WIN Wyoming

Thought Bullets
for
March 1999

As with the thought bullets from January 1999, the following excerpts are from a PBS television program by Frontline, broadcast in November 1998:

• When individuals feel their weight is out of control, there is a feeling of despair that transcends other areas of their lives. This is why size acceptance and self-acceptance are so important.

• Words from a large women: "It seemed like people avoided me because they thought what I had was contagious."

• One major difference between the morbid obese and others is the feeling of satisfaction and the sensation of fullness that most people have after eating a normal portion of food. It appears most morbidly obese do not have this appetite regulation mechanism.

• People are often at war with their own bodies. We constantly hear and see ads that tell us to eat-eat-eat at the same time we carry along messages in our heads not to eat.

• If you are a super-sized person in our society, you are a target. A target for uncomplimentary remarks, rude stares, and constant ridicule. Super-sized individuals often feel like the moral equivalent to leprosy.

• Craving fat appears to be a primal survival trait for animals. For thousands of years this trait served humans well. It is only in recent times this trait has become a hindrance to good health.

Source:   Thomas, A.  "Fat," a program of Frontline and WGBH, Boston.  Program aired on November 3, 1998.  Program transcript available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fat/etc/script.html.

Compiled by Betty Holmes, MS, RD, 4-H Youth Specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Wyoming; bholmes@uwyo.edu.

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