Right in line with the classic case of fatness vs fitness an Associated Press poll has recently uncovered that women continue to value their physical appearance more than their physical wellbeing. Things like height, weight and appearance trumped any concerns these women might have for factors that could affect their risks for life-threatening diseases like heart disease and diabetes:
“The priorities are flipped,” says Dr. Molly Poag, chief of psychiatry at New York’s Lennox Hill Hospital.
She points to women athletes as much better role models than supermodels: “There’s an undervaluing of physical fitness and an overvaluing of absolute weight and appearance for women in our culture.” [MSNBC Health]
When about a 1000 women were surveyed for this study, the results speak loudly about the state of understangding with regard to risk-factors for disease. About half the women did not like the way they looked, but only a third thought their physical condition needed improvement. Even fewer were eating the full recommended servings of fruits and vegetables or even exercising the minimum recommended duration of about 2.5 hours a week.
What is unfortunate is the large number of women, who are probably already quite healthy, still trying to lose weight excessively in a misguided attempt to reach a “magic weight” or look like some supermodel on TV. This is obviously counter-productive:
Eating disorders aside, normal-skinny doesn’t automatically mean healthy, stresses University of Houston sociologist Samantha Kwan, who studies gender and body image.
“Someone who is fat or even overweight can be healthy if they have a balanced diet and are physically active,” Kwan says. “Our culture really does put a lot of pressure on women to look a certain way,” taking precedence over health measures. [MSNBC Health]
Do read the full news item to get the facts and understand why fitness is more important than fatness.
