We aren't to blame for our weight

An argument that really bothers me is that "fat" people want to be "fat." Here is where my anthropology major brain kicks in to say: hey you don't know the half of it.

In 1850 the average American male was 5 ft 7.4 inches and 146 pounds. By 2000 the average American male was 5 ft 9 inches and 191 pounds. A significant difference. 14 years later, I'm sure the figures have grown*.

Why, you ask?

Cultural changes due to modernity have occurred over the last 200 years that have caused these physical changes in our population. The height change is most likely due to better nutrition, while the weight change is most likely due to over nourishment.

However, there are also socioeconomic reasons behind human height and weight. Lower income families tend to eat less protein and fiber because they have less access to it. While the foods higher in fat and sugar are more affordable and therefore consumed more by lower income families. There is a privilege in eating healthy, especially organically.

With that being said the entire Western diet is high in saturated fat and sugar and lower in fiber. There is actually a scientific term for this: the nutrition transition. The nutrition transition is the shift to a diet high in saturated fat and sugar that has caused the obesity epidemic around the world. The problem with this starting in the Western diet, is that the whole world strives towards what is Western. I will talk about this food privilege further in a later post and why this has poor effects on health and it's social implications. For now lets look at these charts:

Table A. Soviet Unions consumption of red meat, cereals, sugars and tubers between 1960 and 1985.

Table B. Obesity trends in lower-income countries. BMI means Body Mass Index. According to cancer.org a healthy BMI is between 18 and 25.

Table A shows an obvious increase in red meat and sugar consumption with a decrease in cereals and tubers in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1985. By 1985 the Soviet Union was seeing an increase in cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The correlation between their diet and these diseases cannot be disputed.

Table B shows the nutrition transition occurring in Brazil, China, India, Mauritius, Russia, Nauru, Western Samoa and Kuwait over the course of ten years with the increase in percentage of people who have an unhealthy BMI.

I do not mean to say that these unhealthy ways are okay. I am saying it is not a single persons choice to eat how they eat or look how they look. The truth is: we live in a modern world where everything is really complicated...

*the statistical information and reasons behind them in this post come from my Biological Anthropology class textbook entitled Our Origins by Clark Spencer Larsen. (Larsen 2011: 430-432).