Sir, - In her article "US sags under weight of the wobblies" (The Irish Times, May 10th), Mary O'Donnell refers to "the effects of a culture of oral gratification and unquestioned gluttony in the US".
Miss O'Donnell and your readers should be informed that the real reason for the great numbers of fat people in the US is the result of years of yo-yo dieting and not "unquestioned gluttony". Yo-yo dieting occurs because the US has a culture which glamorises waif-like thinness through television, film and other media and people who do not fit this ideal seek it through dieting, which fails 98 per cent of the time. Inevitably, these people regain the weight they lost, and gain even more. Over time, this leads to significant weight increases.
In almost every magazine and television program in the US, there are weight-loss diet ads or some new drug that promises phenomenal weight loss ("guaranteed"). None of these methods is effective in permanently reversing or preventing people from becoming fat. There are, for instance, some people who had fat parents. Genetically, they will be predisposed to becoming fat by the time they reach adulthood.
The only solution the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) has been able to find is self-acceptance at whatever size one happens to be. This breaks the chain of yo-yo dieting.
According to Dr Glenn Gaesser, yo-yo dieting leads to at least 165,000 deaths per year. These deaths and rising weights could be prevented by adopting a practice of size acceptance. ISAA also encourages fitness at any size, because we have seen time and time again that it is possible. There are some healthy fat people who are more fit than their leaner, non-exercising counterparts.
In the future, Miss O'Donnell would do well to check her facts and avoid stereotypical conjecture. It is very damaging to fat people who already suffer from low self-esteem as a result of such attacks.- Yours, etc.,
Allen Steadham, Director, ISAA, PO Box 82126, Austin, TX 78758, USA.