I live within a society obsessed with being thin.
A woman was in the library a few days ago asking for information about overweight children. She is concerned about her infant’s weight. Her infant. The baby is barely 8 months old and she’s asking her doctor if the child is overweight. The doctor has assured her that her child is just fine and a perfectly normal weight. Yet the woman persists in her worry that her baby is “chubby”.
Honey, babies are supposed to be chubby.
This is an extreme case, of course. But I have learned that there are more important things than being thin. What matters more than your size is your overall health. These days people are denying themselves carbohydrates in any form in an effort to lose weight. I agree that in our culture we consume far more carbohydrates than we probably should. However you do need some for your body to function well. What you need is balance.
It’s a shame that we as a society keep falling for fads when it comes to our nutrition. But then again, ‘balance’ is boring. Folks seem to want fancy rules and regulations when it comes to their food. I think there is also an element of being in the ‘club’ of whatever diet craze has taken hold of the public conciousness. Publishers of books and teevee shows know this, and capitalize on it at every opportunity. There’s always some new book, new “doctor”, new method for losing weight. What folks should be concerned about is becoming more healthy. Being thin and being healthy are not neccessarily the same thing.
I certainly hope this poor woman realizes this before she starts trying to raise her baby on some sort of fad diet. What the child needs is healthy food - enough to sustain it and help it grow, excercise in the form of play and plenty of love and laughter.
Come to think of it, that’s good advice for all of us.
