What is health? Is it just the absence of disease i.e the opposite of ill-health is surely health?

For the millions of people who subscribe to the multi-million pound dieting industry and the ever-increasing number of newspaper articles, magazine features and an overwhelming media obsession with appearance, you would be forgiven for thinking health was relative to the way you look!?

Why is someone who is a “size 10” perceived as healthier than someone who is a “size 20” – is it purely because the smaller size is more pleasing to the eye – whose eye?

What the eye cannot see is that the smaller size could be a person who smokes 20 cigarettes a day, drinks far more than the recommended units of alcohol per week, eats a highly processed diet with no fresh fruit or vegetables, takes no exercise, has high blood pressure, works far too many hours in a highly stressful job and is permanently dehydrated due to a lack of fluid (apart from the alcohol of course!).

My example is extreme I know but my point is that a person’s health CANNOT be assumed from checking the label in the back of their dress.

Now I am sure you are all nodding and agreeing with me because this is not rocket science so why, why, why is the population obsessed with dress size!!! A “svelte size 8”, a “toned size 10”, a “trim size 12”, and a “curvy size 14”…. I have to stop there because the positive descriptions tend to stop at size 14! You only have to pick up a magazine containing a before and after story of someone who has lost weight and the descriptions are positively offensive i.e “she was a mammoth size 16!”, “she was a huge and uncomfortable size 18”.

One of the best ways to experience the huge and wonderful variety that is the REAL population of this country is to take yourself off up your local High Street on a Saturday morning, settle yourself down in the window of a coffee shop (for a high fashion mineral water of course - not!!) and indulge in a spot of people-watching! How many models, ultra-glamorous celebrities, six-packs, size zero’s, wrinkle free, cosmetically enhanced, airbrushed, digitally re-mastered, perfect human beings do you see? Count them on less than half of one hand if at all!

What we see in the newspapers, magazines, TV and adverts are not “normal” people – so why do we aspire to look like them and why are they presented as role models?

If you speak to a cross-section of people you will most definitely get a variety of answers as health means different things to different people. To some who have suffered disease it is the fact that they are recovered and are no longer ill. To others it is that they feel okay and can go about their daily lives without too much stress or strain. To another person it may be that they never have to visit their GP. According to the text books the correct “definition” is along the lines of a balance of physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of a person’s life.

So, what does health mean to you? Hopefully not what it says on your clothing label…… life is too short!

Written by XL Emma - Emma Britton“Emma Britton is a dress size 18/20 group fitness instructor who specialises in exercise classes for ladies who are size 16+ only in the community, she also offers achievable, fun, realistic classes for all shapes and sizes. Emma appears regularly in the media and is renowned for her unique approach to being a larger size but fit and healthy and her ambition is to spread this unusual but increasingly researched and proven concept to all sizes around the UK.“Emma’s XL Exercise Company
E: mail@xlemma.co.uk  / W: www.xlemma.co.uk
Copyright Emma Britton 2007

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 10:23 am and is filed under Features, Health & Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.