I attended the state fair not long ago,
and my fellow fair-goers opened my eyes. It's a self-selecting group,
those who attend the fair. Minorities are vastly underrepresented, as
are people from big cities. The small-town and rural poor were there
in force.
And they were fat. As someone who went
on her first diet at age twelve (what would I give to weigh 121
again?) and has struggled with her weight all her adult life, I
empathize. Knowing what you ought to eat and how much doesn't come
built-in, and not everyone knows what a reasonable portion size looks
like. Eating healthy foods can be hard do to if you don't grow them,
can them, or shop where they're always available--if you can afford
them.
Still, I saw teenage boys who had no
necks or ankles, whose shoes were not tied because that would cut
into their fat legs and blobby feet, who wore gigantic T-shirts with
the shoulder seams nearly at their elbows in order to encompass their
girth. I saw their sisters, usually somewhat thinner, sporting a
thick roll of flesh sticking out four or five inches between the
waistbands of their skinny jeans and bras that did not fit.
I saw their parents everywhere. Men
with bellies the size of expedition backpacks which sat on their laps
when they seated themselves. Women whose breasts rested on bellies
which reached their knees. Some were ambulatory, although their
discomfort was evident. Many used canes. Quite a few had rented
scooters at the fair for $55 a day.
More than once, obese people on
scooters lined up to purchase food that was overtly bad for
them--deep fried Oreos; fried mushrooms, zucchini, or pickles; french
fries; fried blooming onion.
My own search for a healthy snack or
meal was fruitless. The best I could identify was half a chicken,
skin on, served with a white-bread roll and butter plus salt potatoes
swimming in butter-flavored oil.
I don't quite believe many of those
people who were so heavy it impeded their ability to enjoy the fair
indulge in a fried-food fest only once a year. Food that's bad for us
is cheap, readily available, and sometimes tasty. The size of so very
many suggests making terrible choices about what to eat and how much
is the norm for a significant portion of the people of this state.
This is their right. I do not intend to
shame them. But my eyes are open. We are not a state of people who
are big, or heavy, or carrying some extra weight. We are a state of
people who are so fat our lives are limited both in terms of
activities we can do and how long those lives are.
What are we going to do about it? For
starters, I'd like to see the state fair have a great many selections
of foods that are genuinely healthy choices. I'd like to see grocers
and growers in the state present displays on preparing healthy meals.
I'd like to see vendors selling apples, frozen bananas on a stick,
fruit salad cups, and smoothies with little additional sugar. I'd
like to see a broad selection of healthy foods vying for fair-goers'
attention alongside the everything-fried offerings. And most of all,
I'd like to see more people making food decisions which will serve
them well during a long and healthy life.
