Desire Makes Us Human
Our Appetite for Life
Desire, put in another way, is curiousity or pleasure. The need for relief, excitement and connection is what motivates us. We have learned to fear these natural impulses as a result of a seductive corporate agenda. Our normal appetite for life has slipped into a place of shame that we now describe as guilty pleasures or secrets. Addiction. Consumerism blows what is a beautiful and fundamental part of life out of proportion in order to sell. For those without access to nature, parks, healthy food and community it’s very easy to see how illness arises. The recipe to sell more is easy- create disease out of basic needs.
Ask Who Profits from Addiction
So let’s make people unwell. It’s not safe to be outside. There’s nowhere to go and we live in a food desert. Where does that curiousity for life and our appetite for excitement go? It turns in on itself. Enter punitive beauty standards that are somehow linked to a moral work ethic and the idea of will power or discipline. It’s assumed that if you are thin you know hard work. If you are not then you are lazy and everyone can see it. Not only that but everyone is allowed to comment on your body.
A Harvard Study shows that our bias around weight is the most difficult bias to overcome as a society. North America and the West in general is stuck on this one. It runs deep but if we look across the pond, we see that skinny in other places means you might be poor or unhealthy. Your marriage or job isn’t going well. If you are heavier you embody all that is gorgeous, fertile and successful.
Fat Phobia Built into A Ridiculous Moral Code
Over the last decade more people have come to understand that you can be fat, happy and healthy, at least conceptually. The construct of beauty has changed but we still adhere to this idea that thin is beautiful and beauty is linked to morality. The health and wellness industry is part of the problem.
When we talk about health we are often talking about beauty and fat is still not beautiful. Healthy masquerades as beauty and it’s something we sell. Women’s salaries are in fact linked with how thin they are. Men on the other hand are allowed to be older and bigger in their successful years. Body positivity has emerged but has also been co-opted by the corporation as yet another thing to sell. Still the lingering sense that, although everyone is worthy, we know that thin is still in and being beautiful is morally superior. The last century of this moral code is unlikely to die anytime soon.
How to Be Neutral
The real question to ask is – given the metabolism, genetics and the hormone profile you have- are you able to do what you want to do with you life? Can you lift your kids? Are you able to do what you enjoy doing with ease? Are you comfortable in your body? Dieting and binging is hard on the metabolism. Our bodies are hard-wired to gain weight and keep it on after a period of low calories, high stress or both.
Is it possible to set weight aside when talking about health? In my practice I find a conversation that comes up often is disordered eating and emotional eating. The courage my patients have to discuss how these taboo topics are is encouraging.
We have more vocabulary to discuss body image and physician bias. Many patients are simply told to lose weight while other factors are dismissed and no useful tools to lose weight are offered. We can also discuss how BMI (body mass index) is inaccurate and a fundabmentally racist biometric. We can set weight aside and look at all the other metrics of health available.
Changing the Conversation
GLP-1 receptor agonists are changing the conversation. These medications address how corporate society has robbed people of their own sense of enough by providing a genuine sense of fullness. With one injection a week people are reporting that they no longer feel compelled to gamble, compulsively shop, watch TV or scroll endlessly. This exposes how immoral profit-driven corporation are, and not what your waist line is. People are losing weight and feeling good about having the energy to do other things rather than obsess about food. A broken food system created endless hunger. This medication may help undo some of the harm created.
These drugs have offered many relief where there was none. People are in less pain and no longer impulsively drinking or taking pain meds. They are more comfortable in their bodies and feel a sense of overall well-being. It’s easier to honour basic needs and desires without overdoing it. I’m curious what else will happen as more research emerges. Of course there are concerns about the cost and access to these medications. Popular culture is also calling it cheating. I wonder if this is just an extension of the belief that suffering is morally superior.
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