Plastic
Okay, this whole article is horrifying, and almost exclusively in ways that don’t have any impact at all on obesity. You should read it anyway. But keep reading till you’re just over halfway down.
“As if the potential for cancer and mutation weren’t enough, Dr. vom Saal states in one of his studies that “prenatal exposure to very low doses of BPA increases the rate of postnatal growth in mice and rats.” In other words, BPA made rodents fat. Their insulin output surged wildly and then crashed into a state of resistance—the virtual definition of diabetes. They produced bigger fat cells, and more of them. A recent scientific paper Dr. vom Saal coauthored contains this chilling sentence: “These findings suggest that developmental exposure to BPA is contributing to the obesity epidemic that has occurred during the last two decades in the developed world, associated with the dramatic increase in the amount of plastic being produced each year.” Given this, it is perhaps not entirely coincidental that America’s staggering rise in diabetes—a 735 percent increase since 1935—follows the same arc.”
Relevant? Helpful? Can we really put the obesity ‘epidemic’ down to anything more than more junk food and less movement? I’m not sure. I mean, you could argue that as we buy and eat more processed crap, we make and throw away more plastic. Whaddya think?
I tend to shy away from speculation on the various causes of obesity, because the cause of my obesity shouldn’t matter to anyone but me and perhaps my doctor. But when things like this turn up, well, it does make me stop and think. It’s for the same reason that I sit up and pay attention to all these figures about how many dieters regain everything they lost plus extra. What if I never lose this weight?
I fully intend to become much healthier than I am now. Part of that will involve becoming much more physically active. Another part will involve eating much better, providing my body with everything it needs and taking away some of the things that are actively bad for it. As a side effect of my becoming healthier, I may well become thinner. But I might not, or I might not keep the weight off. I’m told that once my body has been this fat, it will keep trying to stay this fat in case of famines and whatnot. And I am never going to live on a particularly low-calorie diet. I love pies too much and I’m not willing to cut my pie intake down that far. Or hell, I might just be fat because of plastic and not pies at all. What if I never, ever fit back into the size 12 Levis that are still in my parents’ attic somewhere?
I’ll need more body acceptance than I’ve mustered so far, that’s for sure. How easy it is to think you’re loving your body, when you’re really figuring that it’ll just about do for now. Size 20 forever. Weird thought.
(I realise this went off on quite a tangent. Oop.)
