Till There Was Chicken Fat

Recently, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the news by not doing too well in a
noteworthy way:

We are giving parents, schools, and communities the tools to help children build healthy habits, strengthen their bodies, and discover what they’re capable of achieving.

Long before former First Lady Michelle Obama ever appeared in the news, a great leader ushered in an earlier health-conscious era, when childhood fitness was deemed essential as a pillar of America’s future. That man’s nephew recently said,

More than 60 years ago, my uncle, President John F. Kennedy, challenged America to make physical fitness a national priority because he understood that the strength of our nation begins with the health of our people…

By bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test and launching GetActive.gov/kids, we are giving parents, schools, and communities the tools to help children build healthy habits, strengthen their bodies, and discover what they’re capable of achieving.

The J.F.K. era was also presided over by a particular song, to which it is possible that more people have performed their calisthenics than to any other musical composition in history.

The anthem of that 1960s aspirational effort was “Chicken Fat,” which, aside from accompanying the largest total number of workouts, is a contender in another field: cringe-worthy lyrics. It’s so goofy, it is basically a self-parody.

There is nothing a gymnasium full of children or teenagers could do to it that it hadn’t already done to itself… and they had plenty of opportunity, because every school in America received a free phonograph record of “Chicken Fat.”

Who did it and why?

The creator of this masterpiece was Meredith Willson, more generally and widely known as the creator of “The Music Man” (which, incidentally, also included a song later recorded by the Beatles, “Till There Was You.“)

The government needed to send phonograph records into 142,000 schools, and several patriotic professionals stepped up to make it happen. Willson donated all his efforts for free, and so did Robert Preston, who was filming The Music Man at the time. During a break from the set, he slipped away to record “Chicken Fat.”

The original disc held the shorter “radio edit” on one side and the six-minute version for school gym class on the other. Capital Records made the actual discs for free, and they were often shipped with a printed instruction card illustrating the exercises, designed by a college football coach.

The Junior Chamber of Commerce got in on the act, financing the purchase and delivery of 50,000 copies to schools. Eventually, one way or another, American schools received around half a million free copies of the record, and some schools still faithfully carried out its instructions into the 1980s.

Plenty of Chicken Fat to go around

YouTube.com offers multiple versions of the song, including a very lively and humorous version from the University of Evansville Cheer Squad. This official website includes a summary of the fitness program’s history, methods, intentions, and aims, designed to reach into every school in the nation, and not only to arrive in those institutions, but to change the very nature of their goals and ambitions.

It goes without saying that the concept of achieving fitness was intended to move from the educational setting into every home in America. And into the military establishment if need be. Then, as now, the nation experienced a shortage of young men who could do Push-up #1, and then along came this perky, annoying song telling them to do 10. As we learn from material written by an uncredited author:

First, during and after World War II, the US Military became concerned over the high number of young men who, when drafted, proved to be too physically unfit to become part of the US Armed Forces. (Imagine what they would find today!)

Any new idea can attract more attention with some variety of fun, though it might be risky, because notions about what is or is not fun tend to vary widely. Speaking of fun, any aficionado will enjoy this Chicken Fat quiz, and may discover they don’t know as much as they thought.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “RFK Jr. mocked online after failing public fitness test,” MSN.com, undated
Source: “Secretary Kennedy Restores the Presidential Fitness Test, Launches Get Kids Active,”
www.HHS.gov, 06/29/26
Source: “Go You Chicken Fat, Go!,” YouTube.com, undated
Source: “University of Evansville Cheer Squad,” undated
Source: “Go, Chicken Fat, Go!,” LOC.gov, undated
Source: Boomers: “Do you remember exercising in school to ”Chicken Fat”?”, MeTV.com, 06/22/26
Image source: Pat Hartman

The Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity

Who amongst us has not wished for a top-notch resource containing almost 200 podcast episodes, along with transcripts of those broadcasts? Obviously, we are talking about the University of Oxford’s interdisciplinary research unit that endeavors to decode “the complex and interwoven causes of obesity in populations across the world.”

With each individual work available as either a podcast or a transcript, the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO) is a spectacular collection of information compiled by some of the smartest scholars on the planet. For proof of that assertion, let’s look at the work of Zofia Boni, titled “Fatness and the Body,” which is concerned specifically with childhood obesity as viewed through the lenses of both biomedical research and social constructivism.

Although Boni did not set out to specifically study obesity, her work experience and academic studies have included “anthropology, food, anthropology of childhood, as well as socialist studies and feminist scholarship,” while current and future work includes such diverse fields as “social anthropology, quantitative sociology, epidemiology, climate science, demography and physics.”

Among the questions for which she seeks answers are:

Where or what is the difference between obesity and fatness, and who has the right to decide that, and also why is that important?

How and why has obesity changed in the way in which is it constructed as a public problem?

How do different actors, especially children, experience childhood obesity?

The scholar has interviewed a slew of professionals who work with children in the areas of overweight and obesity, including “psychologists, nutritionists, dietitians, medical doctors, physical activity experts, and more.” In the field work aspect of her investigations, with children and their parents, she was often made acutely, even painfully, aware of the many ramifications and connotations of these studies.

Every answer brought forth more questions. Is obesity a disease or a condition that causes other diseases? Should childhood obesity be defined and treated as a public health crisis? As an epidemic?

Awkward questions

One aspect that appears problematic is the continuing use of BMI measurements on children, “sort of assuming that obesity is only about excessive weight and always about excessive weight.” And an ongoing question is exactly what the distinction is, or should be, between overweight and obesity.

Even worse is to drag morality into the equation, causing an individual biomedical problem to become a “social, socially constructed form of biomedical oppression.” Enough oppression already exists in the form of “wider social processes, such as inequalities in education and employment opportunities, and environmental exposure to pathogens and pollution…”

Fatness and obesity are often treated as two names for the same phenomenon, but is that a basic error that impedes progress in the field? There is also something distasteful about the widespread assumption that childhood obesity is chiefly caused by mothers and expected to be dealt with mainly by mothers.

How and why did flab make the shift from being pretty much a personal problem, all the way to becoming a matter of public concern? How can it be prevented and/or treated without bringing harmful stigmatization into the picture? How do actual people, especially children, experience not only obesity, but the role of public enemy into which it seems that factions of society often try to cast them?

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO) seminars,” OX.ac.uk, undated
Source: “Series name: Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO) seminars,”
Podcasts.ox.ac.uk, undated
Image by Kyrnos/Pixabay

Stumbled-Upon Shame

In the mind of a typical parent, there are several things that they hope a child will not grow up to be. Researching those possibilities, a journalist will occasionally run across something fascinating to pursue, and here is a great example from the archives of Tumblr.com. The material itself is more than 10 years old, authored by a female cartoon figure pseudonymously known as “edcynic.”

That page was accidentally found in the course of a search for the author of a 10-point list of items relevant to “The Shame of an Eating Disorder,” and here we will elaborate on that rather brief and brusque list, and add a bit of empathic imagination, with the purpose of capturing some of the more distinctive and awkward aspects of living with a pitiful secret that probably everyone around you has long ago guessed. If not treated, what does a binge-eating child have to look forward to?

“Who dunnit?”

Yes, it is easy to imagine the embarrassment when a roommate says, “Where’s that ice cream that was in the freezer?,” and you have to say, “Well, the empty and crumpled container is under the sink…” — especially when it is the third time this week that a supposedly shared treat did a disappearing act. The original author did not go into that much detail, but we know how to extrapolate.

And sure, you want to be as quiet as possible when raiding the refrigerator at 2 AM and everyone else is asleep. Still, that particular awkwardness can be avoided with careful planning, and the average binge eater probably catches on to the techniques of ninja-like stealth pretty early on.

The author mentions how shameful it is to realize that you can’t get to work or to school, or pick up the kids from their school, because you spent the gas money on food. But taking into account the number of people within a 10-mile radius who spent their gas money on crack or lottery tickets, it could be a lot worse.

You again…

A shame that cannot be avoided, unless you want to spend even more of that gas money driving around to stores outside your neighborhood, is the third, fourth, or fifth encounter this month with the same checkout clerk who also processed your last cartful of junk food, and the one before that…

Excessive exercise is a slow-motion purge method, lacking the elements of drama and urgency that a problem eater may be hooked on. And then, there are episodes that qualify as more than just a little embarrassing. Like calling off a plan to do something with friends, because it has become clear that staying home to binge and purge is really the only possible way your mental/emotional quirk will allow you to get through a Saturday night.

Binge-and-purge

In this equation, the “binge” element is simple. Just acquire plenty of edible items made from flour, sugar, fat, and additives. Eat as much of that stuff as possible. So far, the program is pretty straightforward.

The “purge” part is when it gets complicated. Vomiting can be induced in a couple of different ways, and is rough on the digestive system, and expensively destructive to the teeth. However, it is a relatively quick process that can successfully be accomplished in a public restroom or a friend’s bathroom, or even outdoors.

Alternately, the resulting waste may be let out through the other end. A person can swallow a substance to induce diarrhea, a choice that involves the constant threat of exposure in the most elemental, irrefutable way. And, depending on how much you like your job and/or your paycheck, you need to be technically adept at the precise self-administration of your laxatives on workdays. This purge method can also damage a person’s innards, and is not recommended by any sane individual.

A tough one

According to journalist Paula Spencer Scott, binge eating disorder (BED) is “one of the most common eating disorders.” WebMD offers a concise page covering the pertinent categories of questions that parents may have if they don’t want binge eating disorder to become a part of their child’s future.

What should a parent watch for? Exactly how harmful can it be to overall health? At what point is it appropriate for a parent to say, “Okay, this needs to be addressed”? What are the treatment options? What about prevention? And more…

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Pro-Anas and Their Ridiculous “Mono” Diets,” edcynicArchive.tumblr.com, undated
Source: “Binge Eating Disorder in Kids and Teens,” WebMD.com, 02/14/26
Image by Ricinator/Pixabay

Embracing Shame and Blame

Members of the general public who tend to hunt for scapegoats can’t help noticing a huge category of humans who are eligible to receive a share of the blame for the crushing expense of modern life: the population of obese children, along with their parents, who seem to be co-conspirators in a plot to make everyone else go bankrupt.

Some families receive government assistance with their medical bills, which may be caused or exacerbated by a child’s unfortunate condition. At any given time, there is only so much money to go around, and one school of thought says that available funds should only be spent on kids whose condition was 0% caused by any actions of their own, or by any neglect or wrongdoing on the part of their parents.

And it must follow, as night follows day, that in a universe shaped like that, childhood obesity is always 100% the parents’ fault.

Yes, in certain circles, a child’s obesity is fondly accepted as being his, or her, and/or the parents’ exclusive problem. Each time a medical professional or institution is paid to alleviate a situation caused by obesity, it reduces the funding available to cure children whose medical problems cannot be dismissed as their own fault.

It means that some other child might not obtain help at all. It is the sort of public budget scandal, based on half-baked evidence and janky reasoning, that some taxpayers love to be upset by.

Universal participation

Of course, overweight kids and their progenitors are not the only recipients of blame in modern society. Shamers get blamed too, and blamers also are shamed. There are plenty of bad feelings to go around! Some grownups are blamed for trying to make overweight people feel not just lousy about themselves, but unworthy of human consideration, period. Moreover, obesity arguments tend to metastasize into every aspect of life.

For instance, more than one critic has pointed out that the average passenger airplane seat is an inch and a half narrower than its counterpart of two decades ago. And yet, the average passenger’s rump is not 1.5 lateral inches slimmer than those of his immediate ancestors. Or even close. It gets worse. Some frequent flyers report, instead, that seat width has actually narrowed by an entire two inches, while “leg room” is now as mythical as a leprechaun.

Meanwhile, folks with other interests note that, although airplane seats may have shrunk, theater seats have widened. And yet, that is not universally appreciated. In another context, a different anonymous online malcontent recently complained that theater is a dying art form because the seats are still too small. In their opinion, to discriminate against large-bottomed moviegoers is a losing strategy for an art form that hopes to stay relevant in this day and age.

Freedom of speech

It is not surprising that the more secret a website allows posters to be, the more open their communications become. A pseudonymous woman, for instance, might point out that “Fat people deserve dignity, fat people deserve to be treated with respect, fat people deserve to have their healthcare concerns taken seriously and their healthcare needs met.”

Confronted by unsympathetic normies, some correspondents take great care to explain just why their weight is so difficult to control, while others declare with explosive anger that the reason why a person is fat is nobody’s business and doesn’t matter anyway, when it comes to a basic issue like common courtesy. No one owes a rude stranger, or even a polite one, any justification for their own existence.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Image by Wadams/Pixabay

Psychological Roots of Shame and Blame

To have a large body used to mean something. If you were a man, it implied that you possessed the power to take what you wanted. If you were a woman, it meant that your father or husband could afford to not only basically nourish, but to indulge you.

On the human scale of such matters, in the depths of the preverbal mind, there is a lot more justification for overweight people to look scornfully at normal-weight people than vice versa. It’s just so glaringly obvious (in the absence of actual logic, of course) that the overfed specimen is superior to the less bulky kind.

But with modern, logical knowledge, there is no valid reason to be proud of fat. The urge to brag about the size of the belly has been displaced. So, instead of showing off the obvious result of privileged eating — the expanded waistline — it is now necessary instead to show off how you got that way. The primitive urge to be admired for our sheer poundage is displaced by the urge to be admired for where, how, and what we eat.

Obsession leads to… more obsession

Currently, to be observed dining in an absurdly expensive restaurant is something that insecure people do in the hope that they will consequently feel better about themselves. To engineer a situation where both your financial peers and the less privileged commoners watch you eat overpriced food becomes the most significant event of the day.

Meanwhile, within someone with a differently attuned conscience, lives the awareness that impoverished people are more likely to be obese because of gnarly food additives, low availability of healthful fresh foods, unaffordable medical care, fewer opportunities to enjoy safe outdoor exercise or to afford home gym equipment, and other factors.

If a conscientious critic has a choice between mentally persecuting the wealthy obese or the poor obese, resentment toward the overfed will be much easier to justify and reconcile with a finely-tuned sense of basic morality.

Historical echoes

Whether intellectually defensible or not, the attitude itself is basically instinctive. To look at an overweight person is to trigger a very deep concept that the mind does not even need to translate into words, but to which it automatically leaps: If that person has access to enough food to fatten them up like that, it must be because they intentionally, knowingly, and wrongly deprived someone else.

That assumption, arrived at by the subconscious mind of a well-to-do person, might be right or wrong. They might be recognizing a fellow piratical spirit, but they also might be totally off the mark. Likewise, a penniless individual could also be either sadly correct, or unfairly 180 degrees wrong, about the stout person.

Or, at the sight of an individual who looks pretty darn good, the onlooker might assume that he or she goes to great lengths to keep that body in presentable shape — and might be correct. Or, it could simply be the case that the fine-looking object of their gaze was lucky enough to inherit incredible genes.

A pitiful waste of mental energy

The point here is, for multiple reasons it would be much more sane and healthy for us to not think about other people’s bodies at all. First, because our subconscious minds are capable of reaching erroneous conclusions all day long, and second, because we are totally able to believe bounteous amounts of nonsense without even being aware of this flaw.

But mainly, regarding the condition another person is in, all that mental energy is simply wasted because our theories and opinions will not affect that shape at all. And how does this relate to the psychology of blame and shame?

Suppose that someone gives up the chance to run a lucrative family business in order to rescue cats that might otherwise be “put to sleep.” In the public eye, this person might be considered saintly, and spoken of in complimentary terms, and admired for the strength of his or her convictions, and for his or her refusal to bend before public opinion.

Now, suppose that a different person could have captured a top-level position in a powerful company — but sadly, during the immediate post-graduate year of corporate ladder-climbing, she gained 80 pounds. She could have prevented that from happening — but did not. She ignored public opinion, refused to bend to any sort of pressure, and just got fat, and lost the chance to climb the corporate ladder. Strangely enough, to resist the reasons and rules of others — in that situation — is not admired one little bit.

Our minds versus reality

It is totally possible that additional studies could discover other factors that affect and are affected by the relationship between obesity and income. Many other interesting truths might be discovered, too. But the bottom line is, why bother? Unless we happen to be a person working toward an advanced degree in a specialized academic field, there is really no reason at all for us to expend mental energy on these matters.

Few things in life are more futile than wasting even a moment’s thought on the shape that anyone is in, other than 1. ourselves and 2. the minor children for whose health we are legally and morally responsible. To grasp this principle is to free up countless brain cells for more productive and satisfying use.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Income and obesity: what is the direction of the relationship?,” BMJ.com, January 2018
Image by joenomias/Pixabay