Who Can Lead a Nationwide Weight-Loss Movement?

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We Need a Combination of Jack LaLanne, Babe Ruth and Rosa Parks

I read Dr. J’s recent column on this site regarding Ralph Nader’s emergence as a cheerleader for exercise, fitness and physical activity with mixed feelings. On the one hand, public figures who have devoted followers are always welcome here on the anti-obesity-epidemic bandwagon, where there is still, alas, plenty of room. On the other hand, as noble and worthwhile as his groundbreaking early work on automobile safety was, as noted by Dr. J, Nader’s image has deteriorated over the years from public guardian to national scold.

His political stance long ago became so rigidly principled and demanding that many of us decided that nothing we could do would really be enough for him, and wrote him off as impossible to satisfy. I think he brings that off-putting aura to anything he endorses these days, and so I’m not sure whether having him publicly associated with exercise and fitness would be all that positive or productive. Also, it’s hard to imagine that persons engaged in lifelong struggles with their weight would identify with a man who, in every photograph ever taken of him, makes Mick Jagger look like Meat Loaf.

For that matter, as much as I admire Michelle Obama, and concede her tremendous popularity, it’s easy for HER to preach fitness; she looks like she could push an SUV up a hill. I suspect she leaves more people envious than she does inspired. And that’s a shame, because there is a crying need for someone to come along and, by simple force of their example or endorsement, make physical fitness and dietary self-control trendy, hot, a national fad.

We’ve proven repeatedly that as a nation, we’re capable of rising, or descending, to almost anything if it becomes the thing to do. We’ll wear coonskin caps, or bell bottoms, or leggings, or nose rings, or pants below our waist. We’ll dance the Charleston, or the Twist, or the Macarena, or Gangnam Style. We’ll buy pet rocks and Chia pets, read the entire Harry Potter saga, or line up to buy anything Apple decides to make. I see no reason why we wouldn’t take up jogging or vegetarianism or calisthenics if doing so became The New Big Thing.

And one way to turn something into that New Big Things is to have some widely admired or adored personality embrace it, thus setting off a stampede of followers who adopt it in imitation. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the admired personality’s endorsement is often totally unintentional. James Bond novels were gathering dust until JFK mentioned in passing how much he enjoyed them; within four years, “Thunderball” was setting box office records. Hardly anyone wore goatees until Mark McGwire sported one the year he and Sammy Sosa chased and broke Maris’ home run record; now they’re as common as eyeglasses. And Davy Crockett had been dead for 120 years when his coonskin caps took off.

Of course, there have been celebrities who have been knowing and deliberate cheerleaders for exercise and a fitness, such as Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, but their influence has always been limited by personal drawbacks. Fonda’s anti-war history remained unforgiven by many, and Simmons was simply too over the top; once Dave Letterman has blasted you with a fire extinguisher, you’re effectively finished as a role model. And they both had commercial motives for their enthusiasm.

It’s hard to come up with a widely-known personage whose celebrity is based on actual achievements and good works who doesn’t also fail some admiration requirement. Names like Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and David Petraeus come to mind. And even if they were free of any personal taint, they’re already lean and fit to begin with. True, there are portly public figures with legions of devotees, but they tend to be just as widely disdained: Rush Limbaugh, Al Gore and Newt Gingrich, for example.

What the weight-loss movement needs is a leader who is admired and respected by all, who is free of any hint of scandal or controversy, and who is clearly on the obese side. I can think of only one soul who fills that bill. And frankly, I just can’t imagine Santa Claus wearing Speedos and working a Stairmaster. Until a real human being who meets those qualifications takes up the cause of weight loss, we’ll just have to content ourselves with whoever we can get. Ralph Nader is far from ideal, but it could be worse. At least he’s not Donald Trump.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

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Who Can Lead a Nationwide Weight-Loss Movement? is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/12/03/who-can-lead-a-nationwide-weight-loss-movement/

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