My Modest Proposal for Obesity and Eating Disorders

When you look to the world around you, what do you see? Do you see people as individuals who are unique and beautiful in their own way? Do you forget about judgments and give everyone equal opportunities no matter who they are, what they look like or what side they swing for?

Of course you don’t! No one does these days! No matter how accepting you think you are, nothing will prevent you from avoiding someone at a bar that looks like he could snap you in half. You are going to run screaming and crying from that man, I do not care who you are!

This is America’s problem. We are so judgmental that if you are not pretty, muscular or skinny, you are not accepted into society. People see hair infested with dandruff, large rimmed glasses adorned at crooked nose and a pimply face and are immediately turned off. Nothing will make you want to even walk next to that person never mind have a conversation with them.

Body image is so important to people lately, especially teenagers going through middle school and high school. There is so much pressure on them that they think it is acceptable to starve themselves or binge after every meal. There is even bullying of overweight people because the look different—and that most likely only makes them eat even more.

Bullying can cause intense depression that can even lead to suicide. Depression, often a repercussion of bullying, is common in 15% of the population. 66% of people who have depression will commit suicide and 30% will attempt it.

Suffering from depression myself, I was never bullied but I know how hard it is to deal with people whom you do not like and have to second guess everything you are wearing because you do not know if it is socially acceptable or makes you look too fat. Since I was 7 I have been self conscious and unable to really break out of my shell because I have never been comfortable with myself.

I believe that my modest proposal will completely cure our country of bullying because of weight.

I propose that every single person in our beautiful country be put on a diet that will regulate their eating habits and eventually make everyone the same size. The process will consist of three stages that will all depend on the age of the participant.

Stage one is to put everyone under the age of 65 on their respective diet. If you are 65 and suffering from an eating disorder or obesity, then you are too far gone to be helped. There is no hope for you.

But otherwise, everyone will be eating only organic foods, foods that are rich and nutrients and only the amount that they need. All diets will be balanced and healthy. We will spend about a year mastering this stage before we move onto the next.

As an alternate meal, we will be offering Plumpy’Nut, the nut based paste that is offered to African children that are dying of famine.

Stage two will be dedicated to incorporating sports into the lives of all Americans. For each age group there will be a selection of sports that an individual can choose from, and it will vary among people of different genders and ages. When one grows into a different age group, they will need to change their sport to one that is offered for their group. Only when they are 25 will they be able to choose the sport that they want to continue to play.

After half a year of this stage, more creative arts will be incorporated alongside sports so that individuals become well rounded people. Everyone knows that creative people are the only successful people in this world, so having these two activities alongside each other will be very beneficial for each individual. This will mostly benefit the older Americans because you won’t have to be attending school to get all of these benefits.

This stage will include a lot of friendship and bonding among the different groups so no one has to suffer from being an outcast.  This stage will also distract people from food in a way that these activities will keep them busy. Most people eat when they are bored. They usually aren’t even hungry; they just have nothing else to do. So with this stage, Americans won’t have time to be bored.

In the third year of developing this proposal, we will be in stage three. This stage will mostly be geared towards the younger generations. It includes changing all school systems from focusing on academics, to focusing on sports and creativity.

Like I mentioned before, it is only the creative and active people that are actually successful. No one else has any importance, so we will be giving our citizens more importance and self worth.

Put together and fully developed, these stages will bring the citizens of America to a healthy weight depending on their age.

The last stage that will occur for eternity is that individuals will have to maintain their required weight. Weight will be monitored by the government, and if we believe we need to step in, we will put the individual through a boot camp until they are at the set weight again.

Eating disorders will not be handled lightly. They are serious and need to be dealt with before they become and life altering problem that affects the individual and their peers. We do not want people to think that anorexia or bulimia—or even obesity—is alright, and that is why we cannot let it pass our radars.

Among the many benefits of this proposal, is that the price of health insurance will dramatically decrease. On a different side, suicide, as well as bullying rates will drop because there is less of a reason for people to be discriminated against.

Overall, this proposal will bring a more happy, more fit, and more successful America.