Size bigots - Health is more than skin deep

I have always been what I like to call "larger than life."

Even at my smallest, I've been bigger than most.

This is my normal.

I walk. I do martial arts. I'm active.

So frankly, I'm tired of people connecting size with health. I'm not "huge" but if you look at those insurance company charts I am much larger than they say I should be. I say bosh.

When I was younger, being bigger was somewhat rare. Now, frankly, it's the norm, though many self-appointed "size bigots" are telling us we have an epidemic of fat on our hands (or, more accurately, our stomachs and everywhere else).

I say dogs come in all different shapes and sizes, and so do people.

They want to tell us that being larger is going to kill you--but they conveniently forget that you're not going to escape death no matter what size you are.

They counter with, "You're going to die sooner!" but don't bother to say how long, which is generally at most one or two years less. And that's failing other genetic conditions (not to mention accidents, like falling off your bike or getting hit by a car while jogging).

"You're more likely to have a heart attack" they scream--not also mentioning how big a part genetics plays, and how even the most lean and "fit" runners, like Jim Fixx, can die at 52 while such larger than life personalities like James Beard, who ate fresh bread slathered with butter lived to a ripe old age of 81.

As long as I've been alive there's been discrimination against fat people. It's the only politically correct for of discrimination there is.

As as science continues to find that size is as much about genetics as it is about diet and exercise, "Food Nazis" continue to say that fat people are just not trying, they're lazy, they're eating too many French fries. And mostly--they just don't care enough to "take care of themselves." They seem to think that willpower alone can completely overcome your genetic background. It can't.

Bullshit. You heard me. And if you didn't, I'll repeat it--Bullshit.

You can be big and exercise. You can be trim and sit on the sofa all day. Size is no indicator of health or fitness.

Last week I was filming a commercial with some models turned actors, very attractive and "fit." I played a crazy dentist working on their teeth with a pair of rusty pliers.

Between takes, one of the actors casually mentioned to me how she hated Disneyland because, in her own words, "There were too many fat people there, it made me uncomfortable, all those people who didn't care about their health."

I wondered if this person had eyes, because I was sitting there, not exactly svelte myself. I couldn't help myself, I said, "I'm not exactly thin, and I'm healthy," to which she replied in an offhand way that was totally believable, perhaps only because of her acting skills, "Oh, you're fine."

And I am fine, thank you. And people who are even bigger than me may very well be fine, too, while the trim or even buff personal on the next treadmill might have a history of heart disease, might be an alcoholic, drug addict, or self-destructive--but you just see someone who "cares about themselves." Looks can be deceiving.

And if you go by looks alone, health is only skin deep.

A second actor told me how he walked nine blocks from the subway to his job, and exclaimed, "That's why I'm so thin!" I replied, "It might have something to do with genes" to which he replied that his parents were always skinny. I commended him on his excellent choice of parents.

My parents gave me many genetic gifts. Being thin was not one of them. That doesn't mean I don't care. It means I was born this way.