For a while, I’ve had a shudder of aversion every time I hear a thin person get morally outraged at someone else who is overweight. For most of my life, I’ve been fairly thin, but it’s not because of any special effort or dietary discipline on my part.
My example of slothful thinness aside, there are a huge number of people out there who seem to regard diet and exercise as a moral issue. In their perception, the thin are virtuous, and the overweight are sinful. The idea of eating something because it tastes good and not because it’s nutritious seems morally akin in their minds to having a sexual affair with a stranger. These are the kind of people who bring celery sticks to your kid’s birthday party and can offer you some “really yummy tabouli with marinated tofu pups on whole grain gluten-free pita bread” without cracking a smile.
These foodie puritans may have to toss their dietary moralism out in the garbage right next to the gummy bears they keep hidden under their pillows. New research suggests that intestinal bacteria might have at least as strong a role in determining whether people are thin or overweight as diet or exercise.
I’m not suggesting that people go out and live on a diet of pure candy, or stop exercising. I am suggesting, however, that the diet and exercise evangelists might want to lay off on the moral judgment of those whose bodies don’t measure up to their standards, at least until additional research comes along to refine our ideas of what microbial communities in our guts have to do with the shape of our guts.
