Is Obesity the New Normal?

There’s an old joke that goes something like this: “If you want to feel thinner, hang around with heavier people.” Maybe that’s not so funny anymore. With two-thirds of the U.S. population overweight or obese, the “look” of Americans has changed. We’re sizing ourselves up not by personal health, but by how we look compared to others. In discussing their weight, people often tell me they’re a lot slimmer than most of the people they know — as if this removes personal responsibility for their own weight concerns. It’s a defensive posture, implying things could be a lot worse. While often true, it doesn’t make the individual’s weight less important as a personal health risk.

And that view is not limited only to body size perception. As a nation, we’ve changed our view of what a single serving looks like and what “family size” servings mean. What was perfectly acceptable as a single serving a decade or two ago, now looks puny in comparison to the “new” scale of serving size. And a family sized package for four servings, often becomes a meal for two. This is glaringly apparent when we look at federal guidelines (developed years ago) for what “counts” as a serving size. Most of us laugh when we hear about a serving of protein the size of a computer mouse, or palm or your hand. How could anyone fill up with that, many people ask?

We are living in a different world, where our eyes are now accustomed to viewing larger people and larger servings as the new normal. To me, this updated — but skewed — way of looking at the world can only lead to a future with increasing weight-related health problems.

 Do you agree?