Don’t make people look in the mirror.

Posted on | February 18, 2009 | 9 Comments

So yesterday Son of Grok had a great post talking about people referring to him as “too skinny” and his own response to it. Having seen a number of pictures he’s posted of himself, he’s not overly thin – he’s well muscled (not huge) with a fairly low body fat. In short, he looks healthy and mildly athletic. Apparently this rubs people the wrong way…

I think this is really a symptom of a larger issue, that is present in a depressingly high number of people. It’s well understood that people take some satisfaction in seeing others fail, the concept of schadenfreud is nothing new. More than that though, I think people want to rationalize the success of others to things that are outside their reach, to avoid the responsibility for changing their habits. If someone is obviously in good shape and feeling good it’s clearly because they have good genetics, not due to any actions on their part.

Both of my girlfriend’s parents are overweight type-II diabetics. She has an under active thyroid and mild insulin resistance. She also eats predominately paleo, weights around 125-130lbs and has lower than average bodyfat. In short, she’s in good shape, despite the considerable genetic hurdles she faces.

That didn’t stop a friggan college professor from telling her that “she’s an example of genetics, of someone who can eat crap and still be skinny”. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that the person delivering this message was herself significantly overweight. To recognize that this was something she might have control over might force her to actually do something different.

I see this in one of my real passions as well (climbing). The people who are the quickest to belittle the accomplishments of others usually have a long list of things they’re going to do – and an equally long list of reasons why they haven’t happened yet. I suspect this is true in nearly any pursuit.

I realize that saying people should take responsibility for their actions is nothing new, or anything terribly original on my part. But I’m still shocked at just how far it goes. If you look around the internet, you’ll find a lot of perfectly valid reasons that the USDA food pyramid is an ill-conceived load of crap. That hasn’t stopped a number of formerly overweight people from finding what worked for them, by trial and error and doing their own homework. Fitness and diet sites seem to like to paint the unhealthy as victims of a misleading system. They have a valid point – the standard american diet produces obesity, no doubt about it. This does’t change the fact that the government recommendations wouldn’t be in issue if people just took responsibility for themselves. If what you’re doing isn’t working – try something else.

So here is my question to all of you. At what point do social welfare and personal responsibility intersect? What I mean is, do we as a whole have a responsibility to change the health recommendations to something that works. Clearly leaving the responsibility solely with the individuals results in a public health crises of epidemic proportions such as what we’re currently facing. Nothing is stopping those individual people from fixing it themselves though.

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Comments

9 Responses to “Don’t make people look in the mirror.”

Son of Grok
February 18th, 2009 @ 11:08 am

Good post Chris. I feel your girlfriend and your frustration. Unfortunately when it comes to this type of thing too, everyone is an expert. Everyone has read something that says this or heard something that says that. People can’t seem to get past thier ego enough to admit when they may not know something and I think that contributes to the issue. The classic “conventional wisdom” syndrome.

The SoG
David at Animal-Kingdom-Workouts
February 18th, 2009 @ 11:42 am

In my mind, it all begins with the individual. If you want to change anything in your life, it’s up to you to do it. As with any new journey, you’re likely to make some wrong turns (example, food pyramid). However, if you keep your goal in mind, you’ll get there.

- Dave
Crabby McSlacker
February 18th, 2009 @ 11:59 am

This is a tough one. I think, though, that for most people, self-discipline, motivation and follow-through are so lacking that it doesn’t much matter what approach they decide to take, sensible or screwy. They’ll give up when it gets hard anyway. On the other hand, people who are really motivated and disciplined will persevere until they find what works. Not so many of them around though.

And, um, yeah I’m a bit of a pessimist!
Tom Parker - Free Fitness Tips
February 18th, 2009 @ 4:43 pm

I agree with Dave. Your health is your individual responsibility. Although there is a lot of false information floating around I think most people generally have a good idea of how to eat healthy. Most people know deep down that fresh food is better than processed – they just ignore this and go for the low calorie cakes and diet coke instead. If they really wanted to eat healthy food then they would.
cmason
February 19th, 2009 @ 12:02 pm

I generally agree with you guys that it is the individuals responsibility. The issue here is what Crabby hit on the head above

“I think, though, that for most people, self-discipline, motivation and follow-through are so lacking that it doesn’t much matter what approach they decide to take, sensible or screwy. They’ll give up when it gets hard anyway.”

As much as I get annoyed at this attitude (and it does really get to me) that seems to describe the majority of people, or at least the majority of Americans. Does this mean we don’t attempt to help them? As a society the cost we incur from these people is HUGE.

I suppose this comes down to a phisolophical question about individual determination and non-interference versus collective welfare. I’m not going to get into that one at the moment, mostly because I have rather conflicting thoughts on it.
John FitzGibbon
February 19th, 2009 @ 1:33 pm

So I’m gonna go out and say that we do need to change the government recomendations.
I’m not saying this because people shouldn’t been taking responsibility for themselves, I think we need to do this to protect the people who the government are presently feeding through social programs, the wards of the state and soldiers.
Children in school breakfast and lunch programs, the mentally and physically disabled who live in state funded institutes and the men and women of the armed forces I believe all have their daily diets affected by government nutritional guidelines. Despite what you think of these programs if we’re gonna be helping feed poor and starving kids so they can get an education and live the american dream we should be feeding them right.
I also believe that the prison population is fed based on the recomendations. While we may not think much of the prison population we do pay for their health care and I believe it would be cheaper for the gov’t to feed these people properly than to pay for expensive long term health care later in their lives.
Again not a social welfare vs libertarian argument, I just think financially we’d be better off to change these based on the states present commitments to these programs.
cmason
February 20th, 2009 @ 9:32 am

John – excellent points, and ones I hadn’t really thought about until now. I agree with you completely, that looking at this from a cost/benefit perspective alone for populations like the military, wards of the state, etc..should make it obvious that change is called for.

The hurdles with school children are a bit larger, since I believe the courts have stated that the schools do NOT have an obligation to make foods healthy, since “parent’s have the option of packing a lunch for their children if they like”. Of course, that doesn’t help the poor families that received free or discounted lunches. The large companies who produce mounds of processed crap usually give school distracts a discount to buy from them. It’s a pretty frustrating, corrupt system where (predictably) the interests of the children are pretty low on the priority scale.

Prison reform is also a big issue for me. (not to get off topic) I don’t want to sound overly bleeding heart, but I do think that conditions in prison are pretty unacceptable and that we have a responsibility to keep those people safe and well cared for while they are there. Note that this doesn’t mean I think they should be pleasant places – if anything I think they need to be more strict, but better ran and staffed, and thus safer for the inmates. (Constructive discipline is excellent, inmate on inmate violence is not) Come to think of it, I might write a post about this, and tie in some of my ideas from social psychology with my logic here.

My issues above aside, I think you’re right from a pure cost-benefit perspective. When enough statistical data is there, I wonder if health insurance companies would adjust rates based on diet, as they do with other lifestyle factors. The plus here is that these organizations are pretty good at getting the numbers right. If they give people discounts for following the food pyramid, then those people get sick at a higher than predicted rate it will eat into their profits and they’ll adjust. This might also give people an immediate financial incentive to take care of themselves. That shouldn’t be necessary..but, I can dream.
Rebecca T. of HonestMeat
February 22nd, 2009 @ 1:12 am

There are areas all over the US, both in rural areas and in low-income sections of cities that are classified as “Food Deserts”. In these places, you cannot find fresh produce or any natural, unadulterated food of any kind. Instead you only find fast food joints and liquor stores, not even grocery stores. So if you live in these areas, you have a hard time feeding yourself or your family in a healthy way.

There are also many rural and urban places with no opportunities for recreation and exercise- no sidewalks, no bikepaths, few parks, no YMCAs, no public pools, etc. I live in one of those rural areas. There is literally ONE single road in the entire area that has a shoulder wide enough to walk along. As a result, people actually drive from all over the area just to come and walk, run, or bike along this one road. We are desperate for safe places to recreate!

So yes we all need to take individual responsibility, but we also need to hold our politicians and city planners accountable for making our towns livable, walkable, and with the appropriate zoning and tax breaks to bring in healthy food retailers, farmers markets, etc.
Adam Kayce
July 9th, 2009 @ 11:04 am

do we as a whole have a responsibility to change the health recommendations to something that works?

Yes and no, imho, I think that people have their personal responsibility first, of course. And then, those that get called by the personal passion to take the truth to the FDA/whoever should totally do it.

But, not everyone who ‘gets it’ is going to have that passion. They may feel more inspired to open a CrossFit gym. Or a healthy restaurant. Or keep working at their jobs, but share happily with people who ask them, “Dude, what have you been doing?”

Changing the governmental juggernaut is a task that I believe will happen, but not through rebellion. Too much resistance that way. Instead, enough people will be lovingly loud, and change will happen from within.

Just look at Wal-Mart’s environmental initiatives. People have hated WM for years, complained, etc. – nothing. But then, the President/CEO dude gets an awakening moment about going green, and blamo – there they go.

So keep preaching it, brothers and sisters. Share your loving message, and those whose ears are open will hear it, one at a time.