Lipids

When we learned about the cell in Anatomy, lipids were an important kind of molecule in the body.  Their first function is to provide protection and padding.  Their second function is storing energy.  There's more, but those two are the top of list when it comes to why we have lipids.  When the doctor does blood tests we hear about lipids and cholesterol and such.  We haven't studied about cholesterol yet, so that discussion will have to wait.  Now, if you are not a science buff and don't know what lipids are, they are fat.

So the fat molecules in your body are there for protection and to store energy.  The first source of energy that your body has is carbohydrates.  That is what it burns for energy.  The second easily available source is lipids, and the third source is protein.  I believe there are 20 protein molecules, and the body can only make about 8 of them.  The rest you have to consume in the food you eat.  Working out breaks down the lipids and your body uses them.  That's why working out takes energy.  Breaking bonds is always harder than forming them.  If we don't work out, the lipids just keep growing in number...and there are all kinds of consequences for not moving one's body.  To list them we'd have to visit kinesiology.  I'll save that for another day.

Now you know, me being who I am, that all of this is coming around to some point.  I am thinking about our culture's obsession with weight.  I am thinking about the cruelty at times toward people who are large...the name calling, the jokes, the way people are presented in movies and sitcoms, and worst of all there is an isolation that happens.  So often large folks are painted as stupid or mean or lazy.  It's all over the place in our society.  I get pretty fed up with it.  What does it serve except to provide a way for thin or normal weight people to feel superior somehow.   What if we paid attention to the science of fat?  Instead of making such harsh judgments, what if we looked at why it's there?  The number one reason is protection.  Ok, so you look at that with a cool eye...the organs in our abdominal area need more padding for protection.  But that doesn't mean obesity is acceptable.  Perhaps not.  But what if that cool reality moves into the psychological realm.  People who carry weight (and it is a large number these days), often do so for protection.  Bingo.  We may not know a particular individual's reason for needing protection, but could we view this with some compassion and understanding?  Yeah, I carry weight.  And yes, it is about protection.  As I have aged it is working against me in many ways, but for many, many years it kept me safer than if I were thin.  If people knew the whole story, that disgust or superiority might just turn into respect.

That is true about a lot of things, not just with the story of the lipids we carry in our bodies.  We don't know the whole story behind certain behaviors.  Overweight people are easy to pick on.  The behavior is visible to the eye.  I have my own prejudices that I carry and work to overcome.  People who come from privilege, people who gossip a lot, people who are perhaps beautiful to look at and have many advantages because of that.  The whole story isn't visible on the surface.  If we knew it, we just might feel very differently about the people we're judging so harshly.