Labels

 These days it seems like we put a label on everything. “Heart healthy”, “lo-cal”, “good food”, “bad food”,  you get the idea. The labeling doesn’t stop with food though. We put labels on ourselves and others.  Even the government slaps labels on us.  Most of the time when we as people are labeled we are also put into a one size fits all group.  I have a BIG problem with that. People are not one size fits all or one size fits most. We are one size fits one but to make things easier we are given labels and shoved into a group that most likely doesn’t fit us in any way. 

Specifically, I’m going to focus on health. There are other things I could talk about but some of those things could easily become political and since I am a-political (I abhor everything to do with politics, and there I go labeling myself) I’m going to steer clear of most of those topics.  The current pandemic has focused a lot on a scale used to characterize people and put them into a group.  Again a one size fits all approach.  I’m talking about the BMI scale. I HATE this scale. I hate it because I have spent much of my adult life trying to fit into a group that I will never fit into. 

My husband and I were talking about this today. He is in the obese group and I’m in the overweight group. Meanwhile his brother who is tall and lanky would be in the healthy weight group.  These groups are used to determine who is healthy and who is not. Why is that wrong and why do these groups not fit any of us? I eat healthy most of the time and exercise religiously. I am without a doubt healthier now than I was 20 years ago when I weighed 20 lbs less. I was then stuffing my face with fried and processed foods and not exercising at all.  Yet, I was considered healthy because I was in the healthy weight category.  Was I really healthy?

My husband also now works out every day and eats in a way that makes him feel good. But we are both built differently than his brother.  My husband was never at a healthy weight, therefore he has always been considered unhealthy. But his blood pressure is now much less than it was even 5 years ago and he is in better shape. Is he really unhealthy?

On the other side of the spectrum, there is my husband’s brother. He doesn’t have the best diet and doesn’t exercise but because of his build he never gains weight.  He is in the healthy weight range so he is considered healthy.  But is he?

None of us fit into the categories that we are thrown into because our genes play a roll in how much we weigh and what size and shape we are.  Don’t get me wrong, we do have an obesity problem in this country that needs to be addressed but these labels are not the best way to go about solving that problem. That is a blog for another day.