3 min read
ByMiriam Shaviv, Miriam Shaviv
There is a time and a place for conversations about healthy lifestyles, but communal organisations should not promote extreme weight loss programmes, says Miriam Shaviv
October 11, 2018 08:49For those struggling to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, the Jewish holidays can feel like one long obstacle course. Try navigating an entire month of oversized meals, often twice a day, when you’re trying to cut down on food. Temptation is everywhere from the shul kiddush to delicious-looking desserts. And given that many of the meals involve family and friends, there is social pressure to eat, too.
Having lost several kilos over the summer, I spent most of the chagim worried that my willpower was going to erode, putting a damper on every meal.
So I am extremely sympathetic to the organisers of uShakedown, a post-chagim weight loss competition. The initiative began in 2016, when 11 men challenged each other to lose weight, pledging money to their own synagogue. Losing weight is rarely easy, and they found a way to lose weight that works for them.
Recently, however, the initiative expanded to include a long list of other synagogues, schools, well-known charities and youth groups in the community. Teams are encouraged to lose as much weight as possible in seven weeks, whilst soliciting sponsorship for their charities.
Whilst the founders are doubtless well-intentioned, it is profoundly irresponsible and even dangerous for communal organisations to be associated with this competition, let alone actively promote it. Campaigns involving weight loss need to be approached in the most cautious, thoughtful way. Yet encouraging people to compete to lose as much weight as possible in a short period is as about subtle as a bull in a china shop.
Yes, obesity is a serious health challenge that must be tackled. According to the NHS, a quarter of UK adults are classified as obese, and it is doubtless a problem amongst Jews as well.
But so are eating disorders, which affect at least 1.6 million Brits, according to the charity Anorexia and Bulimia Care. Whilst there are no reliable statistics about the prevalence in the UK Jewish community, studies of Jewish adolescents in the US and Canada show much higher rates of eating disorders than in the general population. This is probably under-reported because of the stigma attached.
Experts cite the community’s contradictory attitude to food and weight. Meals and food are central to Jewish culture. But there is the same, familiar pressure to be thin, and in the strictly Orthodox community, a good shidduch may depend on it.
Are communal organisations whose names are associated with an extreme weight loss competition completely confident that they will not, inadvertently, trigger these issues in some individuals — men as well as women? Even for those who do not develop clinical conditions, weight can be a very sensitive issue, prompting shame, anxiety, depression and self-hatred. We all know both teens and adults who obsess unhealthily about food and weight, become socially insecure, detest what they see in the mirror and grow ever-more depressed as the weight piles back on. Again, all this is exacerbated by the centrality of food in Jewish life.
Given this context, many organisations (and parents) struggle to discuss weight in a positive, supportive way. Have the charities endorsing uShakedown or allowing teams to fundraise on their behalf thought, at all, about the message they appear to be sending people struggling with their body image? (Last year’s winners: “Sydshul Fatties United”.) Or what the effect will be on participants who do not lose weight as fast as their peers, or who regain it all quickly?
Because that is bound to happen. Although uShakedown’s website sprinkles the word “health” about liberally, the challenge rewards those who lose the most weight, in a very short period of time, with no plan to support them long-term. Numerous studies have shown that losing weight too fast is both unhealthy and unsustainable, so this competition sets up people for long-term failure.
Nationally, the conversation about weight is pivoting from diet and calories to “healthy lifestyle”. There is increasing recognition that embedding healthy behaviours is the key to making weight loss stick — not the other way round.
The community should follow suit. If we discuss weight at all, it should be to encourage people to cook healthier, eat more balanced meals or get fitter - responsible goals that change people’s habits long-term.
As for diet competitions, communal organisations should be clear: “Not in our name”.
