Fat and fab

We had better get one thing straight: according to the chart in today's Guardian, based on a report from the National Audit Office, I'm obese. And, apparently, obese people are a threat to society - costing the economy and the NHS £2.6bn a year.

However, as acclaimed scientist James Watson would doubtless be delighted to hear, at 38, I'm also happier than at any previous time in my adult life.

According to a report that came out last summer, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist has concluded that fat people are happier than thin ones.

Watson was jointly responsible for discovering the structure of DNA, and has worked on the human genome project, so I'm assuming he knows what he's talking about.

It's all to do with increased fat levels producing more endorphins, a natural mood-enhancing chemical. And - note this - a hormone that is linked to sexual desire.

So, as Watson told an audience at University College, London, larger women have a better sex life, too.

It certainly makes an interesting contrast to the hysteria over reports of rising obesity among the British public.

A little over a year ago, I trashed the bathroom scales and threw away the diet books. It ended a 26-year tyranny that had started when, as a bullied and teased 11-year-old, I 'successfully' begged my mother to let me go on a diet.

Dieting never seemed to produce the ideal results - although I was more active than my sister and ate the same as her, I have always been fat while she's always been skinny.

There's been the syndrome of weighing out 20 calories worth of cabbage, and of keeping a detailed diary of every milligram of fat, carbohydrate (complex and simple) and protein consumed each day.

There's been the gym (four times a week), running - "you'll give yourself a black eye, luv!" - and swimming (the equivalent of a few dozen English Channels over the years).

And, when a family GP once told me that I should drop from 1,000 calories a day to 800, I didn't object but, like the good girl that I was, did as I was told.

I challenge anybody to live on 800 calories a day - that 1,000 figure is bad enough, but 800 is impossible. That's the equivalent of just three Mars bars a day.

The important word here is "live". I really do have better things to do with my time than obsess about food, and nothing is more likely to produce a food obsession than trying not to eat too much.

However, we are still left with a constant drip-drip of anti-fat rhetoric and myth. We are not all lazy. We are not all binge eaters. We do not all suffer from a chronic love of sweets and we do not all have rotting teeth.

While we may not be the media's image of sexy womanhood, there are plenty of people (men and women) out there who do find us attractive. A quick internet search for BBW - big beautiful woman - is a sure illustration of that.

And, perhaps most importantly, we are not all misfits who compensate for emotional insecurity and a lack of social skills by delving into the biscuit barrel.

I look back at both sides of my family and I can see my own body shape reflected in great aunts and grandparents. Everyone understands that genetics plays a huge role in deciding so many things about us, from hair colour to skin tone, so why do we refuse to acknowledge that our family genes help to construct our body shape?

Of course, the pressures to conform to body shape stereotypes don't just come from within the health community. The diet, fashion and beauty industries have vested interests in maintaining an image that, for most women, is unrealistic.

For the first time as an adult, I can now appreciate food. I walk with a renewed confidence that's meant I no longer have to put up with cruel and malicious comments in the streets, sending me running tearfully into a dark corner. Indeed, these days, I wake with a glorious sense of joie de vivre.

And, in case you're wondering but are just too polite to ask, Watson was right about the sex as well…

Email
akendal@yahoo.com

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Useful links
National Audit Office report (pdf)
Sixteen 47
James Watson
International No Diet Day
BBW magazine
Tell me more about endorphins