The topic of Lizzo’s size has come up again—via oldschool “fitness influencer” Jillian Michaels, a fountain of poor advice—so, I watched Lizzo’s show and it is fantastic.
When I first saw the trailer for Lizzo’s new reality show Watch Out for the Big Grrls, I turned to Bruce and said, “This show is going to be a big hit.”
Just like any content that promotes women’s empowerment or self-determination brings Men’s Rights Advocates and Red Pill incels out of the woodwork, the promos for Lizzo’s show via social media are bringing out all of the typical haters and all of the usual callous, idiotic, bs fat-phobic statements.
This is a dance show competition. The Big Grrls are competing to be dancers for Lizzo’s upcoming tour. Just watching them bust moves on the promo shows that all are fit and strong dancers.
Over the years I’ve heard many Black American friends describe bigoted, racist white Americans as “ignorant,” uneducated, and other similar terms. I feel similarly about all of these fat-phobic jerks.
Yes, all of the grrls on Lizzo’s show are big. That’s why it’s called Watch Out for the Big Grrls.
Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, twice as many as only 30 years ago, when obesity was considered a major health challenge. Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes are major risk factors for serious, potentially fatal COVID-19 illness. The high obesity rate in the U.S. is linked to the nation’s high COVID-19 death rate.
The days of the 19th century and earlier times — when a fat person was almost universally going to be very rich and physically idle, able to afford large amounts of fancy, fattening food — are long over.
But some of these troglodytes (often, themselves as chunky as my dating pal who told me in all sincerity he “looked just like Brad Pitt”) are still living in 1900 when a guy with a big gut was going to be a “Captain of Industry” and a big woman was going to be his comfortable, pampered wife —
Everything I’m about to say has been exhaustively documented and proven. Yet the fat-brained morons that continue to mock Lizzo (and the dancers on her show) for her size ignore this and act like it’s 1910. They relentlessly bull forward acting like there’s some benefit or good purpose to mocking someone’s weight and appearance. All they prove is how dumb, mean, ignorant, and shamefully self-loathing they are.
It’s not calories in, calories out — dummy
The food provided to us by our corporate toxic food system makes us fat. It shouldn’t be up for debate. Corporate food products, from Belvita breakfast crackers to delicious frozen dinners, crackers, Kraft macaroni & cheese, the kids’ cereal aisle — they’re the main culprits of the obesity epidemic. Processed, industrial foods that make up 80% of supermarket space, and are perceived as “affordable” make people fat — far out of proportion to the calories that are listed on the box.
All calories are not created equal. A 250 calorie meal consisting of vegetables and a small amount of olive oil and vinegar or seasoning, along with 3–4 ounces of lean protein is in no way the same metabolically or nutritionally as a 250 calorie candy bar. It’s more than just “healthy vs unhealthy.”
I’ve written a lot about modern pharma and the addiction business model, but the nutrition/western medicine dilemma angers me as much or moreso. But I think the tide is turning. Even though many physicians still receive minimal nutritional instruction in med school, more and more are becoming aware that added sugar (not just sucrose — all of its friends including agave syrup, rice syrup, molassas, and fructose) has a direct and indirect relationship to diseases in addition to obesity (a condition, not a disease). Hundreds of studies are under way right now to try to uncover how processed foods contribute so greatly to weight gain and other illnesses. Researchers are trying to uncover why processed foods make it so very difficult to lose weight even when calories are being strictly counted.
The microbiome is part of it
As I’ve also noted before, I have a chronic illness, IBS, which has greatly harmed my quality of life. I first made an improvement in my IBS by giving up tobacco smoking (2014). But it “came back” and now there’s a pretty long list of foods that I don’t eat because they cause IBS flareups.
As long as I eat the way I do right now — basically paleo — I have no IBS.
This is an extremely strict, and not inexpensive, way to eat. To ask that every person do this is unrealistic until our whole food system changes and vegetables, fruits, and simple lean proteins are affordable and widely available.
When you can get a juicy fresh orange or head of lettuce and a nice 4 ounce portion of high quality fish for the same price and availability as a package of Double-Stuf Oreos, then maybe the people who holler about “it’s calories in-calories out those fat people are just lazy pigs” will have a point.
Nah.
Basically, I’ve come to realize that Double-Stuf Oreos and their many kin blast the good, normal parts of our microbiome into a diseased symbiote that hurts our whole bodies, minds and selves.
The microbiome doesn’t just influence our appetite, metabolism, and how we digest food (an unhealthy typical Western microbiome contributes to weight gain), it also influences our mental health and emotional equilibrium.
And it’s not exactly high level research science — but it seems clear that if you eat Double-Stuf Oreos every day you’ve got a colony of sugar-loving microbes inside of you. They rot your teeth, they probably cause zits and psoriasis, and they could be making you depressed and anxious. Oh yeah — and beyond the literal calories? These sugar-loving bugs make you fatter than you’d otherwise be without them.
You can learn a lot more about the microbiome from the Benioff Center on the Microbiome at University of California San Francisco.
Back to Lizzo and the Grrls
“I’m not fat,” I told this blue check Twitter abuser who was making bad comments about Lizzo and the Grrls. “That’s why I enjoy standing up for them and making it clear they are gorgeous, fierce, strong, and awesome.”
The s**t that I have to do to not be fat is so far beyond what the average person is willing to do or would want to do. Not only have I educated myself on topics that typically only health and fitness experts know about, I also work out much more than average. Bruce and I eat far, far better than 90% (maybe more) of other U.S. people.
We’ve moved to a less stressful state. We’ve removed as much stress as possible from our lives. The only weight-causing thing I do now is work — but the general stress level is so much less now than when I had to commute 2–3 hours each way to a high-pressure fundraising job. Or drive hundreds of miles a week to teach at 3 different colleges for terrible pay. We get plenty of sleep. We located and shop consistently at a local farm market. We buy and eat only fresh, local produce and protein. The only processed foods I consume are olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and oatmeal.
Stress, commuting, work problems, shift work, irregular meals: each of these things adds to a person’s weight and other associated health risks. This research is proven and the reason it doesn’t change is that the processed food industry is one of the pillars of the U.S. empire. No matter which industry analyst you consult, the U.S. packaged food industry is nearly a $1 trillion market, expected to grow at over 4% a year over the next five years.
There are people working themselves to death in this industry making foods that are killing us all.
Then there’s the “healthcare” industry, sometimes called the “sick care” industry. This industry is the world’s costliest, which could not prevent nearly 1 million deaths from COVID, a disease which strikes disproportionately not just among the elderly, but also among people with metabolic disorders, immune system disorders, and diabetes. Oh yeah: and just regular old obesity.
Their friends in the pharmaceutical industry rely upon pills to treat symptoms not education and information on how to live well and healthily. Like the many medications for high blood pressure, high cholesterol (likely unneeded), and diabetes. Then there’s pain relievers when there’s no treatment that affects the underlying cause of the pain, such as arthritis or other immune-related joint conditions. And of course, we have the many, many psych meds at the same time as things that really can help like medical cannabis remain illegal in some states. Even Canada has legalized cannabis!
Oh and they have Health Canada too.
And most Canadians can’t even exercise outside for 4–5 months of the year.
You know, it is a hell of a world when there are hundreds of fools out there attempting to mock Lizzo and the other grrls for being big when they are the ones mindlessly gobbling down deadly foods, working themselves to death in meaningless jobs, or “entertaining” by making fun of others who are a million times more talented, stronger, and fiercer than they will ever be.
These “critics” are supposedly skinny. But they’re just talking internet heads, not gorgeous pop stars about to go on worldwide tours with their beautiful friends.
Originally published via Medium March 2022 (so a year old! See, I knew about microbiome then … if not Zoe Nutrition).