President Obama’s Surgeon General nominee Regina Benjamin, is fat. I may sound insensitive or unnecessarily harsh however, Dr. Benjamin has just been nominated as America’s top doctor. As such, she is not only a role model, the specific job of the surgeon general is to make health care policy decisions for the entire country. With obesity being called "epidemic" in America, wouldn’t it make sense to select for the highly visible top-doc job somebody who has bested this problem, rather than failed at diet and exercise?
Calling her “plus-sized,” or “big boned,” or “full-figured” is mere deflection of the fact that overweight individuals – even brilliant doctors – are fat, and probably unhealthy , or at least not as healthy as leaner individuals who work at being leaner. Even if, as some claim, that she might be "metabolically healthy", her heart is overly taxed, her joints are overburdened, and she is at risk for type 2 Diabetes, Coronary disease, and even cancer.
Many people have overcome overweight issues, and almost always, through hard work and personal discipline. Daily cardio exercise and a very healthy diet are the only way to take the weight off and keep it off. Anyone who tells you otherwise, is full of beans (and chips, sodas and fries) and is not being sincere.
Fat, and diet and exercise are directly related. The diets of most overweight individuals, is too high in fat and protein, and too low in vegetables, fruit and grains. One cannot live on Whoppers and large fries alone. In fact, one should not even eat one Whopper and fries in a week. A Rule of Thumb: Eating anything at a drive-through is probably not healthy.
Some people may have a physical propensity and structure for being overweight, just as others are naturally too thin. But being at your healthy weight, is what I am addressing – not Hollywood’s idea of fit, or the seemingly acceptable standard of overweight.
Dr. Regina Benjamin appears to be a qualified and compassionate physician. But in a country where obesity now stands at 30% of the population, it would appear that Dr. Benjamin condones it by also being overweight.
And that is the biggest problem: with the dramatic increase of obesity and overweight in America, these same people are excusing it away and treating their fat as normal. The lack of personal discipline is staggering. Only one decade ago, fat was not accepted the way it is today. Perhaps it's the increased number of overweight people that appears to make it acceptable, but it seems more than that. Grossly overweight women wear the same fashions that lean women wear. There seems to be no shame in being grossly overweight. And I am talking about grossly overweight - not someone sporting a few extra pounds or people who have larger frames.
At restaurants, it is shocking to see what people consume. Many people claim to have a fear of being hungry. Stand in line at any retail store, and watch shoppers grab bags of chips and sodas, for their wait to check out. Unless someone has truly been starved, the "fear of being hungry" is more of a case of a fear of having to deny oneself whatever they want to eat.
Yet, it is perfectly healthy to be hungry. Hunger tells us when we are supposed to eat. Eating all day is standard for most overweight people - and they are not eating celery and carrots all day.
With the new Surgeon General as large as Oprah at an estimated size 18, this will not help solve the obesity problem in America – it will hurt it. How can an overweight doctor deal with obesity with credibility? It would be as incredible as your doctor telling you to quit smoking as he lights up a cigarette in the exam room.
Perhaps if Dr. Benjamin loses weight, she can set an example for the millions of grossly overweight and unhealthy people in this country. But until that happens, Dr. Benjamin will only serve as another poster child for the acceptance of being fat and unhealthy in America.
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Katy Grimes, has had four back surgeries, and worked her tushie off after each one to lose the surgery weight, through a healthy diet and exercise.