health

'Dear Lorna Jane: I am fat. I am not dying.'

Fat is killing us, according to Lorna Jane on 60 Minutes last Sunday.

Australia is one of the fattest countries in the world, says The Biggest Loser. No, Just NO. This is wrong. There is really no excuse for it if, you can’t even use Google to keep perpetuating these myths.

“We’re dying.” Says Lorna, except… we’re not.

“I know what the stats are,” she said. “Two in three Australians are overweight or obese. I just think it’s not OK that we’re getting fatter and fatter as a nation. Not because of how we look or what dress size we are, but because we’re dying.”

Watch part of Lorna Jane’s 60 Minutes interview here:

Video via Channel 9.

Actually, we’re not. Fat people live longer, according to Professor of Health Sciences Timothy Olds. While a lot of us, including me, are so fat we can’t fit into your $106 palm tree print gym tights, it does not mean we should be coffin shopping.

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I am fat, and I am not dying.

Lorna Jane should spend slightly longer researching fatness, if she wants to fight it so badly.

Because fat is not bad, and fat is not unhealthy, and fat will not kill you. If you want to know why fat people live longer, here is an explanation from Dr Malcolm.

One of the worst things about our fat-shaming/female-shaming culture is the use of “facts” that are just wrong.

There’s a fat-hating culture in Australia that I suspect stems from our inherent misogyny. We have a culture that fears women. We fear round, chubby, glorious curves. Rubenesque women. My curves are feted in Argentina and Morocco, adored in New York and India and cause street riots in Italy. My hips are a symbol of femininity and fertility.

Author Penelope Lake and her family.

In Australia I must wear prints to cover up my unsightly muffin top. I am the fattest in my gym class. I rarely find clothes that fit. I do literally not fit into my culture, as I am fat.

So, Australia is one of the fattest countries on earth? No. It’s 25th, according to respected medical journal The Lancet and reported accurately by the Sydney Morning Herald.

The top country is Samoa and nine of the top ten are islands in the Pacific, followed by the Middle East.

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Plus, the rate of obesity in rich countries is slowing down, but speeding up exponentially in developing counties.

While being fat does bring health risks and associated diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, being overweight is not unhealthy. Thin is not healthy.

#wmovement #everyBodyisbeautiful #blackanwhite #blackandwhitephotografy #huffine #curvymodel #beautyicon

A photo posted by w-movement (@wmovement) on Sep 22, 2014 at 1:15pm PDT

 

Healthy is not just a white person with perfect teeth in size 10 gym gear; healthy is an absence of mental and physical disease and a good life, by your own definition.

And my good life contains copious amounts of chocolate.

Penelope has been a writer and editor for 20 years. She is the mother of two animalistic children in Sydney with a passion for chocolate and the good things in life.