We tend to mimic the people around us from time immemorial. From ancient times, cultures developed through sharing of common norms and totems. This kind of network of morals also plays a role in the way they are seen to lose weight and their reasons for losing weight. This article aims to look at some of the ways in which a cultural trait can determine how you respond to weight gain and how you attempt to deal with the situation when it arises.
Attitudes
Your culture will determine to a large extent your attitude to weight issues. If your culture encourages people to be overweight, then you will feel no need to control your weight. In some African cultures weight is seen as a sign of health and wealth. This means that thin people are relatively less attractive than the heavier people. I remember someone who was just a bit overweight had returned from Europe to Africa and they were self conscious about how they looked. The response from the local people surprised them because everyone was saying that they had a nice figure. They could not quite believe that someone weighing close to 20 stone could be described as having a nice figure. In fact some people were asking them for the recipes of the food they ate and whether they could eat the same things so that they could put on weight. This is would be a rare event in western countries because fat people are normally marginalized.
The culture will put in place restraints that prevent people from becoming overweight. For instance in some developed countries, fat people become the society’s evil. They are accused of wasting the resources and becoming a burden on the state. Some mean people accuse them of all sorts of crimes including smelling and taking up extra air space. The popular media portrays them as being lazy and uncontrollable. The health community accuses them of taking away medical treatment for emergency care. Adverts are made which make fat people look silly and undesirable. They face abuse and patronization in their daily lives. Their social interaction is determined by the limitations of their weight and some may even struggle to get a life partner. All these disadvantages make them believe that being fat is quite an unpleasant experience and they will do everything in their power to get out of the problems that they are faced with. This will encourage them to lose weight.
There is a tendency to believe that it is only African traditional cultures that encourage people to be fat. In the majority of cases, the highest proportion of cultures that support fat people are from the African continent. However western countries have also developed cultures which subtlety encourages people to grow fat. A case in point is the fast food culture of America which has driven obesity levels to unprecedented figures. The young people are particularly susceptible to this kind of western indulgence and many of them will have figures that bear no relation to their age. That means that even modern cultures can encourage people to grow fat
Your culture will determine to a large extent your attitude to weight issues. If your culture encourages people to be overweight, then you will feel no need to control your weight. In some African cultures weight is seen as a sign of health and wealth. This means that thin people are relatively less attractive than the heavier people. I remember someone who was just a bit overweight had returned from Europe to Africa and they were self conscious about how they looked. The response from the local people surprised them because everyone was saying that they had a nice figure. They could not quite believe that someone weighing close to 20 stone could be described as having a nice figure. In fact some people were asking them for the recipes of the food they ate and whether they could eat the same things so that they could put on weight. This is would be a rare event in western countries because fat people are normally marginalized.
The culture will put in place restraints that prevent people from becoming overweight. For instance in some developed countries, fat people become the society’s evil. They are accused of wasting the resources and becoming a burden on the state. Some mean people accuse them of all sorts of crimes including smelling and taking up extra air space. The popular media portrays them as being lazy and uncontrollable. The health community accuses them of taking away medical treatment for emergency care. Adverts are made which make fat people look silly and undesirable. They face abuse and patronization in their daily lives. Their social interaction is determined by the limitations of their weight and some may even struggle to get a life partner. All these disadvantages make them believe that being fat is quite an unpleasant experience and they will do everything in their power to get out of the problems that they are faced with. This will encourage them to lose weight.
There is a tendency to believe that it is only African traditional cultures that encourage people to be fat. In the majority of cases, the highest proportion of cultures that support fat people are from the African continent. However western countries have also developed cultures which subtlety encourages people to grow fat. A case in point is the fast food culture of America which has driven obesity levels to unprecedented figures. The young people are particularly susceptible to this kind of western indulgence and many of them will have figures that bear no relation to their age. That means that even modern cultures can encourage people to grow fat
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