The Truth on Skinny
What it means to create a market of desire, to perpetuate a cycle of demand and supply on the loop for weight loss.
If you think you can change your health by losing a few kilos and ‘dieting’ for a specific timeframe, think again.
One of the greatest fallacies we’ve been made to believe is that losing weight is the answer to health. But, that’s so 90s. It’s 2024 and we really need to break away from this misleading belief.
This long held story has its roots in the clever brainwashing executed by the diet and weight loss industries, popularised by pop culture through the generations.
Here’s the truth: skinny doesn’t always equal to health and health doesn’t always equate to being skinny.
There’s such a thing as being too skinny, being skinny fat, and there are healthy people who aren’t ‘skinny.’ It’s a little confusing, I know.
But, understand that our species has evolved with a range of body types. Long slender bony model like figures are not the only people who exist on this planet.
Look around and you’ll realise a much more realistic picture of the variety in humans are walking right around your neighbourhood or in your morning commute.
For both our sakes, I’ve been thinking about these topics a lot.
Profit Dependence: The weight loss and diet industries only make money if you stay fat or overweight, because without people who want or need to lose weight, their industries becomes obsolete.
Creating Desire: By investing heavily and nurturing the belief that skinny equals to health these industries are able to create a perpetuating cycle of desire that not only services the demand in their industry, but also creates a never-ending desire for us to lose weight. Because, losing weight and being skinny means I am healthy right? The truth is not that simple or automatic.
False Health Narratives: One of the ways to keep us believing these fallacies is to create an enemy to fight against. By demonising fat, companies and corporations can unite together to advocate against a common enemy—fat!
Also, the more we believe that weight loss is the holy grail to health and that fat is the enemy, these fallacies will also perpetuate itself through our constant desire being skinny.
But, not all bodies are meant to be stick thin. What’s natural for most bodies is a little bit of something because there’s a level of fat that’s actually healthy, especially for women, because a small amount of fat is necessary to keep the body healthy.
Perpetuating Demand: Like any basic economics class will tell us, the economic incentive is always around supply and demand. What for profit companies are keen to do, is to create a healthy market, with a healthy supply and demand.
So, to keep us hooked in a loop of constant demand and supply, industries will do a lot to keep us thinking that skinny is the solution to be healthy.
The demand is our desire to be skinny, and the supply is the products and services that promises weight loss.
In reality, these industries know that the standard to health they’ve cleverly created is a standard to skinny that’s nearly impossible to achieve for most body types. Hence, the supply and demand cycle continues.
The Cycle of Weight Loss & Regain: These companies only make money if they sell; and what they are selling are weight loss products and services.
If the demand, of people who want or need to lose weight diminishes, then their market disappears, and their supply becomes unnecessary.
This is why the weight loss and diet industries invent false narratives, in order to keep you in a loop of losing and gaining versus keeping off the weight for good.
With every generation there is always a stream of new solutions for weight loss.
But the truth is, the human body is highly intelligent and highly capable of navigating what it needs.
The complexities begin if the body has been treated poorly overtime. If we have spent years breaking down the body’s intelligent systems by feeding it poor quality nutrition and nurturing unfavourable behaviours, like smoking, or a sedentary lifestyle, then the body, after years of mistreatment can malfunction on us too.
If we instead have spent the bulk of our lifetime, treating our bodies well, through good nutrition, adequate movement, and good sleep, then the body will feel supported to do what it knows best—to survive, and even thrive.
The truth to face is the longer we’ve abused the body, the greater the effort required to undo the damage, but I its possible!
Watch the documentary below and you’ll understand what I mean.
Humanity has lasted generations not because of luck, but because we’ve intelligently evolved to optimise our survival. Like a mistreated car though, the body can breakdown too, so it’s up to us to decide how we’ll treat the only body we’ve got.
I am an optimist though. Given the right environment and ingredients, the body will know how to heal itself. Like how a wound will heal itself over time, the body, I believe, can heal itself too.
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As always, thank you for your time and attention.