Throughout this year of obesity awareness — this year of the "Super Size Me" film and the low-carb Atkins craze — I’ve been quiet about a certain sensitive topic. Too quiet.
This is gonna hurt — me, not you. I won’t bash anybody else for being (there are nicer ways to say this) fat. I’m here, swallowing pride and not ice cream, to say I know firsthand what many of you know too well.
Hard as it is to lose weight, it’s harder still to keep it off.
In a long overdue mea culpa, I’ll reluctantly update a column I wrote on Aug. 8, 2000. Hearing statistics such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimate that 64 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, I’ve had a nagging notion I ought to ‘fess up.
Anyway, I boasted back then that for the first time in years, the weight on my driver’s license was inaccurate, and not because I weighed more than the 135 pounds listed. Friends were worried, I wrote, because at 124 pounds they said I looked too thin.
Know how long I weighed 124 pounds? Sure you do. About a week.
My license still says 135, and it’s still a lie. Now I’m about 10 pounds over that, somewhere in the 140s and eating crow — along with all that other stuff I eat.
I share this because concern over excess pounds has reached a critical mass. No longer only fodder for beauty magazines, it’s front-page health news, and largely bad news at that.
In her "Kids and Obesity" article in the April 18 Herald, writer Sharon Salyer reported there are more than twice as many obese 6- to 11-year-olds today as there were in the 1970s. One in three children born in 2000 is expected to become diabetic.
There are signs our all-you-can-eat culture is turning a corner.
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock won a best director’s award at the Sundance Film Festival for "Super Size Me." His documentary chronicled his dangerous weight gain and health decline as he gobbled three McDonald’s meals every day for a month.
Now, the fast-food giant has quit asking if customers want to supersize their meals with extra fries and bigger soft drinks. New under the golden arches is the Go Active! Happy Meal, a salad, bottled water and pedometer to clip on your belt — remember belts?
A clerk at an Everett McDonald’s said about 45 of the slimmed-down meals were sold the first day they were offered. The chain also added a veggie burger and a grilled chicken sandwich to its menu. The changes show that consumers are aware of their girth and are demanding solutions.
In this image-obsessed culture, I have long been embarrassed about being what my dad politely calls my "sturdy" build. I’ve spent years gaining and losing that same 10, 15, 20 pounds. My excuses are like yours — stress, no time, no discipline.
I walk, jog or get moving in some fashion every day. Yet, I gained those pounds back. That’s discouraging.
Some 64 percent of us share weight problems, so being embarrassed is nonsense. Diets succeed, and they fail — just as human beings do.
Better fast food and TV spots urging kids to go out and play are signs we’re all in this together.
We shouldn’t accept a supersized population as the new normal. There’s too much at stake, from our health and quality of life to the examples we set for new generations.
Now about those kids — they would not like fries with that. How about carrot sticks instead?
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
