Obesity in America

I remember when I was a child seeing kings on a throne whether real or make believe, they were always pot-bellied and big. Fat during that time represented richness in life. When the king was served the palace meals, there was always an abundance of food for all attending. Greek art statues revealed the waistline of a woman with fullness as it represented reproduction. African cultures also found beauty in a full sized woman. In America, especially down on the plantation where African Americans were nannies, large women with scarves tied around their heads represented comfort in the homes of their masters and bosses. Both my grandmothers were large sized women and walked tall and proud. There was an air of respect for them from everyone. So, when did fat get a bad rap?

It happened when America wanted control over the lives of the obese. A conscience was created to look down upon them to the point where self-image was destroyed by many. Once this occurred, dollar signs went up with quick fixes to the problem. Billions of dollars were made but the fat stayed on in most cases. Why? It is because the solutions weren't real. How did fat get into the bodies of some but not others? Genetics play a big part and where you are born and what you can and can not afford to eat. Sometimes, it is simply your metabolism. Trust me, fat has an origin and sometimes it is just downright destiny. A woman was shopping late one night in a store. She was trying to find one size up for her young daughter's prom dress. Unable to contain her words, she told her, "I don't know how you ended up with a wide butt and hips. It never happened to me. I always wore a girdle". She resented her daughter having full hips and butt. I asked her, "Why did it have to have an explanation? It is just who she is."

Share this article

Tags: people   world   Life   america   Family   style   time   money   obesity   fat   

Politics Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more fertile grounds, leaving with us just the memories of 8-color rainbows, singing Korean women and couple of nuclear weapons. But who was this man whose next ambition would have been to get the next Nobel Peace prize? Here are just a few facts you should know about. more Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media’s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) 28.Feb 2011 Rebellion is cooking in the air. People are mad as hell, and not going to take...read THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF CREDIBILITY AND HOPEFULLY, OUT OF THE DOOR Opinion World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the governments of all the countries in the world as well as the operators actually in power in these countries with operating a criminal enterprise, the Galaxy warriors announced Today. more The Great OSCARS 2011 – or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read Top 7 Expensive Bordellos. Prostitution: Shakedown, Tier Down, and Priced Out 31.Jan 2011 According to a report of the Washington DC-based US Department of State, The Ph...read The Great Secret and Reason for the JFK Assassination 11.Oct 2010 The great question is why the great secret? On June 4 1963, President Kennedy s...read Don't Do it! The 3 Worst Times to Get Tattoos 4.Oct 2010 As a general rule, tattoos gotten after 2 am are a bad idea. But in a bigger pi...read

Travel Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read more TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?

USA says on 2012-02-11 19:31:47 about mCRVnMRdXeYTZ APJZgN See it for the first time!!...

USA says on 2012-02-11 18:24:24 about jvWPOCdIQRwjUPow kM48Le Author, keep doing in the same way..!

Marsha Coupe\' says on 2006-05-22 04:00:34 about FAT FREE Thank you for saying what needs to be said and for asking questions that need to be asked. We need more observations like yours in mainstream media. Fat is an acceptable body type. Period. It cannot be shamed into submission, though lord knows the media, the fashion industry and of late, the government, exhaustively bludgeons the obesity topic. Why? To distract us from what is really important: Poverty. Homelessness. Despair. Crime. Violence. Loss of Civil Liberties. Feminism. Access to Health Care. While the media hatefully attacks obesity world wide, shaming millions of children and adults, the real issues deserving our attention and resources are ignored. We need to accept that beauty and health come in all sizes and move on to tackling the real issues of the day. Viva La Vida! Marsha Coupe'

CLM says on 2006-05-21 11:28:28 about American-Style Obesity I found your article interesting (especially the section that deals with capitalism's effects on the ability to solve the obesity issue) but I felt that your need to blame America for the stigma placed on the obese is a bit misguided. Indeed, there are some aspects of American pop culture that perpetuate this stigma, but this phenomenon is not exclusive to the US. I would look to the world of high fashion - the majority of which is Caucasian and comes out of Europe. Certainly they are perpetuating an image of what women should look like regardless of how unnatural and unhealthy it may be. Every culture around the world has a different opinion of what is beautiful, but predominantly-white cultures are "curve-averse." So to say that America single-handedly created this obesity stigma is ludicrous. If anything, this is a stigma created by the white Western world. I also agree with your contention that body shape and weight can be genetic. However, if obesity truly was genetic, the rates of obesity would be similar across the world. Obviously, this is not the case. My questions are these: at what point do we as a society begin to take responsibility for our own actions (i.e. supersizing meals) as opposed to simply blaming things that we cannot control? Surely, obesity can be genetic, but is that to say that 2/3rds of the country is overweight just because of genetics? At what point is obesity become a choice and not "destiny"? 250lbs? 350lbs? 500lbs?

	Post Comment    Your nickname    About what    Your comment   Are you human? How much is 1 + 2?