Lies, Nothing But Lies!
Sun., March 9, 03:35 PM
Don’t you just love it when you’re getting ready to explain an opinion, and then agreement turns up…in a comic strip? For a few weeks, Cathy and her friends have been trying to eat healthy. By February 19 Cathy realizes that the messages are mixed. What I tend to call “invalid measurements” was once known as lying with statistics.
As an inveterate label reader, I know whereof she speaks. “Lite,” says the large print, while the small print advises you that a serving is 500 calories. Or perhaps the label says “only 100 calories per serving” — but the package contains two and a quarter servings. “Fat-free,” screams the label; you read the ingredients and discover that the fat has been replaced with sugar and other carbohydrates. Not for me, thank you, I’m diabetic; I will do better with the fat.
I will tell you how I will behave.”
Dr. Eli Goldratt
I’m using this out of context, of course. Dr. Goldratt first said that in reference to a manufacturing environment. For example, if you reward employees (i.e., measure them) only for producing more units of your product, they will produce as many as possible, even if you cannot finish or package or, most especially, sell them.
That instance is pretty much of a no-brainer, as he would put it. Nevertheless, we are surrounded by misleading measurements that will produce erroneous choices. Doctors did not tell me I was fat. (When I was really fat — in the seventies — I knew it and did something about it.) But if I were to believe the BMI — body mass index — I’m overweight.
You would expect some kind of valid measurement here; it is based on your height. What if your height is inaccurate because of spinal curvature or injury? What if your height is decreasing because you are getting older? If you stretch your arms out to the side, the distance from fingertip to fingertip is supposed to equal your height. My vertical height is four to five inches less than my “wingspread”. If I calculate using the wingspread, I’m healthy.
The BMI is inaccurate for athletes because it does not differentiate between fat and muscle. If you exercise in order to become muscular, your index will go up, even though you are healthier than you were before you started. As far as I’m concerned, the BMI is invalid for a lot of us.
We all know there is no logic to women’s clothing sizes, but how misleading is this? I saw a commercial for a diet plan, with which, says the spokesperson, “I went from a twelve to a four.” Huh? Before I got married, I wore a ten or a twelve, depending on whether or not the garment was tailored for a full-busted woman. You didn’t find four on the rack; girls who actually needed a four usually had to have them hand-tailored.
Anyhow, I was a twelve in those days. An old photo from my workplace, which U.D. still carries, does not depict a fat woman. Not even a “pleasingly plump” one. At a physical exam shortly before I was married, the doctor said I would not be fat at five pounds heavier. And my wedding gown was a twelve, taken in. So when did twelve get to be a bad word? And who decided that it was?
More recently, I have paid less attention to that stuff. Ten years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes, and my physician told me to stop trying to lose weight. My weight was stable within a pound or two for the next eight years, even through chemo and radiation. It wasn’t until a year later that I realized I had begun to put on weight — which was more than I wanted to carry around — and, with the help of NutriSystem, I dropped twenty pounds, leaving me a few pounds lighter than I had been.
Certainly I was glad to look a little more trim as mother of the groom, but I discovered that my current size is too small for large sizes and too big (?) for the smaller ones. I have been walking around in my old too-big outfits because most of the time it doesn’t matter. I’m retired, I don’t go out much because I sold the car, and I really am losing a lot of the vanity I used to have. (And yes, I do have to regain that; it is a survival trait!)
But when you start looking at clothing sizes — and being both confused and annoyed — you also look for other measurements. As it turns out, the new ones aren’t quite accurate or valid either.
One measure I do watch — with reservations — is my blood glucose readings. I assure you, they will be good on any day I ride my bike. That’s just one more reason to want the spring. I had heard this before and it’s true; exercising won’t necessarily help you lose weight, but it definitely helps control your blood sugar.
My conclusion? There really isn’t one, I guess. Just don’t believe everything you hear.
