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Perceptions of Reasons for Weight Gain in Different Cultures
sugarandspice0404
Posts: 27 Member
in Debate Club
Hi all,
I'm not sure if something like this has been posted before but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I have been trying to improve my French but watching French documentaries, particularly about diet and weight loss. From these documentaries, it seems that the underlying opinion is that the "default" body type is a healthy weight, and that if you are overweight or obese (by French standards), there must be something wrong with you mentally (not to the extent of a mental illness, for example maybe you have low self-esteem) or you experienced an event that somehow changed you and drove you to consume more food than your body needs.
This prompted me to reflect on my own struggles with losing weight. I had always assumed that I had a "sweet tooth", but maybe I am just terrible at self-reflection and there was an event when I was younger or issues with self-control or self-esteem that manifest themselves in the excess consumption of food.
What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
PS. I don't at all mean this to be interpreted in "there is something wrong with me" way for anyone who struggles with their weight. I was just curious to know other people's thoughts in regards to the view that there is always a trigger for weight gain and that it doesn't just happen for no reason!
I'm not sure if something like this has been posted before but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I have been trying to improve my French but watching French documentaries, particularly about diet and weight loss. From these documentaries, it seems that the underlying opinion is that the "default" body type is a healthy weight, and that if you are overweight or obese (by French standards), there must be something wrong with you mentally (not to the extent of a mental illness, for example maybe you have low self-esteem) or you experienced an event that somehow changed you and drove you to consume more food than your body needs.
This prompted me to reflect on my own struggles with losing weight. I had always assumed that I had a "sweet tooth", but maybe I am just terrible at self-reflection and there was an event when I was younger or issues with self-control or self-esteem that manifest themselves in the excess consumption of food.
What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
PS. I don't at all mean this to be interpreted in "there is something wrong with me" way for anyone who struggles with their weight. I was just curious to know other people's thoughts in regards to the view that there is always a trigger for weight gain and that it doesn't just happen for no reason!
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Replies
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I think it’s likely erroneous to say there always has to be a reason that’s mental. Sometimes it can simply be a lack of knowledge around food preparation, matching the intake of someone taller than you that’s a close family member, being less active and eating the same, etc. None of those are mental.
But my personal experience has been stress & emotional eating so it’s not incorrect entirely.3 -
The French seem a bit judgmental about what people eat and their weights.
I think even in children some have more appetite than others.
Being overweight or obese sometimes is really the 100 extra calories you eat or fail to burn day in day out for a number of years. Sometimes you are not being gluttonous or "not normal" you are just living life where you have other things on your mind.
Personally I tend to eat too much when I am stressed out: lack of meal planning resulting in poor choices. Does that make me "abnormal" or sick? I think I am just lazy sometimes (not another meal prep!)3 -
sugarandspice0404 wrote: »Hi all,
I'm not sure if something like this has been posted before but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I have been trying to improve my French but watching French documentaries, particularly about diet and weight loss. From these documentaries, it seems that the underlying opinion is that the "default" body type is a healthy weight, and that if you are overweight or obese (by French standards), there must be something wrong with you mentally (not to the extent of a mental illness, for example maybe you have low self-esteem) or you experienced an event that somehow changed you and drove you to consume more food than your body needs.
This prompted me to reflect on my own struggles with losing weight. I had always assumed that I had a "sweet tooth", but maybe I am just terrible at self-reflection and there was an event when I was younger or issues with self-control or self-esteem that manifest themselves in the excess consumption of food.
What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
PS. I don't at all mean this to be interpreted in "there is something wrong with me" way for anyone who struggles with their weight. I was just curious to know other people's thoughts in regards to the view that there is always a trigger for weight gain and that it doesn't just happen for no reason!
Perspective and isolatory perceptions determines preferences depending on the slice accommodating cultural-biases.
Recommend: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10646949/weight-goal-differences-in-african-american-women-vs-other-races/p11 -
I think a lot of people gain weight when most of their social and family activities center around food. It's nothing do with mental or emotional health in that situation, in my opinion, it's more about bonding and traditions.9
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I think a lot of people gain weight when most of their social and family activities center around food. It's nothing do with mental or emotional health in that situation, in my opinion, it's more about bonding and traditions.
Can't agree here. I live in Italy where family meals and festivals are sacred. For holidays, weddings, baptisms, or communions, we have 7 coursers. Italians are overall thin. I see few obese individuals. However, Italians do a lot of walking, especially after a large meal. Our family eats together twice a day, everyday--I cook, usually pasta or risotto for lunch with a vegetable or salad, and fruit. The evening meal is a protein, again with a vegetable and fruit. No one is overweight and my husband would be called slender. Weight, in my observation, is cultural. I'm American and have lived here 32 yrs. It's not easy to be overweight in Italy. Nothing is supersize.9 -
snowflake954 wrote: »I think a lot of people gain weight when most of their social and family activities center around food. It's nothing do with mental or emotional health in that situation, in my opinion, it's more about bonding and traditions.
Can't agree here. I live in Italy where family meals and festivals are sacred. For holidays, weddings, baptisms, or communions, we have 7 coursers. Italians are overall thin. I see few obese individuals. However, Italians do a lot of walking, especially after a large meal. Our family eats together twice a day, everyday--I cook, usually pasta or risotto for lunch with a vegetable or salad, and fruit. The evening meal is a protein, again with a vegetable and fruit. No one is overweight and my husband would be called slender. Weight, in my observation, is cultural. I'm American and have lived here 32 yrs. It's not easy to be overweight in Italy. Nothing is supersize.
Oh, I wasn't saying all family/social food-centered activities foster weight-gain. My point was only that when weight gain is associated with that type of activity, it isn't because there's something off mentally or emotionally with those people, as theorized in the OP.9 -
Interesting you are basing off the French, I double checked something I remembered reading once. And it still stands France as a whole is more obsessed with weight than almost any other country. Women in France tend to run as an average more thin than other countries in Europe. But yet are totally obsessed about weight, men too fall in this category. So in studying a hyper critical society as a whole around weight yes I would think they would have some interesting thoughts on it.
Me, a lifetime of bad habits, many that I was brought up with it, and family get togethers were always about food, homemade yummy food. I agree much of it is more with traditions and bonding as mph323 says so well.4 -
snowflake954 wrote: »I think a lot of people gain weight when most of their social and family activities center around food. It's nothing do with mental or emotional health in that situation, in my opinion, it's more about bonding and traditions.
Can't agree here. I live in Italy where family meals and festivals are sacred. For holidays, weddings, baptisms, or communions, we have 7 coursers. Italians are overall thin. I see few obese individuals. However, Italians do a lot of walking, especially after a large meal. Our family eats together twice a day, everyday--I cook, usually pasta or risotto for lunch with a vegetable or salad, and fruit. The evening meal is a protein, again with a vegetable and fruit. No one is overweight and my husband would be called slender. Weight, in my observation, is cultural. I'm American and have lived here 32 yrs. It's not easy to be overweight in Italy. Nothing is supersize.
Oh, I wasn't saying all family/social food-centered activities foster weight-gain. My point was only that when weight gain is associated with that type of activity, it isn't because there's something off mentally or emotionally with those people, as theorized in the OP.
OK. Thanks a lot for clearing that up.
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Maybe some people have some kind of underlying issue, but not everyone. I never had a weight problem until I turned 30. I was a competitive athlete growing up from 3rd grade through my senior year...after that, military. When I was in my 20s an in school, I didn't have a car most of that time and walked and road my bike most places plus I worked landscape construction in the summers and moved around cases of booze in a warehouse during the school year...and my hobbies were also active.
I went from that to a commute in a car and working 10-12 hour days at a desk and ate the same as I always did.
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I don't know. I sometimes find food comforting, and over eat because I want the taste I think, even tho I may not be hungry or even comfortable with the quantity I'm eating
I have a problem with feeling 'full' and feeling 'satiated', it's different, I feel full often but not satiated3 -
He called himself "father" but all he could do was beating me. Those are my early childhood memories. Soon I learned that food - glorious food - would give me that warm, loving feeling. Food didn't judge, it just was there, ready for the taking, ready to enjoy. It gave me a feeling of love, of happiness, of warmth. The pounds and kg's added up and for 50 years I am battling with my eating habits and extreme morbid obesity. I have realized that a "diet" is not the answer - but a slow and consistent change in my life style which includes a balanced meal plan, some exercise - as much as I can do with my weight. I log everything I eat and take it meal by meal, day by day. Thank you MFP and all members who are so supportive.16
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With the crazy rise in obesity in America since the 1960s, it's obviously more complicated than individuals having emotional problems.6
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I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions out there...that there is something wrong with you if you eat a caloric surplus. Is there something mentally, hormonally, physically wrong with every person in debt?
The fallacious reasoning is that intuitive eating exists at all.
Obesity/starvation is a causational output of food availability.9 -
I think people in my culture have a perception that you have to overeat by a lot to gain weight when in reality it only takes consitently overeating/drinking by a couple hundred calories a day to start gaining. If you are not aware of how many calories you require or how much you are taking in then without emotional or mental problems you can become overweight.
That could be happening for someone having a second helping or overly large portion at dinner, a fancy coffee drink or more alcohol, a couple of cookies, some extra bread and butter. It could be your lifestyle changing and not adjusting your intake.
Some people are emotional eaters, binge eaters, alcoholics and do have those issues no matter what their weight is. They can be overweight but might not be.
I think there is a perception in my culture that overweight people are lazy, greedy and a drain on society. They are the object of jokes and scorn. Some people don't know what a healthy weight looks like but there are also people who don't know that 20 lbs overweight is not the same as being morbidly obese. A person can be technically overweight by bmi without looking overly fat, may be active and may never eat a cheeseburger or cake.4 -
In East Asia more specifically Japan it is seen as a very negative trait to be overweight/obese, Japanese tend to eat smaller portions and generally have healthy dishes. In India it’s honestly not uncommon to see overweight people nowadays, Indian cuisine while delicious is incredibly high in calories and very fatty (commonly deep fried too). Street food is very cheap in India so it’s an easy alternative to home cooking meals4
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sugarandspice0404 wrote: »What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
I think some environments are more conducive to weight gain than others. The environment that many in the US live in is extremely conducive to weight gain unless you are one of those people who just seem to have a natural off switch, but I think many more people do not (and that both are totally normal). I've seen the environment in the US become more conducive to weight gain during my lifetime -- when I grew up it was normal to eat three meals and not to snack, going out was a special occasion, people didn't drink high cal beverages between meals (although as a kid we'd have a small after school snack and some koolaid as a treat on summer days). It was also expected that we'd eat vegetables, and I think people typically had the same general idea of what a good meal looked like (dinner = veg, meat, starch). Dessert was small or occasional.
Now food seems to be available all the time, many (not all) serving sizes are bigger, snacking is common (and often how people socialize), many people drink high cal beverages throughout the day and they are usually available, etc. And, sadly, it seems that far fewer people know how to cook or have a sense of what a sensible amount for them is or what a balanced meal looks like.
I also think people are on average much more sedentary, and that's more so for a segment (not all or even necessarily a majority) of kids.
I think that in this kind of environment most people likely need some kind of mindfulness on average to prevent weight gain or must control their own environment. I don't think it's all that hard to do, but I do think lots of people end up eating way more than they realize and don't realize it is way more than they need.
That's not to say that overeating cannot be an emotional thing, it has been for me at times (I definitely have struggled with using food/eating to mask feelings/sadness/anxiety), but I think most of it is much simpler.
And in other countries as they become more like the US in some of these habits and in the cheapness and easy availability of food, they start gaining weight too.7 -
sugarandspice0404 wrote: »What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
I think some environments are more conducive to weight gain than others. The environment that many in the US live in is extremely conducive to weight gain unless you are one of those people who just seem to have a natural off switch, but I think many more people do not (and that both are totally normal). I've seen the environment in the US become more conducive to weight gain during my lifetime -- when I grew up it was normal to eat three meals and not to snack, going out was a special occasion, people didn't drink high cal beverages between meals (although as a kid we'd have a small after school snack and some koolaid as a treat on summer days). It was also expected that we'd eat vegetables, and I think people typically had the same general idea of what a good meal looked like (dinner = veg, meat, starch). Dessert was small or occasional.
Now food seems to be available all the time, many (not all) serving sizes are bigger, snacking is common (and often how people socialize), many people drink high cal beverages throughout the day and they are usually available, etc. And, sadly, it seems that far fewer people know how to cook or have a sense of what a sensible amount for them is or what a balanced meal looks like.
I also think people are on average much more sedentary, and that's more so for a segment (not all or even necessarily a majority) of kids.
I think that in this kind of environment most people likely need some kind of mindfulness on average to prevent weight gain or must control their own environment. I don't think it's all that hard to do, but I do think lots of people end up eating way more than they realize and don't realize it is way more than they need.
That's not to say that overeating cannot be an emotional thing, it has been for me at times (I definitely have struggled with using food/eating to mask feelings/sadness/anxiety), but I think most of it is much simpler.
And in other countries as they become more like the US in some of these habits and in the cheapness and easy availability of food, they start gaining weight too.
Welcome back Lemur!2 -
Seconded (((
))), h.snowflake954 wrote: »sugarandspice0404 wrote: »What do you think? I'm interest to know if people think that there must always be a reason for weight gain and if feeling like you need to consume more than your body needs means that you are not "normal" or something has happened to you to make you this way.
I think some environments are more conducive to weight gain than others. The environment that many in the US live in is extremely conducive to weight gain unless you are one of those people who just seem to have a natural off switch, but I think many more people do not (and that both are totally normal). I've seen the environment in the US become more conducive to weight gain during my lifetime -- when I grew up it was normal to eat three meals and not to snack, going out was a special occasion, people didn't drink high cal beverages between meals (although as a kid we'd have a small after school snack and some koolaid as a treat on summer days). It was also expected that we'd eat vegetables, and I think people typically had the same general idea of what a good meal looked like (dinner = veg, meat, starch). Dessert was small or occasional.
Now food seems to be available all the time, many (not all) serving sizes are bigger, snacking is common (and often how people socialize), many people drink high cal beverages throughout the day and they are usually available, etc. And, sadly, it seems that far fewer people know how to cook or have a sense of what a sensible amount for them is or what a balanced meal looks like.
I also think people are on average much more sedentary, and that's more so for a segment (not all or even necessarily a majority) of kids.
I think that in this kind of environment most people likely need some kind of mindfulness on average to prevent weight gain or must control their own environment. I don't think it's all that hard to do, but I do think lots of people end up eating way more than they realize and don't realize it is way more than they need.
That's not to say that overeating cannot be an emotional thing, it has been for me at times (I definitely have struggled with using food/eating to mask feelings/sadness/anxiety), but I think most of it is much simpler.
And in other countries as they become more like the US in some of these habits and in the cheapness and easy availability of food, they start gaining weight too.
Welcome back Lemur!
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Hi!1
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cwolfman13 wrote: »Maybe some people have some kind of underlying issue, but not everyone. I never had a weight problem until I turned 30. I was a competitive athlete growing up from 3rd grade through my senior year...after that, military. When I was in my 20s an in school, I didn't have a car most of that time and walked and road my bike most places plus I worked landscape construction in the summers and moved around cases of booze in a warehouse during the school year...and my hobbies were also active.
I went from that to a commute in a car and working 10-12 hour days at a desk and ate the same as I always did.
I think this can be an issue for a lot of people. It isn't an emotional or mental issue. It's that they were an active kid, active teen, and active into their twenties. Then life happens. They get a job where they are less active. Maybe they're commute got a little longer. Maybe they're interested changed or developed and now there are some more sedentary hobbies in the mix. But through all of that, they continue to eat the way they always had. Next thing you know, they've put on a couple (or more than a couple) pounds and they think their metabolism has ranked.
It's certainly not rooted in a mental or emotional issue but more in the way they see themselves. And this won't happen to everyone who was active growing up since there are many who stay active, but it's an easy trajectory to see. I'm in America and it's often that you see people who were involved in athletics in high school and college that this happens to.
As others have mentioned, I think it's really easy to see in America because on the whole, we are not a walkable country and our mass transit is a crap shoot. It takes 6-7 hours to drive across my state and I'm not even in one of the biggest states. And that's just one out of 50 states. There are countries smaller than some of our smallest states. I say all of this to illustrate that we aren't a country where it's the norm to walk places. Some of the weight gain isn't going to be an internal issue but one that's culturally rooted.
On the flip side, I know I'm an emotional eater. So I really think it can be either.3 -
Here's a different take, just for fun, on the US, the influence of culture, and obsesity:
What have been among our core cultural values, from the very beginning? Upward mobility, material success.
What are some characteristics of material success? You can employ labor-saving strategies, and indulge wants. You obtain higher-status employment, and behave in higher-status ways.
These days, that same culture has:
* an increasing fraction of white collar jobs (and more "efficiency" in all jobs, i.e., less requirement of the expensive human labor for things that can be mechanized, the easiest to be mechanized of which involve routine physical effort);
* near ubiquitous availability of affordable ready-to-consume food and drink, in quantity;
* a service economy where people of non-stratospheric income can buy services you once had to do yourself (cooking being one of the most obvious, but also grocery delivery, lawn services, housekeepers, . . . ); and
* a broad ability of average people to afford devices that minimize physical effort in home chores and recreation (we now mostly watch on screens things that average people used to physically do: Play musical instruments, dance, cook, play vigorous games . . . ).
What do princes and princesses of the realm do, in fairy tales? Sit on their thrones and have all the good things brought to them. Now, increasingly, so can we. Upward mobility, material success ==> self-indulgence, minimized self-exertion ==> weight gain and lack of fitness.
I agree that evolution wired in some tendency to fatten up in prep for lean times that now (we hope) don't come; but our culture helped foster a cozy nest to do it in, and a tendency to wallow in that nest.
Not only does getting fat not require "something wrong", we've wired it in. In this setting, thin people are the pink sparkly unicorns.
Next, cue the Puritan/Calvinist cultural themes . . . getting fat is easy and indulgent, so food is sin that requires expiation.8
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