Unit III Ethical Paper

The Battle of the Bulge – Mind over Matter

Exercise is beneficial to health and well-being. It is widely accepted and preached that obesity is dangerous to one’s overall health and can promote a wide variety of health issues up to and including premature death. While everyone seems to agree on these concepts, many of us still find it difficult to incorporate a physical fitness regimen into our daily lives. At least the awareness is there and more communities, businesses, schools, health plans and individuals are making an effort to modify our inactive lifestyles. All of that notwithstanding, I think there is something missing in the article discussing modifying the environment to reverse obesity, namely, our society’s body image issues, unrealistic weight ideals, and diet/binge culture.

It is all well and good to discuss the health benefits of eating well, being physically active and weighing less. However, popular culture portrays a beauty ideal that is almost impossible for a vast majority of normal people to achieve. Short of having personal trainers, personal cooks, and the leisure to exercise many hours a day (or a heroin habit like some of the super models), most people could never maintain the skinny bodies continuously paraded before us in popular media. Eating disorders are rampant, more so among women, but also among men. Until we start to move the beauty ideal to a more realistic image in society, it’s going to be hard for us to have the self-esteem and confidence to feel like we can effectively manage our weight. If we’re constantly battling unrealistic images and feeling unable to achieve them, we’ll continue to be discouraged by our seemingly futile efforts. Psychologically we need to begin addressing this issue.

The next issue that I feel needs to be re-evaluated is what ideal weight really means. I just went out and looked at three different weight charts from three different sources. I looked at the suggested weight for my wife and me, and compared it to a time when we were both cycling and working out a large amount and were at what we both considered comfortable, healthy weights. In both cases the charts showed us as ‘overweight’. Fortunately, we didn’t pay attention to those charts at the time and aren’t overly influenced by societal pressures to be thin. However, many people don’t have such strong defenses and would have felt dissatisfied with what were very healthy, strong bodies. These charts are used by medical doctors, insurance companies and others and add to the psychological barriers I spoke to in the previous paragraph. We need to make sure health is being measured in more realistic terms in our public discourse. There are many body types and sizes, and health is often as much a factor of heredity, what we eat, and how we feel about ourselves and our lives, as some number on a scale that we stand on. I have friends that are thinner and exercise more than I, that are definitely much less healthy, both physically and psychologically.

Finally, I think our dieting/binging culture needs to be changed. The diet industry is huge and advertises extensively – and now more and more with celebrities who have done the program and lost weight. Based on what I’ve seen in my own circle of friends and co-workers who have gone on a fad diet and lost a lot of weight, it’s rarely a long-term weight loss and once the goal weight has been achieved, they’ve gained the weight back over some period of time. Most of these dieting programs are unrealistic for normal eating or exercise routines, or don’t emphasize overall healthier eating habits and lifestyle change. I think diets cause an unhealthy obsession about food and a greater tendency to binge and diet again and again. Not to mention the physiological issues it can cause – like slowing down your metabolism because your body thinks it’s being starved. It’s a vicious cycle and one that I don’t see discussed much in public discourse. It goes back to the overall psychology of physical and emotional well-being that needs to be encouraged to get people on the right track towards healthier lifestyles.

There is no doubt that we are getting fatter and subsequently suffering more ill effects because of it. However, I think we need to make sure that we’re incorporating more complex psychological and emotional factors into the overall effort to cause a change in our society that will turn the tide. Until we can acknowledge and accept more realistic weight and health goals for ourselves, we’ll continue to struggle with our ever-growing waistlines.