From Atkins to Jenny Craig to even gastric surgery, the diet industry is super-sized. As we pack on the pounds, there are mounting concerns about the ballooning rates of obesity and diabetes. But are we are focussing too much on weight, and not enough on fitness? Michael Enright explores the "Fat and Fit" phenomenon:
"The fabled actress Bette Davis once said 'Getting old isn't for sissies.' The hardest part is that while your passion for life doesn't age, your vehicle for that passion ... well, let's just say the wheels start to get a little wobbly. And nothing makes you feel your age more than packing on a couple extra pounds.
I don't know about you, but I have a lot of fond memories ... good times spent with family and friends, watching my children grow up, crazy adventures in this job ... and almost all of them involve a slimmer, svelter version of myself. In reality, I probably wasn't all that much thinner than I am now when I lived those memories, but that's how we remember the idealized version of ourselves. As thinner.So much is tied up in our waistlines. But is our health?
The answer to that question is more nuanced ... thank God .. than our weight-obsessed culture would have us believe.
More and more research suggests that exercise, rather than diet, is the key to good health ... to the point where you can be fat AND fit.
Take that Brad Pitt!"
Wendy Rodgers is a professor and vice-Dean in the faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the
