Rotundities: A Link Roundup
1. The new Oprah biography contains a shocking allegation about pecan pie (and, perhaps, an opportunity to become educated about food addiction). From Michelle Coppola:
Oprah once ordered two pecan pies from room service and *shudder* ATE THEM BOTH!! And what, Kitty Kelley? The earth tilted on its axis from Oprah’s subsequent weight gain? As I’ve mentioned many times before in this blog, I’m a food addict, and if indeed Oprah suffers from the same problem (which I personally think she does) eating two pies in a sitting ain’t no thang. I have, after a particularly bad day, personally inhaled a whole pizza and chased it with a cheesecake.
Of course, people are reading this to reinforce “Gross! fat people and their fat eating!” instead of thinking about binge eating as an actual disorder, along the lines of the comparatively (and incorrectly) glamorized anorexia and bulimia. No, it’s just, let’s lash out at Oprah, a powerful woman of color, and target something foolproof: her weight.
2. This article about reframing the war on obesity makes a few good points, but there’s also quite a bit of fat shaming.
Instead of having a discussion about obesity, I wish it could be framed in the language of “nutrition” or “nourishment.” Because I’d like to include all the kids, fat and thin, big and small, in a larger discussion of food.
I see lots of thin kids at school and they are eating the same foods as the obese kids. Are they eating the right calories and fats to nourish their bodies? Somehow I don’t think so… [it’s just that] in our thin world it’s easy to say “let’s fight fat!”
Apparently originally, the blogger wrote “…being obese is a big problem and if you are overweight, you did something to get there.” People took issue in the comments, but I saw a lot of “don’t blame kids, blame their fat, lazy parents!” The full comment has been edited out, but the “being obese is a big problem” is still there.
3. And speaking of kids, PETA strikes again!
The advertisement? “Tot Teetering on Childhood Obesity? Go Vegan!” You know the fools at PETA were all, “OMG HILARIOUS PLAY ON TEETER-TOTTER OMG HIGH FIVE!!!”
Ugh, this kills me. I know getting upset about PETA’s press releases is completely futile* but still I rise. Can you imagine a little fat kid (who, btw, is already teased mercilessly because kids are the motherflipping MEANEST) coming to the playground and seeing those teeter-totters? Stunts like this don’t turn kids vegan but I bet they could turn them suicidal. Further, how many fat kids do you know who venture near a teeter-totter anyway, it’s already ground for public humiliation. Way to know your audience, PETA!
And what of all the thin kids with malnutrition and fast food diets? There are tons of them, believe it. Just because they’re skinny, they get a free pass? Thin does not healthy make. What a crappy lesson all the way around.
4. An interesting article about classism in Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution:
Food Revolution highlights how much of the war on obesity is rooted in classism. One scene shows Oliver reacting to a newspaper article that suggests he thinks the people of Huntington are cola-swilling rubes who think an apple is just a character in the Bible. So most of his time isn’t spent cooking, it’s spent convincing residents he doesn’t look down on them. It’ll be an uphill battle. Advice on better eating isn’t evaluated on the quality of the advice as much as on its source. The lower-middle class doesn’t want to be lectured by a more well-off person about how easy and worthwhile upgrading one’s diet is, because the immediate thought is, sure, easy for you, perhaps. When Oliver arrives in Huntington with his British accent and his crates of radicchio, he’s dooming himself from the start. He’s not only a rich guy, he’s a rich British guy, thumbing his nose at our good, old-fashioned American preservatives.
5. The Curvy Fashionista came to Igigi with a group of us last week, and she is awesome. Maybe now that I’ve decided to follow her around like a baby duckling in search of fashion advice, I’ll be plugged in more to events like these.
Thanks to Michelle, Rebecca, Aych, Ian, and Jess for the links!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Eating Disorders, Feminism, Food, Kids, Links, Magazines, Meta, Oprah, Race & Ethnicity
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There’s an article in today’s New York Times about how being fat is “bad for your brain”. Here’s the link: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/brain-damage/?src=me&ref=homepage
I know in my bones that this article is ripe for rebutting. Please someone, get to work!
As someone with family in rural West Virginia, in watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I did feel he completely disregarded the positive food legacy of the region. My grandfather’s family were farmers, and living in suburban Ohio, my grandfather’s farm afforded me my first tastes of fresh beets, turnips, green onions, bell peppers and tomatoes off the vine. This legacy was lost as the people of West Virginia turned to mines, logging and other industry for work.
Nutritious foods like pinto beans and cornbread with a side of greens could be revamped to use less bacon and still be tasty. Recipes like “fresh pickles” (cucumbers dressed with vinegar), mashed turnips, ham and cabbage and dozen others would be familiar to the people of Huntington, but the agricultural and food heritage of Huntington is not even addressed. Trying new things is great, but treating those people like a bunch of hicks who have never seen a fresh green bean is ridiculous — their grandmothers undoubtedly canned bushels of those beans.
In a slight correction: my grandfather, who grew up in West Virginia,did not have a farm in Ohio. He had a garden. He learned to farm from his family in West Virginia.
Just the mention of that show makes my eyes twitchy. When a commercial airs I get shouty and belligerent. I can’t imagine actually sitting through an episode to see it myself but from what I’ve seen in the promos, not surprised at all that it’s classist, too.
@April Same here. I can be doing something else completely and a commercial for that show will start and two seconds later, I’m yelling at him to shut up. lol
I have an idea for a show, somewhere along the lines of “What Not to Wear” where reasonable, non-shaming hosts can go into a family’s home and show them how to revamp their daily meals based on the family’s time constraints, budgets, likes/allergies, and local food availability. No mention of weight or obesity, just nutrition balanced with yummy.
I’d totally watch that show. I wish I could make that show.
I’d like to read the Food Revolution article… am I missing a link somewhere?
Thanks for another great roundup. I feel like PETA is the troll under a bridge that people begin to ignore because they are such a one note act.
Regarding the Oprah story, yes…binge eating is a disorder, a very unhealthy one. Princess Di also suffered from binging and combined it with purging, which I’ve yet to hear that Oprah does. I believe, however, that binging has nothing to do with “food addiction” and everything to do with emotional/psychological issues, of which Oprah has discussed many times. The term “food addiction” seems to be a cop-out used by people who do binge, and whenever their emotional surface is scratched, a host of problems are discovered. I don’t understand why we feel the need to create PC-esque terms to deal with what are documented psych troubles.
Sorry, Jamie, I updated the post! But here’s the link:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/235009
Ugh, PETA. I’m a fat vegan. We exist. I was a fat kid eating a regular diet, a fat teenager eating a vegetarian diet, and I’m a fat adult eating a vegan diet. The link above is just one of many examples of PETA’s douchebaggery in action. I don’t know why they think that shit wins anyone’s favor.
You know, even fat I freaking loved teeter-totters and still do. I never had a problem with rocketing smaller kids off or any such nonsense, I think at the most with my smaller younger sister I would scoot my tush closer to the handle and she would sit further back on it and it worked just fine. Heck I played on them with my dad who outweighed me.
I did the vegan thing and was still fat as well.
But seriously, I freaking love teeter totters. I think I need one on my porch.
Ugh the teeter totter thing. Huge source of embarassment for me as a child, and I really *wanted* to play on them too.
Also I really want to go on a Jamie Oliver rant right now, but that whole show pisses me off. It is a GREAT idea to get better foods in schools and, well, everywhere. But how can he not honestly see how he comes off? Does he truly not look down on the families and their culture? I think he does, whether he admits it to himself or not- I keep thinking of a clip I saw where he said how RIDICULOUS it was that the kids were eating the SAME THING for lunch that they’d had the evening before. GOD FORBID!
He comes in there, he says “There’s a right way to do things, you all are doing it wrong, and I’m here to change it! You’re the unhealthiest city in America! I’m worried for your health!!!!!”
And that right there is it. He’s worried for them. He thinks that he has to be worried for them, that it’s his place to do it, because obviously they wouldn’t be so damned fat if they were worried, right?
And it isn’t just Jamie Oliver who pisses me off about this show; it’s the people who talk about it. I saw a comment something along the lines of “oh my god could you believe that woman who actually believed that the processed potato flakes were just as good as real potatoes?!” I feel like there is a whole contingent of mothers who already feed their kids all organic foods and nothing processed and never go to McDonlads that are watching this show thinking about how superior they are to those women and what a wonderful crusader Jamie Oliver is to be going there to help. The entire thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Oh, also, regarding the Oprah thing- far be it from me to analyze her eating habits but I do think it’s pretty obvious that she has some VERY disordered feelings about food and I would not be surprised at all to learn that she was bulimic with anorectic tendencies, like I am/was. I have never purged, but I would go an entire day without eating just so that I could binge that evening.
Hey Mo Pie, thanks for the love!
And I’m not sure I understad just why “food addict” is a cop-out? Is alcoholism a “cop-out”? What about addivition to gambling and drugs, Misti?
I think we can all agree that no matter the substance involved, addicition of any kind has its roots in emotional problems…it’s not a PC term…it’s an ACCURATE one! I can tell you for sure that the ONLY significant relief from my food addicition has been through therapy, so I think we’re on the same page – but not to allow us to use the same terms that are accepted by others for their dependency on substances or behaviors is patently UNFAIR!
MO!!!
It was so much fun hanging with you guys! Thanks for having me, and we must hang out fashionably speaking!!!! You were too cool- and we gotta get a pic up of our fashion show!..
Now to the other links….
WTH…
Oprah, embrace your curves, own what you have, the fact that you have shared this with us normalizes you… Thank you….
Peta? Get outta here!!! All I can do is shake my head- and you know what is even more interesting, the fact this went under a smaller radar… But thanks to my Mo, I am about to share!
I just wanted to address Misti’s comment about her belief that food addiction has no physical cause and is only psychological. That’s actually not true. Studies have been done recently that show foods that are high in sugar/starch actually trigger a release of dopamine in the brain, not unlike heroin. Those are the foods that most of us who binge crave. See the following links for more if you want:
http://www.primordialperformance.com/store/weekly-science-articles-sugar-addiction.html
http://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2008/04/food-addiction-and-dopamine.html
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm
This isn’t surprising to me because that problem runs in my family. I do have emotional issues, but other people in my family are not as psychologically troubled as me and they still crave those foods. Most of us have problems with sugar also and I think that contributes to or may even explain part of the problem, some people seem to have more problems with sugar than others without actually being diabetic. When I eat sugary/starchy foods, I crave more. It’s not your everyday hunger, it’s a horrible, irresistible craving. I was able to quit smoking with no problem but I could never stop eating and it was so frustrating. The only way I’ve found to beat it is to completely stop eating sugar and refined carbs. The first two weeks or so are sheer hell, but then I stop thinking about food constantly, almost like a switch has been turned off in my brain. If I eat so much as one small brownie, I immediately start craving and fantasizing about eating those foods again.
My father is the same way, as was his mother and at least one of her sisters. I think there is definitely some kind of physical issue going on for some of us. I’ve been involved in several binge eating support groups over the years and anywhere from a third to a half of the other people in the groups also had the same experience.