Title based on the book Fat!So?: Because You Don't Have To Apologize For Your Size (ISBN#: 0-89815-995-4; $15.95) by Marilyn Wann (illustration by Greg Morgan)
|
In schools across the country, kids who are heavier than their classmates experience size bias from peers and adults. And school health programs can sometimes hurt more than they help. Experts from the size-acceptance community, whose views are often omitted from health debates, offer a fresh perspective: eat healthy foods, stay active, and don't worry about your size."I'm the biggest in my family and I have the best cholesterol and blood sugar," announces Kevin, a junior at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Calif. He has just walked an extra-long distance for a late lunch of salad topped with grilled chicken strips and ranch dressing, followed by chocolate chip cookies. He came to the school's Teen Resource Center to make a point about stereotypes.
"I play three sports, I ride my bike, I walk everywhere and I'm still the same size," he says, insisting his health is better than some of his thinner classmates.
Looking at his larger-than-average size, some doubt Kevin is as healthy as he claims. But Marlene Schwartz, co-director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, says it's quite likely Kevin's weight may not negatively affect his health.
"I believe if a child is eating a nutritionally balanced diet and is active, if he or she has a higher BMI [body mass index], it doesn't matter," says Schwartz.
Schwartz routinely hears people say, "If only fat people worked harder, they would lose weight." But she and others challenge the hysteria surrounding the global "obesity epidemic," which defines 17 percent of children age 2 to 19 as overweight.
Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth, argues that Americans are, in general, only 15 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago. It is public health standards, not our bodies, that have changed, becoming more rigid in defining the majority of Americans as "overweight."
That news is small consolation for students subjected to harassment and prejudice, sometimes unrelentingly, from peers and teachers because they are heavier than others. Many have been frightened into hating their bodies by grim medical reports about childhood obesity. Too many believe that dieting is the only solution, even though study after study shows dieting doesn't work.
Michael Loewy, a psychology professor at the University of North Dakota, paints an unsettling picture in his essay Working with Fat Children in Schools: "It is amazing that so many fat children survive adolescence, given the hatred and meanness directed at them."
'I Put Myself Down'
At Sequoia High School's Teen Resource Center, Dana Schuster, a speaker with the Health at Every Size program, has gathered a group of students to discuss how the war on obesity has taken a toll on their self-esteem.
"In my family they tell me, 'You'd look nice if you were smaller,'" says Celia, 15.
"I think I put myself down more than anyone," adds Rachel, 18, referring to the negative thoughts filling her head about her size.
One girl says she's more confident and accepting of herself now that she's in high school, yet she's just finished a juice fast, essentially starving herself. "I felt good. I lost the 10 pounds," she says.
Naomi, 16, listens quietly to other students' comments about the frustrations of gym class and clothes shopping. Then she says simply, "It hurts when you weigh a lot."
Victims of size discrimination often suffer from depression, anxiety and loneliness. They may also suffer from low self-esteem, voluntarily serving as the butt of jokes -- the stereotypical funny fat kid.
"If they say things to you, it doesn't matter," says Max, one of two boys in the group, shrugging his shoulders. Max says he responds to insults with humor.
Naomi does, too. But she also has a more straightforward comeback: "I tell them, 'It's my body; if you don't like it, don't look at it.'"
|
