Finding your power

I've got one more study for you: The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

It's not from any of my recently read books. It does sometimes come up in discussions I see on Twitter, though those are usually not so much about weight, as about social control. And yet, probably the reason those discussions are coming up is because those are people interested in fat-shaming and fat-phobia, but also interested in Michel Foucault's theories of crime and punishment, and things like that.

Many of you may have heard of the experiment, when some conscientious objectors in World War 2 served as test subjects for famine studies. I think it might have come up in 9th or 10th grade health class, or maybe in history.

It was worse than I remembered. I remembered the low energy and mood and some of the issues that track with eating disorders and that can correlate with self-harm. I know more about that now than I did then, but I remembered.

However, I know I would have remembered if they had said anything about one of the participants chopping off three of his fingers and then not remembering whether he did it accidentally or not. (Though, if that was 9th grade, I get why they didn't share that with 14 year olds.)

Without spending too much time on that, let's just consider a few things that we do know.

We know that health outcomes are largely determined by nutrition and activity, but that options for nutrition and activity may be closely tied to income and environment. This is where we can talk about food deserts, sidewalks and infrastructure, transportation, scheduling and stress, but where it also does not hurt to talk about marketing, industry, agriculture, and soil depletion.

We know that it is stuck in many people's perceptions that fat is synonymous with bad health, and also assumed to indicate repulsive personal habits like gluttony and laziness, without consideration of the factors mentioned in the previous paragraph.

We know that the body has a pretty strong idea genetically of how your body should be, and will adjust metabolism and other bodily functions to maintain. That means two things:

1. Attempts to lose weight -- especially by food restriction -- is hard on your mind and soul as well as your body.
2. That even if you succeed in reducing some body mass, that mass will probably come back with some extra.

Also remember that in 1998 the NIH declared millions of American fat by lowering the BMI based standards, even though BMI is not scientifically based, giving no consideration to muscle mass versus fat, cardiovascular fitness, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, or anything that would indicate actual health:

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9806/17/weight.guidelines/

All of this makes it very easy to feel -- falling disproportionately on the poor --that you are fat and that it is a personal flaw that you must change, but that each attempt to do so will sap your strength and well-being and result in weight gain, making you more of a failure.

The question to then ask yourself is whom does this serve?

Perhaps it is easiest to answer that it serves capitalism. It does.

However, there is this relationship between capitalism and racism where they serve each other, except it is not just racism but other types of bigotry as well; the weight loss industry benefits a lot from the sexist double standard.

It's something that I think about a lot personally; I have worked on dealing with my own feelings about my fat a lot. There's been progress, but it's still not a thrill. 

On a broader level, I am becoming more aware all the time of the need to fight fascism -- which benefits greatly from racism and sexism and every stupid patriarchal prejudice -- and we can't afford to lose you.

Maybe it's just because I see so many people I care about (mainly women) feeling less because of their body, not even able to know what is good about their body, but there are so many better things to do, and you are needed. 

There is so much power among us, and capitalism would have us fritter it away to fit a false standard set up to get your money on a repeating loop.

Don't do it.