In fact, it’s now official. According to
researchers from University of California,
San Diego, obesity – along with any
other condition to which we arc increasingly
subjected – can be contagious.
More than theory, the jury’s decision is
in. Yesterday’s no-nos can become today’s
norms. Just as viruses spread, people
can “infect” one another with their perceptions
of weight, shape or degree of
muscularity. I t’s all to do with exposure.
To legions of young women, who’ve
seen too much affected runway deportment
on fashion TV hailed as the last word
in feminine beauty, ultrathin takes the
prize and near anorexia the price one has
to pay. Choosing to following suit is not
without its danger to health, as, in my
opinion, is the growing belief that chemical
enlargement of the internal organs (to
the point where they can no longer be contained
in their allotted place) is an acceptable
part of increasing the size of sur face
muscle. Sorry, I just had to slip that observation
in to justify my aversion to roid
guts. Call it my hobbyhorse. Tt is, however,
the growing acceptance of obesity as
being the norm in much of the Western
world that concerns me here.
When obesity rates (not just overweight)
in the United States, which some
health experts have suggested may be
stabilizing at about 34%, are expected to
rise until at least 42% of U.S. adults are
grossly disabled caricatures of what nature
intended, all of us should sit up and
take notice. The warning here is not to
bodybuilders, but to their friends and
loved ones, and to anyone else who may
chance to read these words. Just because
the worst of us- those who, if they wish,
could normalize their weight – chose
gluttony over self-control and common
sense, that doesn’t mean we should be
lulled into following. Mainstream’s growing
acceptance of something so obviously
wrong is not an inviwtion for the obese
to drain the tax dollars of others to fight
their premature ill health. Tf this seemingly
unstoppable trend toward a nation of
human blimps continues, what chance
will America, or any country populated
with the overweight and apathetic, have?
How can it remain a force to be reckoned
with in an unstable world? How many
successful ultimate fighters have you seen
who can’t bend to tie an errant shoelace?
Fat equals fai lure in so many ways.
Corpulent cops haven’t a hope in hell of
catching an agile criminal. Flabby fire fighters
can’t skim up ladders and weighty
warriors could never repel nimble, wellconditioned
terrorists. The saying, “be
the best that you can be” applies to one’s
bodyweight as much as to any other endeavor.
Complacency and overindulgence
were the downfall of Rome, remember.
Doesn’t Washington have a Capitol building
and a Senate Office Buildings? Obesity
has the ring of weak-willed ignorance.
I call on all thinking bodybuilders to fight
by force of arms, by word of mouth, by action
<md by example, against fat, the threat
to life, to limb and country.
I’m aware of the theory that 70% of
what we are is determined by genetics,
but that doesn’t stop you e ncouraging
those you love to stay as fat-free as their
genetics will :tllow. Just as a fat man can
influence his friends to gain weight without
self-incrimination, so a fighting fit
man of normal proportions c•m prompt
weight loss in his colleagues.
-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
Meta
