Sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday, but I wanted to think about Part 2 – which I watched last night – a little more.<\/p>\n
Like Part 1, Part 2, subtitled “Choices,” was pretty well done. Unlike Part 1, which gave more of an overview of the obesity crisis, Part 2 focused largely on what individuals can do to improve their health. And like Part 1, Part 2 featured interviewees viewers could empathize with, good presentations from various experts, and solid – even inspiring – advice on how\u00a0individuals can take control.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, it bugged me. Something was a little\u00a0“off” about the whole thing, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. But after sleeping on it and reviewing my notes, I think I’ve got it. Or rather, I’ve got them<\/em>, since more than one issue\u00a0struck\u00a0me. Here they are (in no particular order…):<\/p>\n 1. In Part 1, excess body\u00a0fat was clearly\u00a0THE problem. Yet – without actually admitting it – Part 2\u00a0tacked in a somewhat different direction. To the writers’\/producers’ credit, they\u00a0firmly rejected fad\/popular diets in favor of making\u00a0lifestyle changes in small steps; and made it clear that\u00a0significant health gains could be realized if\u00a0only modest, realistic goals were achieved.<\/p>\n A pair of identical twin brothers with the same\u00a0risk profile\u00a0served as an example.\u00a0Bro #1 enrolled\u00a0in a diabetes prevention study after learning his blood sugar was high. As part of the study, he lost 7% of his original body weight and added an additional 150 mintues\/week of moderate physical activity. By taking these modest steps, he normalized his blood sugar and is currently free from diabetes.\u00a0Bro #2, on the other hand,\u00a0developed the disease after ignoring the warning signs.<\/p>\n Ok, here’s the deal: Bro #1\u00a0actually didn’t lose much weight – it\u00a0takes a lot more than losing 7% of your body weight to go from being obese to a “healthy” weight. Relatively painless diet\/exercise modifications were all it took to keep the disease Bro #2 developed at bay.<\/p>\n If the “logic” in Part 1 held, then Bro #1 would still be at risk, until his BMI dropped into the “healthy” range. Yet\u00a0the gist of Part 2 was that\u00a0– with lifestyle mods and\u00a0comparatively little<\/em> weight loss – one could be both fat AND\u00a0metabolically healthy.<\/p>\n In other words, adopting\u00a0healthy behaviors\u00a0trumps\u00a0achieving a\u00a0“healthy” BMI\u00a0–\u00a0and a good thing too, since the\u00a0documentary pretty much ruled\u00a0dramatic weight loss out\u00a0for most obese people (and yes, I loved the shot Dr. Samuel Klein took at “The Biggest Loser”). This conclusion certainly tracks with the data (and the experiences of the interviewees), but IMHO, it contradicted the ominous,\u00a0“all-excess-body-fat-equals-death-fat”\u00a0tone of\u00a0Part 1.<\/p>\n 2. Part 1 discussed the relationship between poverty and obesity to some extent, but this consideration was nowhere to be seen in Part 2, where the affordability\/availability of healthy food, medical care and safe spaces to exercise were simply assumed.<\/p>\n 3. And speaking of assumptions, I couldn’t help\u00a0but notice\u00a0how certain\u00a0social\/institutional issues that contribute to obesity\u00a0were generally waved aside. Basically,\u00a0Part 2 was all about\u00a0“personal responsibility.” Obviously, I’m very much in favor of personal responsibility: people should<\/em> make time to exercise, reduce their stress levels, endeavor to eat more veggies\/fruits, create support groups, engage in mindful eating, etc. But – if obesity is a societal<\/strong> issue – then certain other<\/em> segments of our society ought to step up to the plate too, right?<\/p>\n Especially<\/strong> if they’re actively contributing to the problem…<\/p>\n This hit me while I was pondering\u00a0the vignette about\u00a0the call center employees\u00a0who organized\u00a0an office\u00a0wellness group. For these women, 40 hours\/week was the minimum<\/em> time worked (the one who organized the group said she worked 60 hours\/week). As they all lined up in their custom t-shirts and\u00a0left the office\u00a0for a group walk, I caught\u00a0myself thinking “gee, it’s nice of their employer to allow them to do this.”<\/p>\n “Nice,” indeed… and that’s a problem for some.\u00a0 Not every\u00a0business\u00a0likes the idea of\u00a0organized employees\u00a0– even if it has nada to do with their job performances.\u00a0For example, a group of law firm employees in Florida were summarily – and\u00a0 legally –\u00a0fired from their jobs for wearing orange t-shirts on Fridays<\/a>, to celebrate payday and to be recognizable as a group for post-work “happy hour.”\u00a0To some companies,\u00a0employees are\u00a0basically\u00a0chattel: as\u00a0author\/political science professor Corey Robin reminds us in this article<\/a>, it was only in 1998 that US workers were granted a federal right to take bathroom breaks on the job.<\/p>\n Why did the feds need to step in?<\/p>\n In their 1998 book \u201dVoid Where Prohibited: Rest Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company Time,\u201d Marc Linder and Ingrid Nygaard of the University of Iowa \u2013 he\u2019s a law professor, she\u2019s a urogynecologist \u2013 trace the long and ignoble history of the struggle for the right to pee on the job. In 1995, for instance, female employees at a Nabisco plant in Oxnard, Calif., maker of A-1 steak sauce and the world\u2019s supplier of Grey Poupon mustard, complained in a lawsuit that line supervisors had consistently prevented them from going to the bathroom. Instructed to urinate into their clothes or face three days\u2019 suspension for unauthorized expeditions to the toilet, the workers opted for adult diapers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Point being, there are a few great workplaces out there, where\u00a0companies take an active role in encouraging employee fitness. And there are a range of decent ones – like the\u00a0one\u00a0those women work\u00a0in\u00a0– that\u00a0don’t interfere with\u00a0their\u00a0employees’ efforts. But as the above examples suggest,\u00a0there are also some really crappy\u00a0companies\u00a0out there, including one\u00a0that happily cheats\u00a0its employees out of breaks<\/a> and forces them to work off the clock. As a society, we could do a lot to help\u00a0people get in better shape\u00a0by incentivizing employers to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0As noted above, I’m all for\u00a0personal discipline and recognize that a certain amount of vigilance is appropriate to maintain weight loss. But the two\u00a0women used to\u00a0illustrate the the conclusions of the National Weight Control Registry\u00a0made me do a double take.\u00a0To these eyes, their obsessive record keeping (one of the women displayed a binder containing 4 years worth of data!),\u00a0chronic low calorie intake, and\u00a0dedication to\u00a0rituals (like continuing to weigh food items they’ve already learned to\u00a0accurately estimate) smacks of disordered eating. Yet the documentary appeared to approve of their behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yikes! If\u00a0I were overweight or obese, watching these two would be enough to drive me into the “fat acceptance” camp.<\/p>\n 5. Speaking of fat acceptance, my heart went out to\u00a0an earlier interviewee, Vivia.\u00a0Her\u00a0personal testimony was sad to watch.\u00a0She was reduced to tears as she described her relationship to food:\u00a0<\/p>\n “…food can be my best friend… food can be my boyfriend at the moment. Food can be a vacation to the beach that I can’t afford to go. If I were not obese, I would have no hesitation in doing the things I want to do, going to places I want to go, trying for things I want to accomplish. I could go on a roller-coaster. I would sky dive if I wasn’t obese. I would be able to roller skate. I would probably pursue dating, if I were not obese. And… I would have a little Vivia.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yet, she could, realistically, pursue many of her dreams right now<\/em> (other than the skydiving, perhaps).\u00a0 At 341 pounds, she may have (or will have) health issues that need addressing, but she’s a person of worth just as she is, who has a right to go to places she wants to go. She can go on a roller coaster. She can roller skate<\/a>. She can love and be loved… if she loves herself first.<\/p>\n Yet no one made this point:\u00a0the documentary seemed to agree with her self-assessment.\u00a0According to the frame presented in Part 2,\u00a0obesity itself is to blame.\u00a0\u00a0Yet it’s not\u00a0obesity alone\u00a0that’s\u00a0dragging\u00a0people like Vivia down,\u00a0it’s also\u00a0the teasing, mockery and social disapproval they routinely receive.<\/a>\u00a0No one evidently intervened when – as a child – she was poked with pencils and otherwise singled out because of her weight. But fixing victims isn’t the answer to bullying… fixing bullies, is<\/em>.<\/p>\n At any rate, I liked\u00a0the factual info discussed in Part 2: there was\u00a0a lot of no-nonsense, reality-based information that many viewers\u00a0could apply to their own lives. What\u00a0I really would have liked\u00a0to see, however, is some discussion of policy – <\/em>what communities and states can do\u00a0to facilitate personal efforts. Not every\u00a0town has a Linda Fondren,\u00a0with the resources,\u00a0passion\u00a0and energy to make a difference<\/a>, and – at least so far – stressing personal responsibility hasn’t been very effective as a public health strategy.<\/p>\n Well, there’s still Parts 3 and 4 – maybe we’ll get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday, but I wanted to think about Part 2 – which I watched last night – a little more. 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