Massive Hysteria: The Negative Effects of the Anti-Obesity Movement

In the past decade, the issue of obesity has come to the forefront. Efforts to curb obesity are all around: they're in the legislatures, in the schools, and in society in general. Unfortunately, according to the CDC, obesity rates aren't going down. If anything, they've been rising despite every effort to reduce them. Rather than have a positive effect, the anti-obesity movement has had negative effects no one wants to acknowledge.

Laws banning candy and soda in schools are good, right? Maybe not. First of all, they've ticked off a lot of kids, who aren't buying the "it's for your own good" line. Sure, kids don't need junk food, and they can always buy such things outside of school - a fact that some communities are trying to take care of by attacking businesses near schools so kids can't access junk food even outside of the school environment. However, do high school kids need to denied certain foods because some of their peers don't have healthy lifestyles? Ever wonder why young adults gain weight in college? Suddenly they're allowed to eat whatever they want; the more people are restricted in high school, the crazier they're going to go in college. This is as true for food as it is for alcohol.

The intention is fine, making sure kids are healthy is a good idea, but it's nothing but an ineffective bandage solution. If schools are to improve the health of their students, they can start by bringing back gym class; elementary schools could stop sacrificing recess in order to improve test scores. Health classes could teach a realistic philosophy of moderation instead of teaching nutrition the same way they teach sex and drugs.

Because obesity is considered an epidemic, there's a mass hysteria and paralyzing fear that comes with every epidemic. That fear comes across in the classroom when kids are told that if they eat the occasional candy bar or bag of chips, they will get fat, develop diabetes and heart disease, and suffer strokes and heart attacks. This is similar to the way many schools in America are teaching sex: do it once and you'll get pregnant and your life will be ruined, or you'll get HIV and die. Abstinence-only education in any sense is taken seriously by a few students, and completely ignored by everyone else. If kids were told that it's okay to eat junk food as long as it's only in moderation, and balanced out by a generally healthy diet, more kids might listen, and maybe girls wouldn't have to get their diet advice from magazines.

Obsession with thinness is nothing new. However, it's worse now that there's an even more intense fear of fat, and with the high rates of obesity, health is equated with weight loss. It's assumed that everyone can stand to lose some weight, so even people who are healthy or even underweight are bombarded with the notion that a healthy lifestyle involves trying to lose excess weight, or avoiding weight gain at all costs. Girls who go through growth spurts during puberty are alerted to their sudden rapid weight gain by their doctors. Weight loss has become an even bigger obsession now than it was even 20 years ago, and now there's a health crisis to justify it. Every day there's a news story about the horrifying risks of carrying around even a little extra weight.

The vegan movement is rising about as quickly as the virginity movement. It's marketed as an alternative to the normal way of living, which has become associated with fattening foods and unhealthy ingredients. In today's society, it seems as though the only way to avoid a life of excess is to go to the other extreme and abstain completely.

One major cause of the obesity epidemic is almost completely ignored, because it's too hard to face head-on. Healthy food like whole grain bread and fresh produce costs more than unhealthy food such as macaroni & cheese and syrup-laden canned fruits; not to mention gym memberships aren't always cheap. The plunging economy isn't making it easy for a lot of people to live healthy lives. It's a little redundant to tell people how to live a healthy lifestyle when they simply cannot afford to do so.

No one wants to admit that the anti-obesity movement is doing more harm than good. It's spawning an even more intense obsession with weight control than before and ineffective legislation all aimed at reducing obesity rates which have done everything but decline. The strong reaction to the obesity epidemic has also had a strong effect on women's self-esteem. Now more than ever, women are under pressure to keep losing weight, and now it's not from magazines and the media, it's also from doctors and health-concerned parents. Of course, none of these effects of the obesity movement are likely to be considered, because right now it seems as though the only concern is fighting obesity at all costs.