Here it is….and before you read it, tell yourself that you are going to be a critical reader. This is the kind of message we are bombarded with every day that fosters self-hatred:
“I eat only 1,000 calories a day and still gain weight, so I must have a slow metabolism.
You may be underestimating calories.
If you track your calories and still can’t lose those last 10 pounds, your problem may lie more with your math than your metabolism. “It’s easy to underestimate calories, especially if you eat a lot of restaurant meals,” says Miriam Pappo, a registered dietitian and the director of clinical nutrition at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Large amounts of hidden fats -- mainly fats used in cooking the food -- add hundreds of calories per dish. Added butter, milk or cream cannot be seen, which makes it harder to track calorie intake, says Pappo. “In addition, chronic dieting without exercising can slow metabolism, especially as we age.” The American Dietetic Association recommends that women eat between 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day, depending on activity level, and men should take in between 2,000 and 2,800 calories a day.” Source: http://t.healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/slideshow?cp-documentid=250220245#image=3
Are you kidding me? We are choosing to send the message that if you can’t conform to an arbitrary weight ideal, then it must be your fault because you aren’t counting calories well enough? Make no mistake, the Body Mass Index (BMI) that doctors use to decide who is “obese” or “overweight” is not a good guideline for how healthy someone is. Here is a good, easy read that talks about why using BMI is bad science:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439
People, listen closely. This is a terrible lie that is being fed to you. Some people are bigger others. This is something that any child can observe. The same is true for animals. If you look at 100 Golden Retrievers, some will be so skinny you can see their ribs, some will be lean, some muscular, and some will be “fat”. Genetic diversity is a fact of nature. Why should we think that this does not apply to people? Is our science really this terrible that we are going to ignore the facts of nature? Some bodies are larger, some are smaller. This fact should not automatically result in the larger people being made to hate themselves and spend their whole lives in shame and misery.
The fact is, most people who are larger have the Kapha body type. They tend to live longer. These people have heavy, dense bones, are naturally very strong, and almost never get sick. They may have asthma as children but usually outgrow it as they get older. These people tend to gain weight very easily, and can be made to feel that they are gaining weight because they are doing something wrong. In other cultures, women are taking dangerous drugs trying to get an hourglass figure, while women in America literally starve themselves to eliminate all their curves. Ask yourself: is it really okay that our ideal shape for a “sexy” adult female is the body of a
teenage boy?
Read this article to see how drastically different the body ideals can be in other countries:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124700865
Like I keep saying, there is not good evidence that heavier people have greater health risks. I could make a lot of money telling people that I could make them all lose weight with Ayurveda…but I won’t do that because it’s just not ethical. In fact, I do know how to create conditions that will force the human body to drop weight. However, I chose my career to help others be healthy, not to make money off of their desperation and misery. “Diets” are simply not healthy. There has never been a diet discovered yet that allows people to lose weight and keep it off. Even if people maintain a low level of calorie consumption, the body will alter metabolism to achieve the size and shape that genetics dictate. I am fully aware that people would likely pay me whatever I asked if I promised them weight loss. I am simply not interested in making profits that way because I think it is unethical for me, unhealthy for my patients, and just bad science. What I can offer is a vision of health that allows people to embrace their unique body type. I work with people to help them love themselves and respect their bodies. Ayurvedic eating is not about helping people achieve a specific body image. It is about eating the foods that nourish your type of body and allow you to feel healthy and happy. Ayurvedic exercise is about having fun moving your body, while balancing movement with stillness and meditation for de-stressing the mind. Some people lose weight as they become healthier; others are underweight and they gain the mass they need to be healthy.
Weight loss is not synonymous with health. It has become that way in our culture, but the science simply isn’t there to back it up. Everyone has a shape at which their body is healthy. For some people, this shape is larger, for some it is smaller. Health should not be a one-size-fits-all kind of idea.
Years ago, I was involved in the sport of Judo. Many of the people I trained with would be considered “obese” by the medical community. Yet, these people demonstrated better cardiovascular fitness on a daily basis than most Americans could ever hope to achieve. In fact, if the numerous scientific studies on obesity show us anything, it is that “obese” people who exercise regularly are much healthier than thin people who do not.
Let’s consider the amount of stress we have placed on countless people daily with the pressure to conform to an unrealistic body ideal that is contrary to their genetic makeup. The negative health effects of stress have been much better documented than any health risks associated with obesity. It is common knowledge that stress makes people prone to depression and anxiety, and also causes insomnia. Here are a few more things stress does:
-Stress experienced by children has been linked to the development of Type 1 Diabetes.
[Hägglöf, B., Blom, L., Dahlquist, G., Lönnberg, G., Sahlin, B. (1991) ‘The Swedish childhood diabetes study: indications of severe psychological stress as a risk factor for Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in childhood’, Diabetologia, 34(8), pp. 579-583.]
-Stress is a risk factor for hypertension (high blood pressure).
[Berger, R. and Paran, E. (2002) ‘Stress and hypertension’, Harefuah, 141(7), pp. 626-630, 665.]
-Stress is a risk factor for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and increases the symptoms of IBS.
[Halpert, A., Drossman, D. (2005) ‘Biopsychosocial issues in irritable bowel syndrome’, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 39(8), pp.
665-669.]
-Pregnant women who experience high levels of stress and anxiety are at greater risk for spontaneous abortion, and preterm
labor.
[Mulder, E.J.H., Robles de Medina, P.G., Huizink, A.C., Van den Bergh, B.R.H., Buitelaar, J.K., and Visser, G.H.A. (2002) ‘Prenatal maternal stress: effects on pregnancy and the (unborn) child’, Early Human Development, 70(1-2), pp. 3-14.]
-Stress during pregnancy has been linked with delayed mental development and motor skill development in infants.
[Huizink, A.C., Robles de Medina, P.G., Mulder, E.J.H., Visser, G.H.A., Buitelaar, J.K. (2003) ‘Stress during pregnancy is associated with developmental outcome in infancy’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(6), pp. 810-818.]
I would argue that the stress experienced by people labeled as “overweight” or “obese” is a much greater risk to their health than their
weight. Just some food for thought.