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A Heavy Toll
by author Sabitri Ghosh

Of all the resolutions made on January 1, 2000, none were more fervent than those to lose weight. In the millions, overweight men and women resolved not to drag their extra pounds into the new millennium. This year, they vowed that they would finally lose weight.

Despite their promises, the turn of the millennium marked a distressing turn of the scales. That year, the number of overweight and obese people hit one billion - equal to the global population of underweight people. Alarmed by the implications, governments and research granting agencies began speaking of an “obesity epidemic” and devoting millions of dollars toward stemming it.

One of the beneficiaries of the funding influx was Dr. Robert Ross. A physiologist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, he had long been interested in obesity and its relationship to type II diabetes.

Ross assembled a multidisciplinary team in early 2002 to determine how to best prevent and treat obesity in Canada. As its first step, the team looked for volunteers with diabetes who were willing to participate in a customized weight-loss program.

Forty-two-year-old Deborah McElroy decided to sign up. At 211 pounds, she found her size often weighing on her mind. “It was bothering me,” she says. “I didn’t feel very good about myself.”

Somewhat hesitantly, she had her blood tested for insulin resistance. The results that came back gave her a loud wake-up call. “It was less than two,” she remembers. “Five was good, 10 was golden, and anything under two was really bad. I was on the verge of being a diabetic. I had to do something about it.”

No Easy Answers

Unlike many medical conditions, little mystery surrounds the cause of overweight and obesity. We gain weight when our intake of calories exceeds what we expend through physical activity. That established, the short answer to losing weight seems obvious - decrease caloric consumption and increase physical activity.

Unfortunately, when it comes to obesity, short answers don’t count. Although Ross’s team had plenty of evidence to show that increased physical activity reduces obesity, the team of physicians who saw patients every day would say to him, “Bob, thank you, that’s good information, but the people we see will not exercise.” The problem is that obesity has as much to do with human psychology as it does with physiology. It erodes people’s self-esteem, making them feel powerless to change. To make matters worse, the accompanying shame ensnares them in a vicious circle of avoiding others and turning to food for emotional comfort.

The vicious circle often begins in childhood with cruel name-calling and social ostracism. A study published last year in Pediatrics showed that children who remained substantially overweight into their preteens were more likely to suffer from depression and other emotional problems. Similarly, an earlier study revealed that obese children felt they had a much lower quality of life than their peers.

Sabitri Ghosh is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail and World Vision’s magazine, ChildView.

Source: alive #255, January 2004