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Anjuly Mathai
Anjuly Mathai

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Fifty shades of fat

46-Fifty-shades

While Eman suffered a rare genetic defect, obesity for many is a lifestyle disease that is going unacknowledged

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool, said American physicist Richard Feynman. I wonder if we realise to what extent we’re allowing ourselves to be fooled—by anti-ageing creams, fake electronic products, shampoos that solve five problems with one solution and dreams too delectable to be true. We’re like boats without rudders, subject to the ravishing winds of culture. The way we look and the way we behave are dictated to us by the norms of the time.

Once upon a time, for example, looking fat was considered becoming in a woman. A number of the Venus figurines of ancient societies depicted in stone between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago were of buxom ladies with luxurious curves. Until quite recently, being plump was a sign of prosperity. With the 20th century, farming and industrialisation had progressed to such an extent that food became aplenty. Then, the sands of social more shifted and in developed nations, looking thin started trending.

With the market for junk food getting saturated in developed nations, companies started aggressively selling it in developing nations. According to Euromonitor, Domino’s Pizza added 1,281 stores in 2016 and only 171 of them were in the US. The filmmakers of the documentary Global Junk Food discovered that a chicken burger at a multinational chain in India contained five grams of sugar when it contained only two in France. Fries contained six times more saturated fat in India compared to France.

The age of obesity had begun. The myth of the ‘just one more’ started proliferating. Just one more chocolate chip cookie and I’ll be satisfied. Does the behaviour ring familiar? Many would call it addictive. So, is unhealthy binging addictive? The jury is still out on that one. But according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the nucleus accumbens—a brain area associated with addictive activity—of a group of overweight men was intensely activated when they were given milkshakes with high-glycemic index carbohydrates. Dopamine activity in this area shot up, hinting at a possible link between addiction and snacking.

“If it is an addiction, then the only way you can counter it is by making lifestyle changes,” says Leena Mogre, fitness instructor and director, Leena Mogre’s Lifestyle Management. “You can start with small changes. Eat breakfast. Be active. Regulate your sleeping hours. Youth today are so addicted to the internet that they sleep at all sorts of odd hours.”

Then, developing countries, too, started wising up. Health and wellness became the go-to words of a generation desperate to shape up. Women’s magazines started transforming phrases on their covers from “10 Ways to Lose Weight” to “10 Ways to Look Fit”. The shift was subtle but stark.

But terminology cannot cover up the underlying malaise. Make no mistake, obesity is not a “western problem” or a “poor man’s disease”. According to research published in the New England Journal, there are 700 million obese people in the world today. The prevalence of obesity has doubled in 73 countries since 1980. We don’t seem ready to acknowledge the reality of living in a world that’s increasing growing fatter. Soon, the word ‘fat’ will become a politically incorrect one. That’s because we like to view the truth with rose-tinted glasses. Shrinks are paid a $100 an hour to reaffirm to us how perfect we are. Eman Ahmed, once the heaviest woman in the world, died due to underlying conditions like heart disease and kidney dysfunction. Perhaps her life can be a clarion call to awaken a world deep in a slumberous state of self-denial.

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Topics : #Eman Ahmed | #health

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