How Participating in the Sociological Module Has Changed My Original View on the Image - Essay Example

COMMENTARY PAPER: HOW PARTICIPATING IN THIS SOCIOLOGICAL MODULE HAS CHANGED MY ORIGINAL VIEW ON THE IMAGE Previous thoughts about the image of obesity Obesity is one of the most debated about health disorders in the current society. With the increased awareness that various stakeholders have created overtime, everybody has knowledge and understanding of what obesity is. The information available on the public domain however does not differentiate between overweight and obesity. Most of the reports fail to differentiate between these two conditions, thus considering overweight as a form of obesity. This has considerably created panic and worry among the populations (Wabitsch, et al., 2013, p. 4). Although the media points out that the living conditions considerably contribute to the increased level of obesity in the society, they fail to establish the actual condition on the ground. Obesity, considered as a condition where a person suffers from increased body weight and high levels of fat accumulation is a reason for worry among most people, as media reports (Lhachimi, et al. 2013, p. 523). In addition to shortening lives of these people, it causes chronic diseases and is a major contributing factor to other fatal conditions such as diabetes and heart diseases. With the increase in the number of reports about the dangers associated with obesity, and before I joined the program, I held these views about obesity (Bias 2014, web). However, I know that there was more to obesity than I was aware. In fact, I realized that although obesity is a dangerous condition, the inability of the media to differentiate between obesity and overweight is in it a major source of confusion among the people. Activists even make the condition worse, giving the impression that obesity is a disorder contributed to by a number of factors such as fast food joints (Jennings 2008, p. 23). Additionally, people believe that were it not for weakening policies, there would be less people suffering from obesity. True that food contributes to a high level of obesity in the society. However, the society itself also contributes to the diminishing healthy standards of the people. Lack of control in the kind of foods we eat, the negligence of parents on the kinds of food their children eat, coupled with our activities in the environment equally contribute to the escalating condition. After going through the class, I changed a number of perceptions about the image. While I initially thought that the person was in fact obese, I realized that it could have also been overweight. Previously, just as anybody else, I thought that obesity was medically considered a disease. Further, I believed that the company that I keep around me would influence whether I became obese or not. In addition to this, I knew that poor eating habits, especially highly processed foods, fatty and sugary foods alleviated the likelihood of an individual becoming obese (Bias 2014, web). As I realized, I was wrong in some instances, while in other instances, I had inadequate information about obesity. Differences in my thinking about the image Knowledge helps people make the right decisions. As an experience through this class, a decision backed by adequate knowledge and information is clear and informative. Energy imbalance produced in the modern life is one of the major contributing factors to the increasing levels of obesity in the society. While people lay most of the blame on the poor dieting, it is important to understand that energy imbalance too is yet an important factor (Wright & Aronne 2012, p. 731). Further, there are no actual known biological causes of obesity known (Bray, et al. 1992, p. 152). Because doctors are yet to establish any biological causes of obesity, there is no medical cure for the condition. Hopes are still high that doctors will in future establish biological causes of obesity, thus establishing pharmaceutical and surgical cures (Campos, P. et al 2006, p. 57). Obesity, argues Grundy (2004, p. 2596) causes more health problems than smoking. Among these conditions, include diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, indigestion, gallstones, breast and prostate cancers, snoring and sleep apnoea, stress, anxiety, infertility and depression. The biggest misconception however about obesity is that a fat person is always an obese person (Wilding 2001, p. 290). While this is true to some extent, paediatrics defines an obese by measuring the body mass index. In order to calculate BMI, an individual should divide the weight in kilograms by the height in metres squared (Martinez 2000, p. 339). There are different interpretations of the results. In case of BMI above 25, a person is considered overweight, while a BMI of between 30 to 40, one is considered obese. A BMI of over 40 is considered very obese (Bias 2014, web). On the other hand, a BMI lower than 18.5 define an underweight person. While it is a common belief that a thin person is healthier, research indicates that an underweight person is equally at a risk just like the obese person. Few people have the facts about obesity, leaving doctors the only true sources of information about the condition (Cooper 2007, web). With the weight loss organizations and companies making millions in profits by charging people seeking to lose their weight, they have fuelled the campaign against obesity. As they stand to gain more from the panic and confusion, about whether obesity is a disease, or not, they pushed the American medical association to vote anonymously obesity as a serious disease (Cooper 2007, web). This is however far from the truth. No medical evidence however proves obesity to qualify as a disease. Experts argue that the BMI alone is not a proof of obesity being a disease. Negative and intimidating media reports worsen the already bad situation. The use of random pictures of fat people with their faces cropped off is a bad way of creating publicity and staging campaign against the disease (Bias 2014, web). Although it is an important exercise, which creates awareness especially with the rising costs of treating obesity, the reality is that this causes more harm than good to the obese. Such campaigns and activism increases stress levels among the people and in some instances lead to depression. With the wide spread negative reports focusing on the obese people, discrimination and marginalization are likely to happen in our current society (Bias 2014, web). What these activists fail to understand however is what doctors attribute to the causes of obesity among the population, a natural phenomenon, culminating from the inability of our bodies to adapt to the rapid changes in the environment. Such a condition, although dieting plays a big role in increasing changes of obesity is involuntary. However, Cooper (1998, p. 12) believes that not all fat people are obese. Further, Oliver (2006, p. 10) holds that extremely thin people are at a higher risk of contracting diseases than fat people. It is too early to consider obesity as a disease, if medical reports are anything to go by. It is still early to consider the disease as being contagious or regarding obesity as being contagious (Boero 2013, p. 372). These are descriptions of the disease, only possible if medical experts were to classify the condition as a disease. With the concern about the disease facing the society, the discussion has shifted from whether the problem exists to the actions; we should collectively take against the epidemic (White 2013, p. 328). Interestingly the belief that reduction of the body weight of the overweight and obese people to normal weight as a cure for obesity is an unproven hypothesis (Lupton 2013, web). According to media reports, the only cure for the risks associated with obesity is reduction of body weight. Subsequently, people have spent countless hours in the gym, others on the track and others said no to most of the foods in an effort to cut weight, burn calories and normalize their body weight (“Science knowledge and learning beta” 2013, web). However, there is no scientific proof that all this helps in taking care of the dangers posed by obesity conditions. If anything, they make people acceptable in social groups, increases their confidence and self-satisfaction. What is even more worrying is the argument that 90-95% of weight-loss diets fail in the long term (Bias 2014, web). This is true, especially because sugary and highly processed foodstuffs are extremely addictive to the people. After a while of dieting, the individual gives up and reverts to the old eating habits. a section of medical experts hold that this worsens the situation, increasing the chances of other chronic diseases affecting obese people. Doctors also warn that weight-loss practices are not only ineffective but also harmful to the individuals. This leaves people in a dilemma as to what exactly is the cure for this condition. Conclusion With the increase in the awareness of obesity, being a disease and the dangerous health conditions related with obesity, people have become weary of the disease, which no medical experiments have proven scientifically to be a disease. If anything, the earlier image I had of obesity based its argument on the information available on the public domain. However, because weight loss companies benefit from this confusion, they have created fear among the people that obesity is a disease only curable through weight loss. This however, as I have realized is not only a lie but also dangerous to the individuals. Works Cited Bias, S 2014, What the Heck Is Fat Activism Anyway? Queer fat activist Stacy Bias gives us the (not so) skinny on the social justice movement. Assessed http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazine/Web-Articles-2013/What-the-Heck-Is-Fat-Activism-Anyway/ Boero, N 2013, ‘Obesity in the media: social science weighs in’, Critical Public Health, 23 (3) 371-380. Bray, G. A., York, B., & DeLany, J 1992, A survey of the opinions of obesity experts on the causes and treatment of obesity. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 55(1 Suppl), 151S-154S. 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