Why are so many people fat? Is it because there are too many takeaway stores? If you listen to some progressive activists this is where they will focus their argument; people are fat because the food available around them is unhealthy and cheap. It is not their fault, society conspires against them to make them work long hours and then coerce them into buying bad food! But the truth is for the price of a meal from McDonalds you can cook up a high quality 300gram steak on the BBQ and eat it with boiled carrots and drink water, and you will be far healthier over the long term if you do this regularly. So, availability of good food is not the problem. To say this is the problem is just to pretend that people do not have agency, they are simply products of their environment and cannot really make their own choices. If this were the case there would be no thin people.
So why are
so many people fat? Let me suggest a more basic reason: it is a particular form
of narcissism, probably sometimes coupled with some form of self-loathing. This
reasoning comes from several sources.
For one I have
observed how obstinate many overweight people are. They do not believe they
need to lose weight, they do not believe they should lose weight, and they at
times even believe they are superior to those who work hard to keep weight off.
Some think they are superior because they are not as focused on appearance.
Some think they are superior because they focus on other endeavours that they
would not have the time for if they wasted time on “getting into” shape. It
takes an incredibly inflated self-image to carry that kind of weight around
with you, with all of the accompanying issues it causes, and not think you need
to do something to deal with it; especially if you fly regularly. It is an inherently self-deluded and self-inflated
view of oneself…pun definitely intended. This does not mean that all people who
are overweight are like this, some may have serious health issues, or simply
neglectful parents who encourage their children to stack on the pounds, but
this is still true for a lot of fat people.
Secondly,
the Bible shows us that obesity is a fruit of narcissism:
“17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on
those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I
have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the
cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and
they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Col. 3:17-19).
“Their god
is their belly…” Here Paul addresses the sin of gluttony which in a way is a
corrupted form of self-worship and self-indulgence. That is what narcissism is,
an excessive amount of self-interest. The obese person is so obsessed with what
they put into their bodies, or more accurately, they are so enslaved to putting
into their bodies what their stomachs demand of them, that they dedicate a
large proportion of their time to this self-interest. At the expense of
their health. Instead of cutting back on some decadent edible delight, they
would often rather pop a pill or take a needle, than stop eating a beloved food
and get on the treadmill. There is a reason that obesity culture has turned
into body positive culture; it is because obese people delude themselves about
what they are doing to their bodies, their looks, and their health anyway, so
why would this not naturally result in a social culture that get’s offended at
being told to drop a few k’s for their good and the good of society (healthcare costs society a lot).
Of course,
this is not just the result of narcissism, it is also the fruit of laziness, “One
of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
lazy gluttons” (Tit. 1:12). But even laziness is a form of narcissism. It is
not the selfless, motivated to serve person who is lazy, it is the person who
is too interested in their own leisure and pleasure. It is the self-serving person who is often lazy.
I first
really became aware of this during Covid. There was constant messaging that obese
people were at the highest risk of severe illness. But rather than create a worldwide phenomenon
of big people hitting the gyms, streets and treadmills at home to shed weight, this caused most of these people to despise the healthy people who were not afraid, get
behind the mandates and lockdowns in their most extreme forms, and then line up
with glee for their mystery shots. How narcissistic is it to expect the entire
society to come to a halt because you are at slightly higher risk of a virus because
of your own life choices? Yet this is how many people were acting. You were selfish if
you were healthy and did not want the shot. You were a hero if you got your
shot, your free donut, and sat your arse back on your couch and watched all the
news updates for what you were supposed to do next. I even mentioned in some sermons how
people could protect themselves from serious illness by getting fitter, this
went down like a led balloon, or a cheesecake at a tubby man’s birthday party.
Thirdly,
researchers have observed a high level of narcissism in overweight people, “The
role of narcissism as a modulator of self-satisfaction with one’s body varies
depending on BMI level: extremely underweight women and obese individuals
constitute groups in which narcissism has the strongest impact on the
self-satisfaction with body.”[1]
The study also found, “Vanity and Leadership were narcissism dimensions which
played significant role in slim women, as compared to Vanity and
Self-Sufficiency in obese women.”[2]
Of course, it is not just obese people who are narcissistic, but studies are
bearing out that the rapid rise of obesity is driven by a narcissism epidemic
in our society.
As another
study which found the same thing shows,
“Our theory is in line with obesity experts, who have stated
that one of the main issues in our society today is that it is perceived as too
competitive with undue emphasis on physical appearance. This essay is by
essence reductionist, and does not attempt to assess all forms of obesity, some
of which are likely to have other origins.”[3]
In other
words, some people lean into their obesity to show that they are not giving in
to the pressure to take care of their appearance. It is a pendulum swing of sorts. “I
don’t need no healthy habits! I'm good as I am, the world can deal with it." Kind of thinking. This is perverted, but obesity
is a perversion.
People forget that gluttony, the major cause of obesity, is both a self-obsessed sin and a deadly sin that ranks alongside lust, adultery and murder. The man with the porn habit can keep it hidden, but the glutton often can’t. There is a form of narcissism and gluttony that exists for those who are too picky about what they eat as well, but I will leave that to another discussion of gluttony in all its forms. For our sakes in this piece it is enough to show that so many people are fat because they are self-obsessed. Maybe it is because they just give their body whatever it asks for, maybe it is because they want to rebel against a perceived pressure to look good. Either way, narcissism is a powerful driver of obesity and it is no wonder that large levels of obesity correlate with the high levels of selfishness and self-indulgence in our western societies today.
List of References
[1] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-21801-001
Wow! Just Wow!
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