Fat and Malnourished

A contradiction? Nope. Increasingly, research on obesity reveals that the quality of our diet is poor, even if the amount we eat is huge. The result? Malnourished fat people. I see it every day in my clinic (and I’m sadly inching into that demographic myself, no pun intended).

When I read this great commentary on the economy today, it struck me that our country increasingly resembles its people: fat and malnourished.

“From 1980 to 2005 the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.) But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during that period. The standard of living for the average family has improved not because incomes have grown, but because women have gone into the workplace in droves.”

So, the economy is ‘fat’ but our people are ‘starving’.

A malnourished country cannot thrive, though it may limp along with the dwindles for a long time. Like a human being, a poorly nourished society will be plagued by chronic conditions for which there are no easy fixes.

As a people, we face: Deteriorating infrastructure; declining wages; joblessness; inaccessible and unaffordable health care; environmental degradation; energy dependence; stressed families; and a tarnished international reputation. Our politicians, who recognize our dis-ease and fear, appeal to our emotions, our child-like desire for ‘hope’ or ‘change’ or ‘security’. They do not challenge us to retool our expectations and communal lifestyle. No one talks about hard work or sacrifice, especially in service of the greater good or future generations, like this country did during WWII. Yes, we need to expand jobs — that is critical, especially in infrastructure, green energy, and related industries — but that isn’t sufficient. Like the obese, we want a solution that asks little of us — let’s just eliminate carbs, get our lapband put in — and then go back to the way things were. I see people every day who lost weight after obesity surgery but 10 years later have gained it back. They didn’t change; they ‘hoped’ that the surgery would do the work for them.

I fear that we are getting the solutions and the politicians we want but not the ones we need. Yes, we need to inspire people to believe they can succeed in changing the country. But changing a country means changing US. The kind of change we need should exact a price from each of us. While I believe we should tax the hell out of the wealthy and corporations who send jobs elsewhere, even the middle class is going to have to sacrifice and change. We are going to have to be willing to live in smaller houses that are healthier, more sustainable — that put less burden on the environment. Drive smaller cars, walk, use public transportation. Learn to live and work in our neighborhood again rather than commute for hours to earn a wage that barely keeps us even with our debt. We can live well with limits if we reframe what living well means: improved well-being and peace-of-mind, close-knit families, jobs that satisfy us, high-quality food eaten with those we love, more time for caring for one another and the community.

This is no time for magical or wishful thinking. We must be clear-eyed and rational. We must ‘think local’ — at the level of ourselves as individuals — as well as globally — setting expectations for business and government. Too often I hear people say that small changes made by individuals are irrelevant, that government must change. How ‘bout both being true? When other people see me carrying my own bags, they comment. I give a little spiel about why it is important. Now some of those people are carrying their own bags and hopefully, giving their own little spiel. Increasingly, we ‘bag ladies’ are asking businesses and institutions to support our efforts by making new rules about bags. And so it goes. But we can’t ask government or corporations to be the only ones accountable for our societal health.

We need to vote for change, meaningful change, and expect to change ourselves as well. It won’t be easy, because we will need to do things most of us have never done before, like finding happiness while making a smaller personal footprint on our earth. Regardless of the outcome of the next election, let’s hope that we can ask our politicians to make some hard choices that will demand hard choices from us too, not just sacrifice from ‘other people’.