Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--And My Own by Mika Brzezinski Read Free Book Online Page B

politician, he’s had to develop a thick skin, but he’s still deeply hurt by some of the hateful comments and tweets he gets. He read me these two: HEY GOVERNOR, WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST TODAY, ONE STICK OF BUTTER OR TWO? and THINK GOVERNOR CHRISTIE CAN BE VP? HE’S TOO . . . FAT, AND AMERICANS HATE FAT PEOPLE .
    People would never say such vicious things about someone with any other type of health challenge. “It is extraordinary how brutal people will be about my weight,” the governor said. He thinks people assume he is lazy or lacking discipline because of his weight, and wonders, “Do they think I got this far in life without discipline?” I’ve heard Oprah say the same thing, and Diane says it, too.
    “For somebody like me who’s had so much success in my life, and really been successful at everything I’ve tried, to not be able to be successful at this is incredibly discouraging,” revealed Christie. The attitude he encounters ignores the many complex factors involved in losing and regaining weight. Getting to a “healthy thin” certainly takes personal discipline and determination, but it also requires some changes in the world around us. It is not enough to say “eat less, do more.” Or to follow columnist Eugene Robinson’s simplistic advice for anyone with a weight problem: take a walk and eat a salad.
    “That is the height of ignorance about what this issue is really all about,” Christie avows. “I’m well beyond the taking a walk stage. I work out four days a week with a trainer. I’m riding the bike and lifting weights and doing floor exercises for an hour a day. For people who have never had issues with their weight, they can’t understand it.”
    Recognizing that our prejudices are counterproductive is a good place to start changing attitudes. Puhl thinks one reason our biases remain socially acceptable is that we somehow think they might be helpful. “There tends to be this perception that maybe stigma is not such a bad thing, that maybe it will motivate people to lose weight or provide an incentive for people to be healthier.” In fact, she says, the opposite is true. “When people are blamed, stigmatized, or teased about their weight, they’re much more likely to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors like binge eating; they’re more likely to eat more food; and they’re more likely to avoid exercise. All of those things actually reinforce obesity.”

    So we need to get a lot smarter about how we look at people who are obese and how we support them. We also need our families, schools, and communities to protect our children from getting fat in the first place, and to support the work we need to do to reach and maintain a healthy weight. One out of every three Americans is obese (defined as a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or above) and another one in three is “merely” overweight. With those numbers still rising, 42 percent of us can expect to be obese by 2030. We need to recognize that obesity is not just a problem that affects individuals. Right now, the costs threaten to cripple our nation.
    In 2012, four former members of the president’s cabinet—two secretaries of agriculture and two secretaries of health and human services—weighed in with a report titled Lots to Lose: How America’s Health and Obesity Crisis Threatens Our Economic Future . Their report called obesity “the most urgent public health problem in America today” and concluded that “the costs of obesity and chronic disease have become a major drag on the economy.” The report blamed escalating health care costs, which are “the main driver of our spiraling national debt,” and observed that “obesity-related illness comprises an increasingly large share of our massive health costs.” 4
    “The obesity epidemic is jeopardizing our global competitiveness,” concludes former US Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who served under President George W. Bush. I’ve seen some variation in