Why is President Obama so thin?

This was a question that emerged after a conversation with some of my fellow teachers.  What began as a joke about an ugali eating competition quickly turned to a discussion about wealth and body fat.  In Tanzania, having a large stomach and being fat is often considered a good thing.   If you are large, it means that you work in an office, don’t have to walk everywhere, and have a constant food supply.  In other words, you aren’t poor.  You don’t have to work on a farm or do physical labor to survive. While I have seen some animosity towards large Tanzanians who take up too much room on a bus or dala, I think they are generally respected.  At my school, the Headmaster and Director are both overweight.  They are highly valued and teachers think that their size shows they are successful men.  The conversation became even more interesting when a teacher said, “Why is President Obama so thin? He is one of the most powerful men in the world; shouldn’t he have a bigger body?  His wife is also very fit.” They could not understand why the Obama family was fit even though they were extremely wealthy and did not need to do physical labor.  I explained that in America, people want to be fit because it is not healthy to be too fat.  I also told them that in America, poor people are fatter than rich people.  My colleagues were shocked! 

After this conversation, I started to think a lot about America and our obesity epidemic.  In so many parts of the world, size and body fat are linked.  People who are impoverished often do not get enough food to eat and are malnourished.  Yet, in America, those living in poverty often live off of high calorie diets. In Tanzania, many people have gardens and grow the foods that they eat.  In America, people consume more processed foods.  I am living in an extremely poor country, but I wonder if there are things the American people can learn from Tanzanians.  Obesity definitely does not seem to be a major killer here…