This is why I'm fat

Urban Planners Make You Fat

Several professors in my department are studying this phenomenon. I always feel as if I'm a walking validation of their research because I'm from the suburban Southeast. Part of me always got the sense that they'd love to ask me questions but were afraid it might End Badly.

I find it terribly amusing that the bottom of that post has a list of other things that make you fat, including proximity to fast food restaurants, cheap gas and the government. It's not the fact that I hate exercise and love carbs, it's because I grew up in an area where walking was dangerous and half of the restaurants nearby had value meals. Oh, and gas used to be less than a dollar per gallon.

I was doomed from the start!

See, the problem with articles like these is that they could be seen as self-justification for fatties. That's not at all what they're intending, but I bet a lot of people are going to misinterpret it that way. For instance, right now I live in a neighborhood with a high walking score, where even the 'fast food' restaurants are fairly healthy and public transit works. I'm not losing weight though, because it's not all about the environment, at least not at the individual level.

The point of these articles is to study obesity as a pandemic. It's like tracking an outbreak. It's not why YOU are fat, it's why so many other people are fat.

I agree that this needs to be studied, because it is a growing trend that we need to figure out. It's tied into food systems, urban planning, transportation, possibly other health issues (e.g. stress). I think mostly it's a symptom of a wealthy society and a culture that values leisure time and paying other people to do things for you as an indicator of success.

Obesity has some similarities to diseases such as alcoholism and addiction - many people believe that the fault lies with the individual. They all may have roots in psychological as well as biological issues. Studying obesity, and coming up with solutions for it, is going to run into some very tricky areas. It's not the same as wiping out polio - you don't blame children for drinking contaminated water. This is something that academics have to consider, and being that the ones I know who are studying the problem tend to have BMIs in the "normal" range, may not be as fully aware of the pitfalls. They have to be careful if they want to be taken seriously.

Anyway, in my case it is an urban planner making me fat. I have the degree to prove it.