Category: Anti-Obesity Programs
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Opting Out Of The Illusion Of Immortality
2 comments on Opting Out Of The Illusion Of ImmortalityDeb Burgard has a terrific post on the latest “being fat makes you die, damnit” study. Masters’ central argument seems to be that even though the repeated findings for decades of rigorous research (reviewed by Flegal, 2013) has found that BMI and mortality are only weakly correlated, and that higher BMI may actually correlate with longevity […]
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You’re SORRY? Oh fuck you.
Dr. Peter Attia thinks about his former patient often, the woman who came to him in the emergency room at Johns Hopkins Hospital one night seven years ago. She was obese and suffering from a severe complication of Type 2 diabetes, a foot ulcer, which required an urgent amputation. At the time, Dr. Attia admits, […]
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Why I Think Declaring Obesity A Disease is Harmful
It’s inaccurate: A fit fat person is usually healthier than a sedentary thin person. Obese people (BMI of 30 to 34.9) have no greater risk of early death than those of “normal” body size (BMI 18.5 to 24.9). Most people who fit the clinical definition of obese are in the smaller categories. “Normal-weight” people who think […]
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In The News
The AMA has endorsed the idea that “obesity” is a disease, not a “condition”. (Personally I consider it a characteristic.) Forbes states that this is “a move member physicians hope will spur better reimbursement for treating overweight Americans and create better health outcomes.” Exactly how it’s supposed to “create better health outcomes” when commonly prescribed treatments do […]
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The Fitbit
I’ve been seeing pedometers discussed a bit lately. In some ways, they get a bad rap; we’ve seen them [mis-]used in “wellness” programs and that accuracy varies. Although they can be amusing, as noted by one NY Times commenter: Fitbit has a clip on model that I attach to the waistband of tights or to the center of […]
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Around the web
A useful discussion of how to say the right thing to someone in hospital (or other bad situation.) Christianity Today wonders if antidepressants keep people from God. Fred Clark at Slacktivist responds: No pious jackasses sit around pondering “Should Christians Take Insulin?” No insufferably holier-than-thou idiots pretend it would be deeply spiritual if they said, “Rattlesnake […]
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Things to Read
A clear explanation of why New York’s fat hatred is much more harmful than the soda ban from Melissa McEwan: People do not die of “obesity.” Some fat people die from complications of what are commonly known as “obesity-related diseases,” like heart disease and diabetes, but those diseases have only been shown to be correlated with fat, not caused by fat. […]
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Happy New Year!
Hello and welcome! I’m back at work with my new cartoon-a-day calendar (New Yorker cartoons) and new wall calendar (Pacific Northwest landscapes). I even cut off some of the photos from last year’s wall calendar to decorate my cube. Ready to work! (Yes, I know it’s Wednesday, but today feels like Monday to me. Yay four-day weekends! […]
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Things to Read
From Paul Campos discusses the failure of a “sophisticated and expensive attempt” to validate the hypothesis that “significant long-term weight loss improves health outcomes”: It will probably come as a surprise to most readers to learn that this hypothesis remains almost completely unconfirmed by the medical literature – in part because we simply don’t know […]
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Some Things To Read
The Fat Nutritionist has an excellent, and sadly useful, post titled “A little 101 – I get to exist.” It is okay to be fat, because fat people already exist. Fat people have existed for a very, very long time. Even if all of us tried, not all of us would become permanently thin. Fat people exist. We […]
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Soda Ban?
I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but I don’t necessarily care about New York’s proposal to ban larger-than-16oz-sugary-sodas. Partly it’s because I’m not affected; I live in Seattle and haven’t even sampled non-diet pop* in years. I am skeptical that it would make fat people thin, naturally, but I think it would be more likely […]
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Junk Food In Schools Doesn’t Correlate To Fat
Remember how banning junk food in schools was supposed to make fat kids thin? Guess what? No, it doesn’t. At least not according to “Competitive Food Sales in Schools and Childhood Obesity: A Longitudinal Study” in Sociology of Education (January 2012). But of course we should’ve thought it would, right? It’s not like “Snack food intake does not […]
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Quick Question
About adding apple slices to Happy Meals (and reducing the size of fries): Also, for those who are over age 12: Is there any toy which would entice you to buy a Happy Meal for yourself?
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US Obesity Rates Level Off Again?
Oh, not again. Still. They’ve been level for years, but this time the Journal of the American Medical Association noticed. There’s discussion as to why, such as “people are getting healthier”. Given how dieters often gain weight in the long term, I thought this perspective a bit more realistic: Dr. Ludwig said the plateau might […]
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Things to Read
As others have noted, Paul Campos’ piece on how the US “Let’s Move” campaign aids and abets bullying is worth reading. Besides noting that advocating for “child obesity to be eliminated” paints a “pick on me” sign on anyone who isn’t model-thin, Campos also cites studies that have tried healthy interventions with children in the […]
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QOTD: Why Stigmatize Fat Kids?
From Pattie Thomas’ post at Psychology Today in response to a “Cease to be obese crusade” billboard on how kids should exercise: Why do you have to promote weight loss in order to promote exercise? If you really believe in the calorie in/calorie burned model, promoting exercise and healthy eating for every one would automatically […]
Living ~400lbs 