So, through boredom, google, and my own peculiar brand of obsession whenever I find a subject that captures my interest, I got to thinking about Magical Diet Cure-Alls. Through a very random train of You-Tube videos and google searches I came across a Magical Diet Aid called HCG which is apparently a hormone extracted from the urine of pregnant women which you inject yourself with via hypodermic needle for six weeks while following a 500 calorie a day diet. Yes, this is an actual product, not a joke. I came across a video on youtube where a young girl, who stated that she was a senior in high school, had just started the HCG program after her dad lost 70-some pounds on it... I won't post a link to the video because I think that would be rude. I feel bad enough as it is simply talking about this video, even if it was posted openly on the interwebs...
Anyway, I just think this is so sad. The girl was adorable, probably 17 or 18, and yet somehow she felt that it was necessary to inject herself with NON-FDA APPROVED HORMONE in order to lose weight. Not only that, but her parents, and I bet doctor, are probably condoning it. Except, after only 30 seconds of googling, I found a news article that completely debunks it, not to mention the wikipedia page. I guess I can understand how one might think this is a good product - just google simply "HCG" or "HCG Diet" and you get hundreds of fake blogs, fake review sites, and fake medical professionals all pimping its effectiveness. But just search "HCG scientific studies" and you get some real information - a myriad of studies on this hormone have been conducted since the 70s, and all scientifically valid, double blind studies comparing HCG to a placebo came back the same - exactly the same.
The fact that this shot doesn't work for weight loss is not my main concern. It's the fact that a TEENAGE GIRL who is still developing, maturing, physically and hormonally, is being put on a diet that, in a skinny girl, would be considered anorexia (500 calories a day) and is being given an untested hormone from a pregnant woman's urine. I'm sorry, doesn't anybody ELSE in this world see a problem with this? Sometimes I just want to throttle the entirety of society. Hormone Injections and Teenage Girls should NOT go together! Not to mention that I'd have serious worries about her health, strength, mental acuity and general well-being on 500 calories a day. Oh, btw, do you know what the HCG shots claim to do? They "burn fat instead of muscle and lean tissue" or something to that effect. Is your BS meter going off as strongly as mine is?? Anyway THAT rant aside, I want to meander on to the point that I titled this post for, which this HCG drug got me thinking about.
Currently, there is no miracle cure for obesity. The only drug on the market as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) that is FDA approved for weight loss and has shown legitimate, reproducible results in scientific studies that it aids weight loss is Alli and that happens to come with the oh-so-pleasant side effect of liquid poo leakage - as their instructions say, Wear Brown Pants... Now that's a slogan for you, eh? Anyway, THAT train of thought led me to this one. What would happen if there were a miracle weight loss "cure".
If there were some hypothetical 100% effective, 100% safe cure that could make you lose as much weight as you like with no side effects. It doesn't even have to be a pill; say a magical fairy came to earth and said she would magically make anybody the weight they wanted to be... Would you take this magical "cure"? I bet 99.99% would. Hell, I love my body, I love myself the way I am, but I'd probably do it - peer pressure can be a powerful thing, you know. Do you think there would be hold-outs? Would you be a hold-out? Say that everybody was given this magical cure that made them all skinny, all the same size - let's say for example between the sizes of 00 and 8, which are typically what The Fashion Industry considers to be thin. Do you think anything would change, really?
Or do you think that those on the fringes of those sizes would get ostracized, just as they do now? Don't you think that size 8 women, formerly considered thin, would become the new Fat? Do you think women would still worship a size 00 if it could be attained just by sprinkling some fairy dust? I don't think so. I think 00 would also be ostracized for being on the fringes of what is acceptable. If women could keep sprinkling fairy dust until they're the weight they think is best, do you think they would all eventually just become the same size? What would the world look like with no fat people?? Walking automatons with no distinct variations in curves, flesh or fat? Do you think everyone would just be happy and perfect and healthy because they were skinny? That dating would be easier, fashion would be less exclusive, spouses wouldn't cheat, and we'd all live into our 90s? No. It would just be the next thing - only women who can afford ear implants can be fashionable - let the poor be damned. Or, only women with curly hair are societally acceptable and straight simply won't do [lol, in my curly-headed dreams].
It's exponential decay. Visualize a man walking from point A to point B. Each step he takes, he walks half the distance. He gets closer and closer to point B but he never reaches it. Each step we take seems like we're closer to equality, but we'll never really get there.
I think this World Without Fat People is the unsaid promise of all diet pills. They're not saying that you can be healthy, they're saying that you can be thin, so that you won't be picked on as The Group People Arbitrarily Feel Better Than. And it is just that. Discrimination is arbitrary and each step we take to eliminate one facet of it just makes another one pop up. African Americans are slowly gaining equality, but Middle-Easterners are harassed, singled out, and hated on like never before. Women are finally considered to be valid members of society with rights, but LGBT people aren't. It stretches back into antiquity. Groups that were hated propagate hate. The Catholics drove the Protestants out of Europe and the Protestants drove the Natives out of America (in a sense). As soon as one group makes a step forward, another group takes its place. We will never be rid of discrimination until we stop trying to fight its symptoms and start fighting the cause. Until we look deeply, sincerely, critically at ourselves as a society and tells ourselves to quit the bullshit. Since the human race loooooooves its bullshit, I doubt that day will ever come.
I know you may think that all this is a bit dense, and tangential, for a post that originally started as a discussion on diet pills, but I hope I've shown how all this is related. Diet pills are trying to sell a way for people to get out of The Group Everyone Feels Better Than, promising a freedom from ostracism and discrimination. But by buying into the framework that one group is better than another (ie Thinnies and Fatties) we are merely promoting that framework. Utopia is not a world where everyone is thin and beauty-obsessed. Utopia is a world where the radical diversity within the human species is celebrated as a wondrous marvel, rather than a defect to be purged. Novel idea, huh? The same old message to love your fellow man as much as you love yourself. Hey, it's only been 2,000 years since that hippie, Jesus, came on the scene, it probably just hasn't caught on yet.
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