Society's view on what is healthy

I was reading a blog entry on SparkPeople.com today. It is talking about an interview with Keira Knightley on David Letterman discussing her fitness regimen.

The main part of the entry discussed a part of the interview where David Letterman asked Keira what her reason for joining a gym was since she looked so fit. She went on to explain to him that she was finding it difficult to climb the stairs to her apartment in her building.

This all sounds very innocent but this is how society views what is healthy & what is not. "If you are thin then you must be healthy. If you are fat you must not be."

This just is not true.

For example, I know a fitness guru (I love using that word, hehe) who is as thin as a rail but has some pretty sever health problems. She told me that she is really bad about not getting in her cardio (I imagine this could be dangerous with her particular health problem, so she probably is wise to be careful).

I have another friend who is young (about 22, 23 yrs old) & very thin who has to take medication due to high blood pressure.

Both of these people appear to be in great condition, ie they are thin. However, they both have health problems & pretty serious ones at that.

Although I am still very overweight, I am in the best shape of my life. No, I'm not claiming to be "healthy" by any means but I am certainly healthier than I was. I've dropped over 40 lbs, my blood pressure has gone from border line high to approx. 115/69, my resting heart rate has dropped from about 80 - 85 to about 65 - 70 (60 is considered physically fit/atheletic), I don't get out of breath just walking around, the list goes on.

I have one friend that was running 3+ miles easily even when she was well over 200 lbs & another who weighs about 130 & can't even run for a whole min.

I guess what I am saying is our society views health based on what a person looks like & not on their physical ability. I can certainly understand why this is. It is typically the truth. I would say a good 90+% of overweight/obese people are very unhealthy & not physically fit. However, I would be willing to say another large percentage of people that would be considered thin are also very unhealthy & physically unfit. I believe Americans in general are unhealthy regardless of their size.

I'm not sure what my point or message is here, I just found this entry interesting.