Despite the ongoing food shortages in Northern Kenya, a majority of middle-class Kenyans living in urban areas are getting fatter.
Unfortunately, in
Obesity, as we are led to believe, is a personal failing that is killing our health care system and destroying good genes in the country.
It is also an excuse to bully fat people in one sentence and then inform them in the next that you are doing it for their own good.
That’s why the fear of becoming fat, or staying that way, drives middle-class Kenyans to spend more on dieting every year than the money they send home to their relatives in rural areas!
The emotional costs are also shocking…
In fact, there is a story of a woman here in Nairobi who tried a diet so extreme that she passed out in the middle of the street while going to work.
Reason being? She didn’t want her husband to see her naked in the light!
The truth of the matter is, diets do not work!
In fact, Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost.
The reasons are biological and irreversible.
As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism
Bringing about a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight.
Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life!
Secondly, people do not understand that weight and health are not perfect synonyms!
Yes, nearly every population-level study finds that fat people have worse cardiovascular health than thin people. But individuals are not averages.
Studies have found that anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are metabolically healthy
They show no signs of elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance or high cholesterol
The irony is that for the past 20 years, we have treated the obesity epidemic like a glutton’s dream!
Thousands of Kenyans are suffering from depression because they don’t see themselves as fit for the society!