Editorial: The Fat Paradox

What is the Fat Paradox? Put simply, it is that unhealthy lifestyles can make some people fatter, but healthy lifestyles don't make fat people thin. The first part of this feeds directly into how society treats us fat people, and the second fuels our frustration.

What do I mean by an unhealthy lifestyle? Dieting, for starters. Many fat ex-dieters say that they dieted their way up to their current weight. All diets, even the "good" ones, restrict the intake of something your body needs. The body responds by demanding that which is restricted, be it carbs, calories, protein, fat, or whatever is called for in the diet of the month. Eventually the dieter gives into the body's demands, goes off the diet, and the pounds come back on, plus a bit more.

The whole idea of dieting (restricting intake of something to lose weight) throws our view of food out of whack. I think that our bodies naturally know what we should be eating, but dieting has made some people lose touch with this inner sense. And I don't think that there are any "bad" foods, except for actual poison. (And no one craves arsenic or nightshade.)

So what's the paradox? I may get some grief for this, but I think that unhealthy lifestyles such as dieting and lack of physical activity make some people fatter. The paradox is that, when these fat people stop dieting and become more active, they find that they are still fat. But what they often don't realize is that they are healthier; they just don't look it by our society's standards because we are conditioned to see fat as unhealthy.

The tragedy is that people often quit these lifestyle improvements because they don't seem to be working. But they do! Heart rate, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and blood cholesterol are all improved by a healthy lifestyle.

There is plenty of evidence that you can be fit and fat, and that diets don't work. As reported in the Summer 2005 edition of the NAAFA Newsletter (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=pg4scsbab.0.7r6vusbab.jw4a9yn6.3381&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naafa.org%2FNewsletters%2FSummer%25202005%2520NAAFA%2520Newsletter.htm), a two-year study by University of California - Davis researchers showed that behavioral change and
self-acceptance was far more effective at improving the health of fat women than dieting, and without any long-term weight loss in either group. The "Media and Research Roundup" article in the current issue has more evidence.

But it's hard going against what the media and the medical industry want us to believe. I had to go through this journey myself. I was mostly a skinny kid, and didn't really get fat until I was in my 30s. By that time, I had found NAAFA, so I never gave in to the pressure to diet. But I have been getting fatter as I age, and haven't always felt good about it. Then I realized that my father went through the same thing, fattening as he aged. Now, he's 80 years old, eats a great variety of food that he grows (or sometimes hunts) and prepares himself, and is about as active as a man with bad knees can be. While his health is by no means perfect, his lifestyle is healthy, and I think that has led to his longevity. And I am learning from his example.