As the Twig Is Bent

In childhood obesity, mental and emotional health issues play a very large role because of the inherently reciprocal nature of the relationship. Often, those very same mental and emotional health issues can be partly of physical origin. We occupy flesh and blood bodies that produce vital signs, so it could hardly be otherwise.

There are all sorts of possibilities. If a problem originates and is situated in a physical location on the body, it might grow another side and manifest more seriously in the mind. Or, something going on in the mind could show up as a physical result, like obesity.

There are people who consciously choose physical habits that aren’t “good for them,” knowing full well that whatever the consequences may be, they are not as frightening as the potentially alternative conditions like nightmares, a tendency to weep spontaneously, or a socially embarrassing tic. Compared to a lot of potentially miserable situations, getting fat is not a steep price to pay for sanity.

Depending on current circumstances, a person might be very grateful to have two possibilities. Sometimes, choosing the lesser of two evils is the only way out. Remember the impossibly trite but infinitely wise saying “It is what it is”?

It is what it is

One way or another, thinking about these matters too much can be inconvenient, or even dangerous. A mental/emotional roadblock can exist, then morph into a different class of problem… like one with a physical result… like obesity.

It is unfortunate, but even someone whose head is in pretty good shape can self-sabotage by just habitually, unthinkingly eating too much unconsidered food. Then, the resulting obesity can adversely affect that person’s mental and/or emotional health. Then, the resulting stress can lead this individual to eat more… and so on, back and forth… for 50, 60, or 70 years.

Something different

The National University of Singapore recently presented the public art exhibition titled VOICE, short for “Visualising Obesity’s Impact from Childhood Experiences.” Created by researchers, artists, and college students, the event’s basic idea originated with research from highly respected institutions. The show attracted a great deal of favorable attention, and not just in academic circles. The impetus behind it was research that examined…

[…] how childhood obesity is experienced as a complex social and psychological phenomenon, and shaped by family dynamics, school environments and broader societal norms.

Not surprisingly, this ambitious goal turned out to be a tall order. It has never been easy to overcome the twisted societal expectations that impose a burden on any class of people. Such deep-seated prejudices have dimensions and aspects that are easily and often overlooked when they become a seamlessly integrated feature of the culture.

The creators told the press that the informal format “allows audiences to engage with these stories at their own pace, creating space for reflection, empathy and deeper understanding.” Interactive exhibits included one that offered the visitor an opportunity to write down a slur that might be used against an overweight person, and display it on a wire sculpture:

[T]he exhibition presents an immersive collection of photographs, 3D-printed artifacts and personal narratives. Together, these works invite reflection on how everyday language, social attitudes and intervention approaches around weight can leave lasting impressions on children as they grow up.

In other words, to bend the twig will influence the shape of the tree, just as it always has done and will continue to do.

Other layers

One aim of the free-admission art show was “to open up conversations beyond physical health.” Another was to guide viewers toward looking “beyond physical health outcomes to consider how early experiences can shape wellbeing into adulthood.”

Many participants recounted how seemingly casual remarks about weight, repeated pressure to lose weight without guidance, or public scrutiny of their bodies contributed to feelings of shame, isolation, and low self-worth. They disliked the sensation of being labeled, observed as if they were lab animals, or otherwise stigmatized.

For some reason, Singapore is perceived as a particularly dicey part of the world for obese people to live in. Dr. Jumana Hashim told the press,

While ample research has been done to uncover the risk to physical health, there is a gap in the understanding of how living with obesity can impact mental health…

This is why we dive in to understand the people, places and processes that shape these experiences so that we can inform future weight management interventions, ensuring we don’t perpetuate the risk of any unintended mental health consequences.

Attendees were invited to consider and create art about such aspects as the labels that society is all too eager to bestow upon its overweight members. Among outcomes and results that are to be hoped for and worked toward are “positive, empathetic communication by parents, teachers and others, and to avoid language and practices that reinforce stigma or shame.”

Prof. Leonard Lee noted “the importance of empathy-focused, multi-level interventions that involve families, educators and healthcare practitioners, rather than placing responsibility solely on children.” Prof. Lee also emphasized that weight management efforts need to be presented “in ways that are sensitive to children’s mental and emotional wellbeing.”

Meanwhile, afflicted humans will continue to cultivate mental and emotional resilience, formulate coping strategies, and find sources of support.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Shining the spotlight on the hidden mental health impact of childhood obesity,” ews.nus.edu.sg, 01/30/26
Image by Roman Biernacki/Pexels

Obesity Costs Come in Many Guises

One aspect of human life that seems stubbornly unchangeable is the close relationship between obesity and poverty. Also, in some countries, people from certain racial backgrounds tend to be more financially stressed, so minority status becomes an element of the equation. Of course, other factors might intervene too, like the COVID-19 pandemic, which was also inextricably linked to race, poverty, and obesity.

Describing the relationship between obesity and the pandemic, the authors of a scholarly paper specified these as the most common (but not only) forces tending to increase obesity during the period:

[…] sociodemographic factors, physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyles, reduced sleep quality, increased technology utilization, harmful substance abuse, unhealthy food consumption, and psychological problems…

Since then, numerous studies in several countries have made a stab at reckoning the collective weight gain of their respective populations during those years. “Lingering” is a poetic word, but it loses all its charm when applied to the retroactive effects of a worldwide health crisis. The results are still with us, due to a chillingly basic fact: Once it moves into a child’s body, unpacks, redecorates, and arranges the furniture, obesity is a very difficult tenant to evict.

Full employment for math nerds

The globe currently supports a dismaying number of children and teens who, in an alternative universe timeline, would have weighed 70 pounds today but actually weigh 95, and equally impressive hordes of others who in that imaginary universe would have weighed 120, but actually clock in at 145.

If they haven’t already done so, creative statisticians could make a pretty close guess regarding the total amount of weight collectively gained by humans in various demographic categories. We can only hope they will also devote significant energy to figuring out how to reverse the trend.

Hot off the presses

A brand new cross-sectional, multi-site study of Long COVID (also known as LC) shows that it prefers to strike obese rather than healthy-weight individuals. Whether or not their disease lasts for an abnormal length of time, obese patients “tend to suffer worse physical and mental health outcomes.” Many in the medical field are convinced that there will be another pandemic, and are eager to prepare, but are not finding the backup this would require from governmental and other institutions.

The eternal two-way street

Even five years ago, an association was being noticed between the pandemic and the amount of obesity, and since then, there has been plenty of opportunity for researchers to make meaningful connections. About 70% of Americans were overweight or obese then, and the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Donald Hensrud told the press,

During the pandemic, fitness centers have been shut down, our activity may be decreasing, or we may be working from home and not moving as much. In addition, our diet has changed. We may be eating more comfort food or eating what happens to be around the house rather than getting something that is healthier.

Poverty and/or obesity led to more COVID-19 cases, which then contributed to more obesity, which was difficult for families to manage. Massive disruption of the national economy forced many working parents to change jobs, work fewer hours, pay more for child care, or in some other way have their financial situation negatively impacted. When life becomes chaotic, there is not only less money to spend, but people get careless and neglect little details like making an effort to “eat healthy.”

An article by Jeff Krasno, published only a few days ago, noted that COVID-19 has been listed as the cause of death for more than 1.2 million Americans, but there are solid reasons to believe that number should really be much higher. He adds,

Obesity, vaccination, and COVID mortality are not independent variables. They’re downstream of deeper forces, including long-standing health behaviors, trust in institutions, access to healthcare, socioeconomic stress, political identity, and media ecosystems…

How did a wealthy nation with extraordinary medical resources end up in such a sorry state?

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on obesity and its risk factors: a systematic review,” NIH.gov, May 2023
Source: “Obesity and Long COVID: intersecting epidemics?,” Springer.com, 01/22/26
Source: “How the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted issues of obesity,” MayoClinic.org, 01/19/21
Source: “The Political Fault Line: Politics, Obesity, & COVID,” Substack.com, 01/24/26
Image by jarmoluk/Pixabay

Global Damage and Expense

Over much of the planet, a large part of the economy is devoted to producing things called “food,” which, as Childhood Obesity News never tires of pointing out, would baffle interplanetary visitors. The explorers would be tapping on their translation devices, which would seem to be out of order, and sending them back to the technicians for recalibration.

The Earthlings seem to be pretty smart about some matters, but how do so many substances become itemized as “food” that not only lack any trace of nutritional value, but actually contain ingredients that do measurable harm?

Alien historians might search through the records of earlier times on Earth, when humans lived in small and isolated groups. In those simpler, more innocent days, in diverse eras and locations, many societies agreed on certain basic tenets. It is quite likely that a stranger wandering into the settlement would be offered, at the very least, water — and probably food, too.

Later, there would be time for the inhabitants and the newcomers to discover their points of philosophical disagreement and start to become suspicious of each other. Yet and still, an initial sharing of sustenance was very likely to be the first move.

Progress?

As society became more crowded and complicated, food would play a major role in gatherings and celebrations of every kind. For a joyous occasion like a wedding, immense efforts would be made to not only serve up nutritious substances, but to commemorate these significant occasions by offering special treats. The sharing of rare delicacies has become a matter of pride, and often of barely-concealed competitiveness, as hosts vie to be admired for their exceptional generosity.

Of course, there are still many places where food is scarce and limited to a few basic items, so that today’s menu of rice and fish will tomorrow be replaced by fish and rice. But marketing embraces almost the entire globe to the point where even the most remote locations receive shipments of modern, processed stuff called “food,” available to anyone who can afford it. And yet, basic nutrition is affected not positively, but negatively.

Those curious alien scientists would be hard-pressed to find a human population anywhere on Earth not affected by phthalates, which get into food by way of packaging, and have some connection with obesity, in addition to numerous other known and unknown negative effects on the human system.

An ugly example

Then, there is Bisphenol A (BPA for short), which also migrates from food packaging into the consumers of that food, and appears to be connected with not only obesity but several other undesirable consequences in the human body. For instance, as previously mentioned, when a high level of it shows up in the urine of a preteen girl, she is twice as likely to be obese as her friend whose lab results indicate a lower amount of it.

In the USA, the stuff was banned a while back from being used in any object that a baby might make oral contact with. But it is in everything, including bottles and the linings of metal cans that food is packaged in. More recently, it was found to be a frequent invader of the gut microbiome, a realm which we earnestly do not want invaded by nasty chemicals. No one who has been paying attention is surprised to find that its presence in that inner sanctum is associated with childhood obesity.

But although linkage has been noted over and over again by various researchers in different countries, apparently it is difficult to make the case for causation. So, for the time being, we must wait patiently to learn the amount of physical and financial havoc it has caused, specifically in the child and adult obesity realms.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Image by bahonya/Pixabay