Body Beautiful or Pharmaceutical

"In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires. " Benjamin Franklin.  With this proverb being especially true in Fresno, lets examine what Body Beautiful used to mean and what it means today. In Canada, I was bombarded by images of  ultra skinny, tall blonde models.  In India, marketing aimed to get people bulkier because that meant health and good nourishment.  Growing up,  I wished I looked like the models on t.v. and my relatives told me I looked weak.  

 

Remember the outrage about all the super skinny models and the impact they were having on teenage girls? Recently, they did a study where they showed people diagrams of different body figures.  Folks were asked to pick out what figure they thought they had and what their ideal figure would be.  You might be surprised to know that most people that were overweight knew they were overweight and their ideal figure was the one they already had.  So if Body Beautiful means being as heavy as you want, is there anything wrong with that?

 

No one has the right to impose their ideals of the perfect body on anyone but the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program states that The San Joaquin Valley faces alarming rates of obesity among all age groups, leading to equally alarming rates of childhood and adult diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and other obesity-related illnesses. A recent study by the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno, revealed that the percentage of overweight and obesity in the Valley is significantly higher than the statewide average: 65% of adults 18-64 versus 56.2% statewide, 63% versus 55.7% among seniors and 15.5% versus 14.2% among adolescents ages 12-17.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, obesity is now the fastest- growing cause of illness and death in America today.

 

Clearly, nobody wants a body pharmaceutical.  Seriously, the food we eat could be the death of us.  When I lived in San Diego I weighed 130 pounds at one point because I was taking Depo Provera.  One side effect of this birth control is that your body thinks it's going into menopause so your metabolism slows down.  I didn't slow down my eating and I gained weight.  I used to weigh 96 pounds and when I was pregnant I would get up to around 128 pounds.  At 130 pounds, with no pregnancy, I was considered obese for my small stature of 5 feet 1 inches.

 

I threw out my scale when I went on our living food diet five months ago, so I don't know how much I weigh but I think I'm body beautiful (of course we could always improve).  My story is one of thousands where people change their eating habits and are rewarded with energy and vibrant health.  I implore you to become an advocate of body beautiful by treating your body like the temple and the gift it is.  Steve Elbert said "We think fast food is equivalent to pornography, nutritionally speaking."  Join the slow food movement, eat healthy, pesticide free local food that revives your body so you can be your ideal body beautiful.  That by the way is a weight that is healthy for your body stature.

See the full gallery on posterous

Yours in food and health,

Tara Hamilton

 

 

Learn to prepare healthy meals by watching Make Love in the Kitchen on March 1st at 7:00 p.m. on centralvalleytalk.com

tarahamilton@me.com http://www.wholefarmsonline.org/

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Shop at our Organic Produce Market or let us feed you raw, living, vegan, gluten free, soy free, sugar free vegetarian food at 1807 N. Broadway St. near Iron Bird Lofts. If you want to be on our tv show about how to make healthy food "Making Love in the Kitchen"please email us your story or idea.