In the News
The Skinny on the War on Fat
Toronto, 22 January 2003 - Tackling obesity is the new focus of Health Canada, and a multitude of health practitioners. The Canadian Paediatrics Society estimates that 25% of Canadian children are obese. Along with being fat - not just "obese" - comes prejudice to the extent that fear of being fat affects the quality of fat and thin people alike, spurring countless individuals to self-loathing and harmful weight-loss practices. Eating Disorder Awareness Week (2 - 8 February) is an opportunity to raise awareness of the complexity of food and weight issues.
The danger of focusing on individual weight loss to increase health is that it misses the point, says Merryl Bear, director of the National Eating Disorder Infomration Centre. "Over-all well-being is determined by a number of factors, inlcuding appropriate nutrition and physical activity. But most of all, a sense of safety, 'fitting-in' and self-esteem drives healthy lifestyles." The emphasis on weight loss will further entrench size-prejudice and increase anxiety and barriers to healthy lifestyles for individuals who are already body-consciousness.
With eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia already the third most chronic adolescent illness, Bear fears that the focus on weight loss for children will drive up the number of sufferers. When challenged to address the problem of childhood obesity while not worsening the problem of eating disorders, Bear, whose organisation can be found at www.nedic.ca, has prescriptions of her own. Firstly, she strongly believes that this is an issue which affects everyone, and that we need to harness the creativity of indiviudals, insititutions, parents and communities. Key components include supporting active living, healthy eating and strong self-esteem.
Prevention work can be done by anyone, anywhere, and can go from a personal commitment to challenging unrealistic images or expectations of women and men to lobbying for safe, accessible recreational facitilites in one's community. The Canadian Paediatrics Society notes that in 2001, only 33% of all schools in Canada had formal physical education classes, and programming varied widely from school to school. Since physical activity is well documented to increase self-confidence and decrease high-risk behaviours such as tobacco and substance use, Bear advocates a return to physical play - both competitive and unstructured.
Building life-skills, supporting critical thinking in our children and ourselves, and increasing participation in physical activity are seen as ways to prevent both obesity and eating disorders. The growing Health at Any Size movement works to create awareness that we come in a natural, genetically inherited, range of weights and sizes, and all the dieting and weight-loss strategies in the world will not change that. Although your natural body-weight may not be your slim ideal, that is the weight at which you are going to be healthiest. The skinny on fat, says Bear, is that it is not the best measure of health and wellbeing. "It's not our bodies that need changing. It's our attitudes."