Category: News
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Way Outside the Bell Curve
6 comments on Way Outside the Bell CurvePer the US CDC’s Anthropometric Reference Data (PDF) 5% of adult, non-pregnant women in the US weigh less than 111lbs, and 95% weigh less than 250lbs. 90% of US women weigh between 111 and 250lbs. This is why I consider myself a statistical outlier, weight-wise. As I’ve noted before, in some ways I’m a freak of nature — […]
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Oh, CNN
This blog post got my hopes up with “Dieting gets you nowhere” and then dashed it with the “but it works for kids!” ending. No, people, turning off the TV or passing up a Happy Meal will not automagically turn a fat kid into a slender one. Sorry.
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Things to Read: Scandals That Aren’t
This bit on Fast Food Restaurants Not Single-Handedly Ending Child Obesity is hysterical. Yes, some fast food restaurants pledged to make “healthier” choices available, and yes, they make some “healthier” choices available. Is it really a surprise that you might have to, gasp, order the milk and apple slices instead of pop and fries? […]
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Many Obese People DO Look Great The Way They Are
It’s hard to read this and not just shake my head. [M]any clinically obese men and women think they’re already at a healthy weight. In a study of 2,056 obese people in Dallas County (all participants had a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher), researchers asked each participant to look at nine […]
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Fat Bingo: Fat and Fit Article
Using the article “Fat but fit? Big gray area confounds scientists“. “Is it possible to be fat and fit? Perhaps, researchers say, but losing weight may make you even better off.” Message: Don’t get your hopes up, fatty, exercise and a healthy diet are only worthwhile if you lose weight—if your weight is stable you […]
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Thankful Thursday
[a not-always-weekly exercise in gratitude] The man of the house baked a chicken with some rosemary this evening. He accompanied it with broccoli with cheese sauce, green beans steamed with red potatoes, corn cooked with onions, cold sliced beets, and French bread. As we were eating he said, “So did I make the Thankful Thursday this […]
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Doing the Same Thing, Expecting Different Results
Can you place this quote? Just about everyone can list ways to fight childhood obesity: schools should alter lunch menus, teach nutrition and hold more physical education classes. At home, parents should be more diligent and the Xbox less available. Here’s the problem: as logical as these suggestions might sound, when many of them have […]
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Ditto: Standing In The Way Of Control
Beth Ditto, lead singer of the band Gossip, is in the news again, this time taking on the belief that thin=healthy and fat=not healthy. “I’m not an unhealthy person and… one of the most tiring parts of being fat and being proud of it is… you do a lot of proving yourself all the time.” She […]
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Sleep-Deprived Teens May Pay A Hefty Price
That’s the title of this piece on Yahoo! news about teens who sleep less eating more fats. (Eating more fat = the “hefty price”. Geddit? Amazing how reporters think nobody’s ever made a fat joke before them.) In the study, adolescents who slept fewer than eight hours on a weeknight consumed more of their daily […]
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Thankful Thursday
[a not-always-weekly exercise in gratitude] It’s Thursday and I’m thankful for: I have a job. Yeah, there were times Wednesday when I really just wanted to LEAVE, but … I have a job. It provides me with income. Income good. Nudemuse’s post on beginning body acceptance. This rocks, and I’m glad I read it. The relaxing […]
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Deciphering studies: Absolute vs Relative Risks
I thought this example Lisa Martinez made in the comments at the Well blog was one of the clearer examples I’ve seen for absolute vs relative risks. 100 women took ABC pill and 100 women took a placebo, which is not an actual medication. Of the 100 women who took ABC pill, 2 developed cancer […]
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Music Monday: I’m Your Moon
It’s probably not a surprise that I’m relieved that California’s Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional. What might surprise you is how I get from that to Jonathan Coulton’s song about Pluto and Charon after it was decided Pluto isn’t a planet anymore. The song is from Charon’s point of view, telling Pluto They invented […]
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Advair Users Beware
FDA Alert: Some Advair Discus inhalers stolen from a distribution warehouse in 2009 have shown up in pharmacies. Lot numbers available at the link —- don’t use these particular lots. They may have been tampered with, have lost potency, been handled improperly. Note this is not a problem with Advair in general, just that certain […]
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FDA Advisory Panel Recommends NOT Approving Qnexa
In an update, the FDA advisory panel reviewing the weight-loss drug Qnexa has voted to reject it. The final FDA decision will not be issued until October, but the advisory panel’s decision is usually key to their decision. In a 10-6 vote, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said they were concerned that Qnexa […]
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New Diet Drug: Qnexa
Patients on the highest dose of Qnexa lost an average of 8.9 percent of their weight after adjusting for the effects of a placebo. More than 60 percent of patients on middle and high doses lost at least 5 percent of their weight, compared with 20 percent for those getting a placebo. — NY Times […]
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Wonder if Michelle Obama reads the New York Times
From a New York Times article on how some anti-childhood obesity funding is cutting into funding for anti-smoking efforts: Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at Rockefeller University, notes that there are many assumptions about what will work — more healthful foods in schools, a soda tax, getting children to be more active. Yet no interventions, […]
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Fat Birth Control
A friend pointed me to this op-ed on making (at least some) birth control pills available without a prescription. Generally I think that making birth control easier to get is a good thing. I’d also welcome more research on the efficacy of hormonal birth control in fat women. Plus something tells me I’m not […]
Living ~400lbs 