You Ain't Fat! You Ain't Nothin'!

While at work yesterday, my coworkers and I briefly discussed affirmative action, and at one point the concept of “minority” status arose. While minority used to mean a smaller number of whatever it is that we’re talking about, it now simply means people of a certain skin color and/or ethnic background. Even the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary affirms such: “a part of a population differing from others in some characteristics and often subjected to differential treatment” is listed as the third definition of minority.

This status can remain even if the person—or group as a whole—is in the majority. “But how can a majority still be a minority?” you might ask. Logic does not apply here; this is politics about which we’re speaking.

Keeping this idea in mind, this morning I came across a story that has me wondering what the definition of “normal” might soon be. Moreover, what might the definition of “healthy” become?

A recent Reuters story reports the following:

The number of obese American adults outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight, according to the latest statistics from the federal government.

Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just under 6 percent are “extremely” obese.

More than one-third of adults, or over 72 million people, were obese in 2005-2006, the NCHS said in its report.

The numbers are based on a survey of 4,356 adults over the age of 20 who take part in a regular government survey of health, said the NCHS, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The article also states that while “overweight” numbers have remained steady since 1980, the number of “obese” cases has more than doubled.

Now you might make the argument that definitions of overweight and obese have changed, as determined by looking at body mass index (BMI). This is a legitimate argument because understanding health issues changes over time through scientific study. We know things today that we didn’t know 20 or 30 years ago.

My concern is one that is rooted more in the aforementioned affirmative action discussion: What happens if overweight is the new healthy?

Consider the possibility that more and more Americans become overweight and obese. The concept of “normal” or even “healthy” gradually takes a shift to the fat end of the scale. If the majority of people are overweight or obese (using today’s definitions), do people who are currently thin or healthy gradually become malnourished or scrawny? If more and more people get fatter and fatter, does that suddenly become the acceptable size? Doesn’t the majority define things? Don’t the spoils of war go to the victors?

Look at what used to be considered a desirable soldier for the United States Army at the outset of World War II. In his book D-Day, Stephen E. Ambrose writes:

The American Selective Service System was just that, selective. One-third of the men called to service were rejected after physical examinations, making the average draftee brighter, healthier, and better educated than the average American. He was twenty-six years old, five feet eight inches tall, weighed 144 pounds, had a thirty-three-and-a-half-inch chest, and a thirty-one-inch waist. After thirteen weeks of basic training, he’d gained seven pounds (and converted many of his original pounds from fat to muscle) and added at least an inch to his chest. Nearly half the draftees were high-school graduates; one in ten had some college. As Geoffrey Perret puts it in his history of the US Army in World War II, “These were the best-educated enlisted men of any army in history.”

Can you imagine if a man who was 5’8” and 144 pounds tried to join the military today? He’d be forced to eat more and lift weights more. This excerpt even touches upon something else that applies to this possible shifting definition of average or normal: education levels. A higher percentage of our population today has graduated from college than 50 years ago. Does that mean that we’re more intelligent? Does it mean that a college degree has gone down in value if they’re almost as ubiquitous as a high school diploma? Does it simply mean that the idea of average American has shifted to that of college-educated and nothing more?

According to the United States Census Bureau, in 1940 the percentage of the population with a high school diploma was 24.5 percent; in 2000 it was 80.4 percent. In 1940, 4.6 percent of the US population had a bachelor’s degree or higher; in 2000 24.4 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Does this mean that we are more intelligent today or does it mean that we are just seeing bachelor’s degrees becoming the new high school diploma? Will we eventually see Ph.D.s become the new bachelor’s degree?

Let’s carry this back to the fat thing once again. If more and more people become obese, doesn’t today’s “overweight” population become the “average” group? I’m currently five-feet-nine-inches tall and 147 pounds. In terms of health, I feel better than I ever did. Unfortunately I’m on my way to being at the far end of the spectrum only because the population which defines the spectrum is apparently moving the other way. Thus, I might be deemed “unhealthy” or “abnormal” in a few years. I might also be called a sell-out, à la Weird Al’s “Fat” video where the fat guy asks, “What it is wit’ you? You on some kind of diet?” and, “The question is: Are you fat or what?” (If I’m not “abnormal” already; a few weeks ago I had a woman tell me that “real” men don’t care about their health—but that’s a blog post for another time.)

I’m going to go grab a bowl of vegetable soup and mull this over.

References

Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Fox, Maggie. “Obese Americans Now Outweigh the Merely Overweight.” Reuters. 9 Jan. 2009.

“Minority.” The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

United States. Bureau of the Census. “A Half-Century of Learning: Historical Statistics on Educational Attainment in the United States, 1940 to 2000.” 23 Feb. 2007. 10 Jan. 2009.

Yankovic, Al. “Fat.” Volcano Entertainment III, LLC, 1988.

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