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Big Fat StressJuly 02, 2007 A couple of weeks ago I went on a tear about yet another article about the "obesity epidemic." Why, I wondered, does it seem to get so much more attention than the "stress epidemic"? Excess stress over extended periods of time causes all sorts of health problems, from the minor and inconvenient to the major and life-threatening. Not to mention -- food intake is often related to stress: not for nothing are certain edibles referred to as "comfort foods." For sure exercise is a great way to reduce stress. A long-ago boss of mine survived my tour of duty mainly because when we worked in the same office I biked to and from work most days of the week, 10 miles each way. This used up the excess adrenaline that otherwise probably would have made me go postal and strangle the bastard. So why does the "obesity epidemic" get so much attention? Some people get off the plane in the U.S. and immediately notice how fat everyone is. When I go to the big city, I immediately notice how stressed and withdrawn and driven many people seem to be. Much yammering about the "obesity epidemic" is done by people who spend a lot of time in cities: Maybe fat is more obvious to them than stress? Maybe identifying stress as a major problem would require them to take a discomfiting look at their own unhealthy assumptions and behaviors, instead of just going tsk-tsk-tsk at other people? One reason I'm suspicious of this obsession with "obesity" is that it looks so much like the fatphobia that has been around a lot longer. Fatphobia is not only, or even primarily, about health; if it were, why would so many people -- particularly women -- smoke cigarettes to damp down their appetite for food? (Believe me, most of us knew in our hearts -- or in our lungs -- that smoking wasn't good for us long before the surgeon general's warning appeared on cigarette packs and tobacco company ads disappeared from TV.) A big appeal of religion for some people is that it gives them the right -- nay, the obligation -- to pass judgment on certain behaviors and to exert great effort to convert (or silence) the people who practice those behaviors. This drive to judge and convert (or silence) is not peculiar to religion, though it tends to be exacerbated when it's underwritten by some omnipotent authority. At a certain point, rants about fat and the "obesity epidemic" start to sound a lot like rants about Sodom and Gomorrah. So here it is a couple of weeks later and I skim the Washington Post digest that just arrived in my e-box. "Way to Shrink, Grow Fat Is Found," screams the headline. What really grabbed my attention was the subhead: "Tests Also Show Link to Stress." Well, of course the big story was how to melt fat away miraculously, with a shot or surgery or some damn thing, but the stress part was really interesting. It seems that not only does stress contribute directly to all kinds of diseases; it also contributes to the BIG, VERY BIG, JUMBO-SIZED "O." The short version is that when stressed-out people encounter junk food, they get fat. But maybe, if Big Pharma comes up with a miracle shot, they won't stay fat. So why in the world would we want to devote any attention to what's stressing so many of us out? Sometimes I think this country is a bad dream I woke up in the middle of.
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