn’t get more forceful in their regulation of the diet industry. The problem is that calorie restriction, except in extremes, isn’t immediately harmful. Much like Homeopathy isn’t harmful, unless it stops someone from getting real treatment.
It’s a frustrating quandary. I want the public to be more informed…but I don’t want to take away their ability to make choices.
when I worked at the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective - in the late 1990s - it was determined that 95% of diet plans failed.
so, that they keep pushing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result
well, that’s the meaning of insanity
nktrygg -
Yep. The population being recommended a treatment that doesn’t work for something that really isn’t a disease, sure sounds like insanity to me.