Systems Thinking

I read an interesting article today. It was called “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System,” by Donella Meadows. What I found intriguing was her assertion that the most powerful way to change any system for the better (or for the worse, I suppose) is to change the root beliefs that underlie that system, the concepts that everyone agrees with but rarely speaks of because they are so fundamental. A fancy way to say this would be that you have to expose the cultural paradigm.

Such a simple idea, but not obvious I think based on what passes for political and social discourse in this toddler phase of the 21st century. When was the last time you heard anyone – in the government, in the mass media, in the cubicle next to you at work – question whether their beliefs were the right ones to achieve their goals? No, what we have now is the exact opposite, a state of affairs where people’s beliefs are so hardened and intractable that it seems we can’t agree on anything, but can only hurl insults at each other. (I’ve got to stop watching cable television talk shows.)

I’ve written about many of our cultural food beliefs. How food can’t taste good unless it’s loaded with fat, sugar and salt. How being hungry is to be avoided at all costs. The tenacious coupling of food with celebration. Yet, after reading this article, I wondered, is there something else? Something more fundamental underneath it all?

Try this: obesity is an individual problem.

Why do I suggest that this is the prime paradigm about food and weight? Well, just look around. Where do we spend all of our time and energy, trying to solve the “obesity epidemic”? Developing weight loss drugs, engineered foods (“low-fat,” “low-carb,” “sugar-free”) and techniques for weight loss surgery, all aimed at the individual overweight person. We keep asking the same question over and over. Why do those who lose large amounts of weight regain it so easily? Then we hunker down even harder to find the magic appetite suppressant or a more effective gastric bypass. All of these efforts focus on the person with the weight problem and how to give them the strength to resist the foods that make them fat.

But what if obesity is not an individual problem? What if our culture is the problem? A culture that glorifies excess and gluttony (how else do you explain a Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger?). That twists logic in order to tell us that we must have regular “treats,” otherwise we will feel deprived and overeat (probably more “treats!”). A 24/7 mass media that smothers us with hard-core food advertising calculated to appeal to our basest culinary desires. It is an elaborate and diabolical system designed to keep people fat and it works!

If obesity is an individual problem, then you will spend all your time lamenting your failure to maintain a normal weight. You may even feel bad enough about yourself that you will give up, decide that you can’t lose weight, no point in trying. You may decide that your only recourse is to go on a food binge, hoping that a brownie (or twelve) will unleash mega-endorphins and make you feel better. It’s an endless cycle.

But, if obesity is not an individual problem, well, then who knows what’s possible?