Put weighty issue on back burner
FROM THE HART | France's anti-waif sanctions fail to face real woe: obesity
Leave it to the French. This week, France decided to make it illegal to "glamorize the ultra-thin."
"The bill, adopted Tuesday by Parliament's lower house, recommends fines up to $71,000 and three-year prison sentences for offenders who encourage 'extreme thinness,' " according to the Associated Press.
It's a little hard to say how "encouraging extreme thinness" might be defined, though probably Web sites commending anorexia would be targeted for starters. But it appears the fashion industry in France also could face sanctions simply for promoting the "thin is in" mantra.
The bill stems from the world-wide fallout over a young Brazilian model who died as a result of anorexia in late 2006. That, in turn, incited attention from the international fashion world, including the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which issued guidelines for "awareness and education" about being too thin.
It's unlikely we'll see laws against encouraging "extreme thinness" in the United States anytime soon. But the French action has started another round of TV discussions, blogging and newspaper articles about body image and bemoaning of the supposed American trend of encouraging too-thin extremes in the United States.
What trend? Look, I guess I'm just not that sympathetic to glamorous, tall, young, thin models. Nor do I resent the fact that in general clothes look best on glamorous, tall, young, thin models. That's reality. (I do resent the fact that every time I see video clips of these girls on the fashion catwalks, they always look so grumpy. What do they have to be irritated about?)
But except in the rare instances when starving oneself literally leads to death, it's difficult to deliberately be "too thin." In fact, there's some evidence that folks who purposefully exist long term on severely calorie restricted diets live longer as a result.
The problem we have in this country, which is spreading around the developed world at an alarming pace, isn't being too thin at all. It is, of course, obesity.
A few years ago, my family hosted a teenage French girl for several weeks during the summer. It was her first time in the United States. She was stunned by three things in the United States: American flags flying everywhere, the fact that the only time American news programs focus on other countries is when we are at war with them, and the sheer plethora of food, and thus the size of Americans.
She simply couldn't believe the food that was everywhere. At a church social, in the ice cream carts as we exited museums, at children's sporting events. The size of portions in restaurants astounded her.
Yes, we may be more pornographic about our food here, but obesity, which is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States behind smoking (causing up to 300,000 deaths a year), is becoming a worldwide epidemic. The World Health Organization says there are more overweight people in the world than those who don't have enough to eat, and that rates of obesity are rising faster in the developing world than in the developed world.
Heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer -- significant increases in all of these begin to set in with as little as 20 pounds of excess weight. And researches aren't sure why, but another study out this week showed once again that if you carry that excess weight more in your midsection than on your hips, your overall health risks escalate even more.
Added to all of this is the greatest concern for most researches on the topic: the staggering climb in obesity rates among the world's children. This means we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
So back to worries about being ... too thin? For the most part, it seems that's the playground of the self-indulgent elite. How pathetic that the media would rather fawn over the grumpy thin girls on the catwalks than America's real, unglamorous and decidedly dangerous weight issues.
Betsy hosts "It Takes a Parent" at 2 p.m. Thursdays on WYLL-AM (1160).
