A reflection on body fat and what it might be good for

Survival of the Fattest

Fat people are an endangered species. Surrounded by muffins, chocolate, high-calorie sweet & fat and salty & fat stuff they are condemned to suffer from high-cholesterol, diabetes 2, and high blood pressure. True, diet and regular exercise help, yet the basic fact might indicate that bodies of fat people don’t run on the right body software. They survive with Lipitor and unease in societies that have developed in the wealthier parts of our world.

Being fat is a constant struggle. It starts with finding to buy appropriate and nice-looking clothing. Buckling up on an economy airfare seat can be a problem. Finding an adequate partner for love and life might be tricky, too. Not everybody is up to a Peter-Paul Rubens style.

For what kind of situations are fat people designed for, we may ask. The answer being: for the base case of human existence which is described by failing harvests, famine, and cold spells in the Northern Hemisphere. The American Way of Life is a historical anomaly.

There is a lot in favor of being fat. African men like to choose a fat bride – historically a fat, healthy woman had a higher chance to survive a hunger crisis, particularly when breast-feeding (milk = water plus fat plus proteins plus minerals) her baby kids.

Fat helped the caveman to survive the ice ages – the skinny ones died suffering from hypothermia after food ran out in the cave, when seven feet of snow prevented any successful hunt. Those who had the genes that turned every calorie into body fat were the ones who survived. The only skinny survivors were those that had become cannibals (perhaps psychologically perpetuated in today’s management culture).

Even my Dad believes he survived the bitter cold Russian winter of 1942/1943, sleeping in the dry snows of Stalingrad protected by a bit of extra body fat and his captain’s lamb’s wool coat.

Times like ours are historical anomalies – even the staunchest believers of modern agro-business may concede that food production will collapse once sudden climate changes occur.

And climatic changes do occur; our planet’s history is nothing but a constant record of persistent climatic changes. There will be another ice age, and our governments have failed to agree on even modest attempts to monitor, control and stabilize our planet’s climate. Which means the specter of hunger will return: and yet once again, the survival of the fattest.

© 2004 by Franz L Kessler