enfinblue's Bluey (credit to Fifi for the nickname!) Diaryland Diary

"I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart." -Vinc3nt V@n Gogh

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sore foot. A sunny day squandered inside, I'm afraid.

So I was just listening to a show on the radio a moment ago in which they were discussing the fact that 14% of people in France are now obese. They interviewed a bunch of French people who blamed this on the Americanization of France, and the specific fact that people obviously therefore have less and less time to cook and as a result are relying more readily on fast food.

I find this highly amusing, given that the average paid French worker works more than 400 hours per year fewer than does the average paid worker in the U.S. And that figure is a little bit dated; I suspect that the gap is even bigger now.

No time to cook...pooh. :) (I realize that this is a largely fallacious argument... I wouldn't be willing to defend it as an economist. (What 14% are becoming obese, what are their constraints?) But this is my diary and so I'll put it forth as a crotchety me argument.)

The thing that amuses me--and that amused me greatly when I lived in Australia as well--is that no one is ever willing to say, simply, "We emulate the Americans intentionally. On average we desire to live at least in part as they do."

You just NEVER hear that. Even though it is true.

You'll especially never hear it in Canada. This I find quaint and more than a little bit stupid. This statement I am aware that some of you are in agreement with. :)

Actually, the obesity thing is very interesting. There are so many theories out there. Obviously, it has a great deal to do with the food that we eat (e.g. the prevalence of corn sugars in the processed foods that we eat) and the exercise that we don't do.

But some scientists are puzzled by the encroachment of the obesity epidemic among children, in places where one would not necessarily expect the encroachment to be as rapid as it has been.

C. blames it on food combined with computers and video games.

The scientists on the radio had some other interesting ideas. Apparently, for example, they have located some sort of a virus that started to show up around 1980 and that has supposedly been shown in mice to slow down the metabolism(and I'm not talking about the other research that was published a few years ago that showed that certain genes are present in mice who are predisposed to getting fat (if overfed :)).

The scientists also mentioned the fact that the temperatures in our homes might be a factor. Temperatures that are a too cold or too hot are apparently good--they keep the body working hard and burning calories. It's apparently temperatures that are a bit too comfortable that make us lazy.

I suppose then I can thank my mother for turning the heat down so low at night when I was a teenager that I would do my homework wearing gloves sometimes. :)

I can't remember what else they said. But there were a number of things. Some scientists are simply not convinced that obesity is all about food and sedentary lifestyles.

Interesting.

Personally I think that at least part of the explanation is that we're not encouraged I find to be attuned to what we're really feeling. I know I've written about this before but I've been obsessing lately over the idea that we're all always supposed to be happy.

I can't stand it when people tell me to smile. These days I'm smiling all the time, so it's not a worry. But when I feel sad I often feel that I have to hide myself else be a pariah. There are researchers talking these days about the healthiness of sometimes being sad. And I would agree. It doesn't make sense to me that we have a spectrum of emotions and yet we're only permitted to experience fully or express a few of them.

So that gets me to my point. My friend Cindy who is always complaining about having 20 lbs to lose is also someone whom I sense never actually knows if she is at a normal level of hunger. She will eat and eat and know that she is full, and then she'll starve herself and know that she is empty. But it seems that she never actually knows that she's exactly a little bit hungry.

I know that diet experts talk about the fact that many people eat for emotional reasons. It's true of drinking as well, I am sure.

But it strikes me that all of this points to a general suppression of all sorts of parts of who we are. We feel isolated in part because not only do we spend lots of time alone, we don't feel permitted in many circumstances to complain, to shout, to cry, to be gently sad.

I like optimism. I'm a fundamentally optimistic person. I remember saying this once to a guy I went to talk to about the anxiety I was feeling in the early stages of my Ph.D. studies. I said to him that because I get sad and have been known to express and to cry, my mother for example has always seen me as fragile. But I said to him that I've always thought that that is exactly the opposite of the truth. I get sad and I cry and I run around but then I pick myself up and keep going, or try something new. I absolutely never do what I think could legitimately be labeled "wallow." Sometimes I get stuck in a particular place or emotion. But the whole time that I am stuck there is a little voice in me that is trying to think through the problem and fight its way out.

I'm not saying that I have the answers. Not at all. Not to anything. I think I'm lucky, for example, to be lean simply by genetic chance. So excess weight is one stress that I have never had to face.

Hmm... I've really babbled and meandered here. And I started by simply thinking about how French people are getting bigger.

I think I'm going to read a book. I need to skip my run today as unfortunately a cut on my foot from my bike accident on Thursday seems to have become infected. It hurts a bit. But any excuse to not wear shoes. :)

You know, I think I need to get a cat. A cute little Morris cat. I've ruled out a dog for the effort involved.

I really need to study for my Tuesday interview... :(

OK. Off I go.

6:59 p.m. - 2007-08-26

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

other diaries:

stepfordtart
ohell
awittykitty
annanotbob
manfromvenus
smartypants
fifidellabon
hungryghost
hissandtell