Body Positivity: Healthy or Harmful?

people on who were debating with physicians who are guests on the show as well about the fact that, you know, I might be obese and some even morbidly obese, but my numbers are good and I'm still healthy. But that's bad math. That's not that's not scientifically possible to be morbidly obese and still consider oneself healthy. Hello and welcome to Awake at the Wheel. So in today's episode, we're going to be discussing the topic of body positivity. So I can hear it now. I know that this is a really touchy subject for anyone watching on YouTube. You can see me from the shoulders up. I'm a relatively health conscious individual, so I can hear it now that I'm fat shaming by having this discussion. And that certainly is not the case. I think that there's some real psychologic implications that come along with this focus on body positivity and body image, on body shape and so on. So I think it's incredibly important to discuss. And Oren, I'm excited for your perspective as a male on this as well. So I think this could be an interesting conversation. Okay. Well, my perspective to start is, as we've talked about in previous podcasts, that what used to be, let's say, sensible common sense health conscious, let's say evidence based perspectives on these types of things has now become completely or almost completely politicized. So the best advice, the best recommendations and the best solutions are not being or they are being advocated. And the people who do that are being called, you know, hateful, bigoted, fat phobic. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. And then they'll throw a bunch of other terms that have absolutely nothing to do with anything that we're talking about. But that's the society we live in today. So that's my perspective. Beginning next year will unroll a few other ones as well. Yeah. All right. So I think, you know, to begin with, the idea of body positivity is a good thing, but the challenge that comes along with it is that it can ironically, paradoxically, sometimes reinforce the idea that our worth does come from the way that we look. So what I mean by that is I think that this idea was borne out of, you know, we don't have to be skinny or look a certain way or whatever to be worthwhile. And now this focus on, well, I can look however I want and I should be approved no matter how I look. I feel like it's basically saying the same thing, but just on the other side of the spectrum. So, you know, first point that I'll make there is the focus is the same, even though it claims to be different, body positivity tends to emphasize that all bodies are beautiful regardless of their appearance. But there's also this idea of body neutrality that I think maybe is a little bit healthier or a healthier way to look at it. So body neutrality is looking at the person as a whole. And rather than concentrating on the appearance, it's looking more about the way that the body serves us as humans and the way that our are functioning is rather than the way that we look. So I think that that's a bit of a healthier perspective to it. I like that. And I mean, because when I work with patients, whatever we're dealing with, whether it's about, you know, body positive, the body or other health or behavior related issues, I always do say, you know, is it serving your best interest? That's what we really need to look at. And especially so I've got some young men who are fit, you know, they've got good jobs, blah, blah, blah, everything's great. But they, let's say, are drinking a little bit too much, not excessively. They're not addicted and they're not even binge drinking. But after work every day they're having a few drinks. And, you know, in the old days, people said, you know, one glass of wine after, you know, a day is good. And they've gone back and forth on whether that is or not. By the way, I've always believed for many, many years the only benefit of having one glass of wine per day is about stress. If it helps take the edge off, if it reduces your stress, we know stress is the number one killer, either directly or as something that triggers or exacerbates literally all mental and medical conditions or psychological emotional physiological conditions. So. So I believed that the wine truly I mean, even as a teen, when I heard that, I was like nuts, because you're reducing stress. That's really it. Okay. So anyway, the point is. But there are a couple of drinks and that maybe their partner doesn't like it because the partner doesn't want them to either spending the money or they just they know that it's not good for you to have two or three beers after work every single day. Now, they're not getting slovenly drunk. They're not developing a giant beer belly, but it's having some impact. So the point I'm saying is when I talk with these people, I say something which I and I even tell them I go, I know it's not going to work if I if I just say this. So we need to really work on making it work. But here's what I say. And again, I know we're going a little bit away from the body positive, but it's the same idea. It's about taking a look at the good start, the whole person and and, you know, making sure that whatever we're talking about in the end serves your best interest. And so I say, what do people tell young people who smoke cigarets? You know, what's the number one thing people tell them? Like why they shouldn't smoke? It's bad for. Your health and what's it going to do to you? It's going to give you lung cancer. It's going to give you COPD, all kinds of different diseases. And it'll take a couple of years off of your life. That's pretty much. Yes. And so for the young person, either they think, well, that can't happen to me because young people think they're invincible or I can enjoy the cigarette in the moment. More importantly, it's not the cigarette per se for most cases, but the social aspect. I can hang out with my, you know, the friends that are all smoking. I remember in high school as well saying things like we had nothing in common except they were all smoking a lot and we didn't even say anything, but we were all smoking. Right? That was the bonding force, right? So I can look at that now and get all the benefits now and everything like that or I can project myself into some potential future that may or may not have because I don't know for a fact. Maybe size or. Anyway, the bottom line is when you're looking at the future versus the now, for most people, the now rules out over the future, especially if you're young. So what I say to the people that I'm working with, especially the young men, women as well, but mostly young men who want to change a certain behavior that they know is having a negative impact. Again, maybe it's only small, right? But they do want to make a change. I say think about when you're a bit older, you're going to have kids especially. But you know, and I asked what they like to do. Someone likes to travel. I say, Well, try traveling. Try walking around Greece or somewhere else for, you know, six or 8 hours a day with an extra 50 to 100 lbs that you don't need. Right. And they say and you know, whether it's because you've been drinking it, it accumulates or it's something else, you know, like somehow you just think about that. Think about something that you want to do, something that's going to be fulfilling and recognize that whatever you're doing now is going to make it much harder to do. And now some people say, okay, fine, I'll cut it out later. I go, No, no, no. When it comes to health, okay, starting now is the best thing that you can do. Getting those habits starting now, try to do it later. It's always harder later. The longer that you do something, it's hard to break. And it just as we get older, our bodies change. It's harder to, you know, the metabolism slows down, etc.. So I tell them, start now. And so it does seem to work to some degree. I mean, I'm oversimplifying it, but again, whether we're talking about what we're talking about body positivity here and, you know, an unhealthy body. So whether it's because of drinking, whether it's because of eating, whether you have a sedentary lifestyle, whether it's because of lack of exercise or some other thing that you're doing that's not good for your body. Right. You find something that will motivate you to, you know, to make a positive change. So. Yeah, absolutely. And to that point with the clients that I work with, one of the biggest tools that I recommend is exercise and diet, because there are so many different health benefits that come along with it. And, you know, sometimes I'll hear things from clients that, well, I don't need to lose weight, but it's not about losing weight. It's about having a healthy body and a healthy brain. And if you happen to lose a couple of pounds, great. But that shouldn't be the focus. It should be on, again, the whole body and how living a healthy lifestyle is going to benefit you long term. So what's interesting is with this whole body positivity movement, I think the assumption is that it's had some positive impact on the next generation in terms of how they view their bodies. I think that was at least the intention. But I came across a study yesterday and it's only one study, but I think it's, you know, quite a bit of interesting information. So I'm going to read some of the highlights from it and we'll link to this. The study in the description. So this is a survey conducted by Harmony Health Care. So in June of 2023, they surveyed 999 women about their relationship with their body and their body image. So the respondents ranged in age from 18 to 77, with the average age being about 43. 23% of the women surveyed were B baby boomers, 25% were Gen X, 26% were millennials, and 26% were Gen Z. So here's where things get interesting. 53% of the Gen Z respondents thought that Barbie represents the ideal body image. So this is crazy to me because I think my generation, your generation, generations previous, ever since Barbie has been around, I know that Barbie has been named as a problematic figure in the world in terms of unrealistic body image. So it would stand to reason that with this change in focus on, you know, all bodies are beautiful, all shapes and sizes are beautiful. But the you know, more than half of these people in the youngest generation surveyed still think that that's ideal. So that's a huge, huge disconnect in my opinion. But I'll I'll read some more of the stats here. 79% of the women that were surveyed have dealt with negative body image. 80% of the women that were surveyed have called themselves fat one in four. So 28% of the women had dealt with disordered eating by doing things such as restricting their eating or eating compulsively or eating irregularly. And let's see what else we've got here. So there's actually a chart and you'll see in the link when we share this, if you do choose to look at it further, it points out the different parts of Barbie and what it's saying here is that the respondents indicated what parts of the body women tend to compare themselves most to with Barbie. So 26% compared the face, 28% compared hair, 27%, compared chest 42%, compared the waist 15% the butt and 18% arms, legs 34% and 9% compared feet. So my emphasis on the statement of that percentage of people focusing on the waist. It's been common knowledge, I think, again, since the existence of Barbie, that those proportions are completely unrealistic. I remember seeing something that if a person actually was shaped like that, they would tip over. And yet, even though this is common knowledge, this is still happening. So what are your thoughts on that? Well, I hope that people can recognize that, you know, young people are susceptible to bad information. And part of that is social contagion. And this whole body positivity, there's social contagion. People are hearing some really bad messaging, whether it's you're okay the way that you are, even if it's unhealthy or this is the ideal to look for, you know, to look for, as you say, for so many years that is disheartening. I think it's really a take home here. Yeah. All these years of messaging. And the thing is, though, I don't know if those 53 people, percent of people who said or the young people who said that that's the ideal body image, if you ask them, okay, it's ideal, but ideal also means unrealistic usually, I guess, you know, like because that's what I talk about to people like the ideal self. It's a it's the perfect self, but it's also unrealistic. So why would you strive for something? It's impossible and unrealistic. I wonder if they could if they could sort of reconcile the things there. They say, it'd be great if I looked like that, but I know it's not possible, Right? Because even if they said that, I say, okay, that mitigates my concerns quite a bit. Right? Because if they find that attractive, they all the power to like there's nothing wrong with finding it attractive but aspiring to be to become like that, that's where we get in trouble. So yeah, that's again. And just to show that after all these decades, decades of campaigning, messaging, education, that's still they're saying this once again, parents understand this is what your kids are seeing, whether it's this or some other thing that we've talked about. And they're hearing it every single day. They're seeing it every single day. There was a woman who they call her what they call her Barbie, who had all that cosmetic surgery. Right. I think she had ribs removed. It's just she made herself look like Barbie physically. And I don't know if people look at her as an inspiration or if they feel sorry for her or if a mock her I'm not quite sure what the general sentiment is toward her. Right. But that's an extreme, you know, extreme manifestation of these unhealthy beliefs. But it does happen. And again, some kids, even if they don't aspire to be like that, if seeing that as the ideal and knowing they can never reach it, if that caused them a sense of distress, a sense of futility or a hopelessness and shame, that's a problem as well. Yeah, Yeah. And I think, you know, the the converse, or at least related to that, is this now promotion of obesity being healthy. And these aren't my words. This is something that I've seen in a lot of content online. There is a whole episode of Dr. Phil where he had people on who were debating with physicians who are guests on the show as well about the fact that, you know, I might be obese and some even morbidly obese, but my numbers are good and I'm still healthy. But that's bad math. That's not that's not scientifically possible to be morbidly obese and still consider oneself healthy. So, again, these are some of the messages that kids are being exposed to as well, that you you know, you're perfect the way that you are and you don't have to strive for better. You don't have to strive for health. And in fact, it is healthy if you're obese. Like my brain can't compute that. Well, my brain can, sadly. And not that it makes sense. Okay, this is some really bizarre. I wouldn't call it voodoo math. I don't know what it would call. But anyway. Yes. So it makes literally no sense. But in people's minds, somehow they are taking the easy route where if someone in authority or someone that I look up to is saying something is okay, then I'm just going to blindly accept it. And if you challenge it, you're hateful, bigoted, fat phobic, etc., etc., etc.. And here's the interesting thing. If you ever watch people say that, it's quite fascinating because this is not isolated, this body positivity, It's definitely not some you know, again, it's it's connected to a whole bunch of other movements that we're seeing in society today. Because when you hear people say fat phobic, a string of other words that have nothing to do with body comes out of their mouth. Right. And so this ties to the whether we say the oppressor oppressed the the let's say, the normalized versus the marginalized. Okay. The white versus everybody else, whatever you want to you know, however you want to frame it, there is this perspective that if you have one, if you're in the non privileged quote unquote, group, right, then by nature you are a better person and you deserve a lot more, let's say, leeway and a lot more privilege, ironically, than the other people do. And it is. I think if I can interject for a second. So I've actually personally been accused of having thin privilege or some bullshit like that. And it's like, excuse me. No, I work out for 3 hours a week. I eat really well. I prepare healthy foods like I am intentional about my good health. That's not privilege, that's self-discipline. Right. But for that to be thrown at me as me doing something wrong or being less than because it's such a bizarre concept to me. So I want to jump in and then say that that is a real, absolutely real thing that's happened in something that I've experienced. It's very bizarre. It's bizarre. And it's also so damaging because that's what the young people today are seeing and older people as what we would expect older people to know better. But a lot of them aren't. They're adopting it. They're promulgating it, which is, no, you don't have to work on yourself. You don't have to do anything. You were born on foot. Unfortunately, you were born with these, let's say, deficits. We won't even call it that, though, of course, if. No, no, those other people were born with these privileges. That's what the focus is on. And how so? How dare they say anything? Because they don't deserve this. They think they shouldn't sit down, shut up because they are privileged. And again, this is a perfect example of you said, Yeah, you're not born with this. Now, here's a thing and I've seen doctors say this, or at least one, and there's been a few. There have been a few. I put a quotation marks around doctors who said and it was a famous it was a meme, it was on it was an interview, and it became famous where the person basically said that no diet is essentially one sorry body size is 100% due to genetics. Nothing to do with lifestyle choices that you make. And that's insane. And this is what you and I have talked about since the day one of this podcast about a year ago, which is that people take these black and white perspectives, are some people born with genetics that either make them like, you know, make makes them obese no matter what they do, their body type. They can try to lose weight, but they're always going to have a certain structure, a certain size, like a range. And it's never going to be in that thin range no matter what they do or they have other genetic or biological obstacles that make it impossible to, you know, to do these kinds of things. Or and we know this for a fact, some many people, again, they're born with this where they they get a different reaction to the sight or the smell of food or even the taste. So it's harder for them to exert discipline, no doubt. So yes. And so and now I don't think that we found the apologetic poly genetic code for people who are born with, you know, that that either makes them averse to food or makes it less desiring of it. So. So maybe those people are born with the privilege to want to see that. But are then you're there's a billion different types of privileges that we can find. Let's stop with this stupid language. Does privilege exist? Yes, it does in certain contexts, and we can't deny it, but it's being thrown around recklessly and again, thin privilege. It's ridiculous. And if I can add to that, to draw this back to to me, what is hilarious about that is this is the perfect example of people not looking at the whole person. Let's not forget, I have a significant physical deficit that limits me in a great deal of context across my life. So I've made the choice to optimize every other area of my life in so far as my physical health, right? So if we look at me as a whole, there's some significant deficit, which is why I have chosen to do things the way that I do. So it's just so counterintuitive and again, black and white to look at it as well. You have thin privilege. No, there's a lot more to it than that. Right. And again, you're choosing to do something about it. There's choice and there's control. And what we see in all of these changes recently in society, whether it's about thin privilege or all the other stuff I mentioned about the marginalized and so on or the unprivileged, is that there's that they're basically not encouraging people to take control over things that they have control over. So again, if somebody is unable to exercise the way that we would want them to because they have a very bad back or whatever else, or they don't have resources, they can't afford a gym, fine, it's going to be harder for you, but it's not impossible. Find something where you do have control and try to exercise 1% more control 5%, 10% build on it, because there is things that there are things that you can do to help yourself. And again, it all starts with personal agency, personal responsibility, personal accountability, whatever word you want to use. But there has to be some room for that. And so many supposed experts are denying that, which is ridiculous. And one thing somebody I forget, it was actually thinking who was. But they had a an ex or a Twitter posting maybe last month. And I don't want to make fun of the people that they were. And I don't think I don't know if they were making fun. It did seem like they were mocking a little bit, but what they showed was they showed all these quote unquote fat influencers or body positive body positivity influencers. Okay. And they showed a list of them and they all died at a very young age. Okay. You think there's a coincidence? No. And again, it's not to make fun of somebody like that. It's not to shame someone is to say, as you said earlier, there are consequences to actions or inactions, and we have to bring those consequences back into the into the dialog and help people say, I want to avoid those consequences or I want to benefit from the privilege, quote unquote, that I think that sarcastically for those who giving it. Yeah, but the benefits that you can accrue from making good decisions and again, I'll say over and over in the fact that we have to keep saying it over and over, it is sad, but if we don't, people are going to accuse us of being simplistic and etc., etc.. But the fact is, yes, there are many obstacles that can make it harder for people to do what they need to do to live a healthier life. But those obstacles are not insurmountable. They just make it harder. And just looking at saying, Well, that person was born with good genes and they have lots of money, so they have a gym, they have a personal trainer or whatever. So it's unfair. Well, maybe it's unfair. Maybe. But again, that shouldn't their lives should not dictate how you conduct your own. Precisely. Yeah. And it's it's so interesting, you know, that that people can see one end of the spectrum one way, but the other they're completely closed off to seeing it in the same fashion. And what I'm getting at here is that I think that it's come to be accepted that, you know, limiting severely limiting food and restricting food and, you know, being severely underweight is unhealthy in fact, the DSM, which is the manual that we use to diagnose psychological conditions, recognizes that, you know, anorexia as a disorder. But why aren't we looking at persistent overeating? Obesity is not in the DSM, even though and there's actually a paragraph in the eating disorder section that says something along the lines of, you know, they recognize that obesity is not a psychological condition. But meanwhile, they also say that there are many behavioral components that lead to it. So just an observation that that seems really interesting to me, but I want to draw some similarities here. And I'm not saying, you know, one thing or the other here, but just just an observation. So I want to read one of the one of the criteria related to to anorexia and certainly not taking this out of context, but again, just observing some similarities between promoting obesity and what the DSM says about anorexia. the DSM says that there is a disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced as well as undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation or a persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight. If we swapped in the word high body weight, I feel like the two are are almost identical. And again, this is only one of the criteria. But still. That's an excellent point. Right? You know, yes. If you don't recognize that there is something unhealthy going on, there's something wrong. And now, again, if young people, as you said, the so there's so many times good intentions executed poorly lead to the asterisk in this tape, in this case, fatal outcomes, which is if we're trying to help younger generations not feel ashamed not get an obsession over how they look and not engage in really unhealthy perspectives and behaviors which would constitute eating disorders and body image issues. You know, that's a great that's a great goal. But we're seeing we're going to see the opposite where people who do again, to your point, if these young people are not recognizing that there is a in unhealthy behavior and consequence. Right. And even if it's of behavior, even if, again, genetically, somehow, unfortunately, they're born and they're eating all the right foods and everything like that. But if they just say, well, no, it's okay. And they're not recognizing that this is going to have a negative impact on them and on their lives and their wellbeing. Yeah, it's exactly it's it's it would be a disorder, right. And by the way, for anyone who doesn't who wants to call us out on this, their obesity is not in the DSM, but binge eating disorder is and binge eating disorder. That's a specific type of behavior. That's like, you know, taking a massive amount in a short period of time versus somebody who is just constantly eating. That's not binge eating. That's just someone who or is eating the wrong types of food and is not exercising and so on. So, yeah, I think that obesity and it by the way, in the DSM in almost every disorder, not every disorder, there's always the one of the criteria is that it can't be attributed to a medical condition. So even if people say, well, what's not fair? Why are you calling obesity a mental disorder? Well, if it's due to a medical condition, right, then we would rule it out. But if somebody, you know, again, has a perspective of a mindset, an inability to again, to to live a healthier life, and we're not talking about being a little bit over what you're talking obesity or are you? Because we are talking about. Yes, this is again, this is anything that has a negative impact on your physical, psychological, emotional, mental well-being. Why are we not addressing it? And by the way, to that point, doctors now are terrified. They are getting complaints because God forbid, a patient comes in and we by the way, if you listen on TikTok or any area on Instagram or any of these other videos, you will see so many people make these videos and they're bragging about how they told off their doctor or they're sitting in bed with the covers up saying, I was traumatized today because I came in and I said, you know, my back is hurting or I have no you know, I can't breathe or I ABCDE and my doctor dared mention my weight. So now if a doctor even mentions that they are at risk of getting a complaint, no doubt. Sorry, no joke. They are at risk of getting a complaint because they were, you know, busy subjecting the patient to undue mental trauma or harm by talking. And that that's that's scary. Right. And, you know, before we started recording, you and I even lamented that we need to be careful about what we're talking about here because we don't want to get in trouble. But the fact remains is that the science supports that a healthy physical, like physically active lifestyle, healthy diet is correlated to so many health conditions, either, you know, resolving or mitigating or causing. So, you know, this isn't just something that people are pulling out of thin air. The science has supported it for decades upon decades that living a healthy lifestyle is only in our best interest. And I know I'm talking a lot about myself here, but I'm doing this as a preface of, you know, I get it. It's hard. It's hard work. I lost £50. This is before you knew me, but I was £50 heavier than I am now after I had my kid. So I understand that there's a lot of work and discipline and not wanting to do the hard work to to get to a certain goal. But again, it's about recognizing what what is going to be long term most beneficial for you, for your family, for the people that you support. Whatever your role is in life, being healthy is important. And I talk about self-discipline a lot because I think that self-discipline is a huge part of this. And this isn't to say that people who are overweight are lazy. I'm not saying anything like that whatsoever. So let me be abundantly clear. But there is a strong connection between self-discipline and being able to do hard work and do hard things. And what we're finding nowadays is that there is a bit of an easier way out through things like it was Ozempic and I think Wegovy is the weight loss equivalent of that and a lot of people are gravitating towards that. So it's interesting in almost contradictory, where on the one hand people are saying body positivity, body positivity, but then there's such a huge amount of the population going to this quick fix of these injections right. And we're seeing that has often happened with pharmaceuticals. There are side effects, there are some and more and more and more counter indications and unfortunately a lot of people are going to end up suffering because, you know, they already have. If you have certain conditions, don't take this ozempic or other drugs. But there's always going to be more and that we're not aware of and there are going to be, again, the pharmaceuticals. We know this where they don't want to make this into a pharmaceutical rant, but profits come first. And so we know that a lot of people who think are taking the easy way out are going to find out that, no, there was a catch in many cases. Right. And speaking of pharmaceuticals, I don't want to go into conspiracy theory territory, but there is something that I think needs to be brought up, which is at the very beginning of COVID. Now, anyone who claims to say, you know what they say, I knew this, this or that, I knew this was wrong. I knew this would be right and everything. Well, you're lying to yourself because nobody knew. And to this day, we still don't know completely. But one thing that many people were saying and they were shut down as soon as they said it, they were saying that, yes, for let's say all people, people with certain immuno compromising conditions, people with diabetes or guess what, overweight people, they were the most prone to the worst effects of COVID. And nowhere at first were you able to say that the news was not saying, hey, by the way, if you get outside, get vitamin D and exercise, you will help. You know, that's a make yourself more. Let's say you can help prevent you may not you'll still get COVID, but you can help reduce the effects of COVID. That was not allowed to be said. Now recently, four years later, now they're talking about it a little bit. But that was something. And you have to wonder, there's there's no way that doctors and other practitioners were not aware of this. So there was a huge push for prevention by either the governments, pharmaceutical, somebody. And again, it may sound a conspiracy, but ask yourself why wasn't I get the even just the weight part? Why wasn't that addressed and why wasn't that promoted? Now, you might say again in vitamin D as well, there are people were told to stay inside, which is exact wrong thing to do. You should have been outside even if you're not congregating in large masses but getting outside, getting the sun and so on. Right. That vitamin D was essential as was again body size, healthy bodies. Okay. And I was going to take that to one more step, which is you talked about decades and decades of research showing conclusively how a healthy body, healthy mind and so on and vice versa. Well, and it was decades of research, but we've known for hundreds, if not thousands of years, the mind body connection. And when your body is functioning properly, we know that serotonin is formed in the gut. Now, I'm not a medical doctor and a scientist. I'm a soft scientist. But so if you have a large body and you're not eating properly and that's what's contributing to the large body, then you're affecting the microbes in your in your gut, you're affecting the production of serotonin. And it's a terrible feedback effect if you can either if you exercise, you'll feel a bit better. Feeling better will lead to more ability to exercise, eat properly, etc. making good decisions and so on, less self-destructive behaviors, etc. etc., etc. And that will again keep fueling the positive, the mind, the mood and then the active activities. So it's incontrovertible. Having a healthier lifestyle will have a positive impacts in every area of your life. You cannot deny that. So for anybody who does deny that, ask yourself why would they do that, either as a financial incentive or it's self-serving, because that person, you know, they're projecting themselves onto everybody else and they don't you know, they want to be able to they want to be accepted. They want everyone to buy their self narrative that says I am the way I am because it's not my fault and so on. And so the or the third one, is this an ideological capture or ideological possession that they bought into it? You know, again, the marginalized, the oppressed, etc. And somehow this just part it. That's just a piece in the puzzle. Whatever the case is, it's not based on science. It's not based on facts, not based on evidence, and it's not based on what's in your best interest. Yeah. And at the end of the day, this is yet another issue where professionals can't do their job because of politics. Exactly. Like it's it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. But with all this said I think and we didn't say it, but I think that a lot of people will attribute to what we're discussing here to females and how this affects females. But young boys, males, men of all ages are being affected by this as well. And the messages that are being put out to them about how they should look or shouldn't look. So I just wanted to add that in there too, that this isn't exclusive to females. It does also affect males. And this is not to make this just to show the evidence. It's it's not a political statement at all. Okay. Previously, all the research that I saw showed that, yes, the vast majority of people with eating disorders or body image issues were women. It was like 90 something, 2% were women, 90 to 92, 95% of women to pain disorder were looking at were females. And I saying women. But it's also girls, unfortunately. Right. So females and interestingly, the vast majority of males, I should say the majority of males who had certain body image issues or eating disorders just happened to be gay or bisexual males. Just interesting. It's interesting. So whether it's something about biological or whether it's about the social influence, what they're seeing because a gay young male will be we'll be looking at other materials or resources than a straight male. But now it's now the numbers are changing because the let's say the messaging to straight males changed as well. As you're saying, you know, where there's this thing called it's not a real it's not in the DSM, but it was called or coined bigarexia. So males had this distorted image no matter how big they got, no matter how cut the whatever, somehow it wasn't enough and they were injecting themselves and they still are with silicone and all these other substances that are unhealthy. And there's some tragic stories or they're taking steroids or testosterone or other things. So now the number of males who have it, I have the exact numbers with me, but the numbers who have some type of body image issue or disordered, I'm going to say, either eating or putting substances in their body. Right. It is increasing significantly. So nobody is immune to, let's say, consistent messaging from the right sources. If they see people that they look up to and so on and they have these ideal bodies or supposedly ideal bodies when they get the message, there was the the liver. KING Right. But there was the guy who was just about the only eating liver, and he had this just like impossible body and say, it's all natural just through liver. It. How many people bought into that? Right. So again people have to understand if you think male, female, gay, straight, I don't care what you are, if you think that you are a rational being, you're lying to yourself. We are emotional beings. We have our we are so easily influenced and persuaded and we have to recognize that. So we always talk about what can you do about it? Recognize that there's so much messaging going on these days, sometimes malicious and manipulative. Other times it's just a person thinks they're saying the right things, that they think that they're giving a positive message, but it's unhealthy. Recognize that you're constantly with social media more than at any other point in the history of humanity. We are getting so much messaging from so many different sources that we're just taking it as fact. So people are having a hard time stepping back and thinking critically about what they're hearing and seeing. So please recognize you are not irrational being none of us is. We can we can bring rational thought to the picture or, you know, to the situation. But that's not our default. Our default is, you know, emotion. We're not thinking. We're just taking it in and we're going along and treating it as fact. So please step back, do some research, look into what the healthiest, you know, ways of of living are. Okay. Recognize that you ask a thousand experts, you're going to get probably 998 different pieces of advice. Nothing's perfect. Find what works for you. Don't aspire to impossible ideals. Just try to build it wherever you are now. Try to be 1% healthier, whether it's through the diet and or the exercise and other choices. Sleep something we always talk about as well. Getting proper sleep, reducing stress, most important, always finding ways to reduce stress. Right. So start 1%, 2%, 5%. Build, build, build, build, find what works for you. But don't just sit there passively saying, well, can't help it. And you're fat phobic for saying that I should do something about it. We're not shaming. Nobody is shaming. By the way. If someone does shame you, then shame on them shouldn't shame you. Which, by the way, I think we talk about another podcast. I know many people who have said I'm glad I was body shamed. That's the only thing that got me into gear. And I finally did. And I'm not advocating it, I'm just saying some people, they that kick in the ass and that's what got them to finally get the changes they need to. So anyway, that's my role. Yeah. Yeah. As far as what people can do, I will echo all that because that that's what it does come down to is identifying what is a healthy lifestyle and how can you implement that into your life in a realistic fashion, right? So don't strive for 100 at once. Little by little, find areas that you can improve upon and go from there and recognize that it's not about the way that you look. Perhaps again, that could be a happy byproduct if that's something that you're striving for, great. But it's about being the healthiest person that you can be physically, psychologically and otherwise. And again, that term body neutrality, I think, is a good way to frame all of this, is looking at what you can do to optimize the functioning of your body as a whole, not just focusing on the way that you look, whether it's heavy light somewhere in between. That should not be the focus. But to our listeners, we want to know what you think about body. Do you think it's a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Let us know what you think about this discussion. And finally, if you are hoping to take steps to somehow change bad habits, we did the podcast, the New Year's resolutions, I believe, and and we talked about step by step, the best way to improve your chances of making any positive changes in your life. So please check out that video. And until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.