Adipose Complex

In Paris, the American traveler quickly comes to the conclusion that fat people are not welcome. While exiting the plane from the gate at Charles De Gaulle this is not yet totally clear. However, one discovers the Parisian detestation for adipose tissue on the journey from the gate to the RER metro system, where one must pass through the sliding doors of judgment.

I speak not of the doors to enter the train, oh no, I mean the doors that you must swipe your card or put your ticket into to get to the train platform. Fat travelers can’t get through these doors, a brilliant feat of French engineering designed to filter out the unwanted.

This is an attempt at humor, but on a serious note, America is facing a fat problem.

The debate over a solution for the obesity epidemic has been filled with ideas from taxing certain products, re-introducing adequate exercise in schools, and limiting the number of McDonalds and Burger King restaurants in a single neighborhood.

The idea that taxing sodas will have a significant impact on the obesity epidemic is hard for me to buy. High taxes for cigarettes have not stopped smokers from buying cigarettes, and the same will probably be true for fattening products.

Taxing vices is only good for the government, as they take the revenue. The idea is that people won’t stop buying vice products, that’s why you tax them. There could be a hundred vending machines in Broadview with horrible foods containing high fructose corn syrup and deep fried Mars Bars. That doesn’t mean that people in Broadview have to buy any of it.

Some people argue that because of a lack of healthy choices in restaurants and grocery stores, people are forced to buy and eat unhealthy foods and drinks. However, in my experience I’ve found that people eat and drink whatever they want, regardless of price. Even if McDonalds is cheaper, people still buy a lot of it.

Bakeries with the most magnificent delicious desserts and pastries known to humankind surround Parisians every day. However they are renowned for their disciplined control over their appetites.

Besides how brainless most of the solutions to America’s obesity epidemic are, I feel that they do not reach the core of the problem.

Calling someone in America fat has become a vicious judgment that has increasingly become intolerable in public. American’s relationship to fat people has become very much like America’s relationship to Israel. Although they occasionally indulge in dangerous behavior, we dare not criticize them.

I’m not going to reveal my solution to America’s obesity epidemic, mainly because it’s so simple and obvious that I don’t think I should have to. The obstacle blocking people from this solution are Americans’ viewpoints on obesity and fatness in general. We’ve turned the word into a criticism, an insult, instead of a factual statement on reality. We tell our children, “you’re not fat, he was just being a bully”, as they cry while their self-esteem is lowered even more.

Instead of lying and confusing our children and others we care about, we should empower them to take personal responsibility for their weight and health, while supporting them.

Blanketing criticism for fear of other’s feelings and labels is a treacherous path to embark on, and it seems that we are taking that path on the issue of obesity. You are not an anti-Semite because you criticize Israel, nor are you a racist because you criticize President Obama.

In the 1960’s, smoking in America was an acceptable activity in the workplace, restaurants, and on planes. One only needs to watch an episode of Mad Men to understand this. Today, if you were at a restaurant with someone and they wanted to smoke, you would probably ask them why they engaged in such an unhealthy activity. “You know smoking causes lung cancer”, “every puff is seven minutes off your life”.

It is not taboo today to criticize smokers in this way. However, it is to criticize fat people. One should be able to say, “you know eating that much causes heart disease”, and “that Monte Cristo with fries you just ate took seven months off your life”, without being ridiculed for rudeness.

Obesity, like smoking, is a life and death issue. I don’t care if you think I’m mean; just realize that I don’t want you to die any sooner than you have to.

- L

Bon Appetit !