The war still rages about what makes people fat. The debate is still on about how unhealthy being overweight (within a range) really is. There is no doubt that Americans are fatter than ever before, but nobody seems to be able to find out exactly why this is so or even if it's really such a bad thing (health wise) unless your're extremely overweight. There are a million theories though. I suspect that there are hundreds of factors that contribute to America's growing girth. I've decided, after closing the cover on Rethinking Thin for the second time, that it's unwise to single out any one, two, three or more of the theories and assign them to ourselves as the reason(s) were not the sizes we want to be. There's just not enough solid information to chalk our weights up to any one reason.
Considering all the information that's out there, all the the things that have been discovered and all the things that have yet to be discovered I keep coming to the same conclusion. It's best to find a balance, to use common sense. We need to listen to our bodies, to how they feel. Learn to eat when we're hungry and stop when we're full. We should eat a variety of foods and choose foods based on how they make us feel. It's always good to move our bodies. Remember to always take into account the mental factors of eating such as the power of pleasure, the problems with deprivation, and the psychological dangers of dieting.
We should do a better job of accepting ourselves for who we are. Genetics are part of our size, there's no getting around that. The fact is...there is no one standard size that is right for everyone. We should be good to ourselves. Remember that diets very rarely result in permanent weight loss! And something else important. It's very unfair and unwise to judge people who are fat. Even ourselves!
I hope you enjoy, or have enjoyed reading Rethinking Thin. My main reason for wanting to have every one read this book is to help you understand how sound science can shake up some possibly wrong ideas we might have in our heads about fat and introduce us to other ideas that may be helpful to consider. Ideas about people and fat, about our environment and fat. To see that here are no simple answers.
What did you learn from the book? Did you discover anything that helped you?
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