March 11th, 2009
Just for the record, I love the Obamas. I couldn’t be more overjoyed that Barack Obama is our president, and I want him to be president forever. Everything he does and says makes me happy. At home, we play a drinking game: whenever someone says “President Obama,” take a drink. Only we don’t drink, we […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, F.A.T. Chance, Fat Positive, Feminism, Health, Kids, Magazines, Politics, Tidbit, TV | 25 Comments »
February 24th, 2009
Here’s a study from the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (which may I say I am happy exists) that talks about the link between household instability and obesity—specifically, obesity in mothers. Thirty-eight percent of mothers in low-instability households were obese, while nearly 48 percent in high-instability households were obese. The researchers […]
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Feminism, Food, Health, Kids, Work | 14 Comments »
February 13th, 2009
Mary alerted me to the existence of the blog “This Is Why You’re Fat,” which features pictures of extremely unhealthy, often disgusting-looking, food. Some highlights include “Deep Fried Peanut Butter-Covered Brownie Wrapped In Cookie Dough” and “French Fry-Encased Hot Dog On A Stick.” Cripes. The title is unfortunate, conflating unhealthy food with fat people (remember […]
Filed under: Feel Good Friday, Food, Health, Humor, Tidbit | 24 Comments »
January 29th, 2009
The Guardian runs a feature called Private Lives, in which readers write in with their problems, and the Guardian’s expert provides her expert advice, along with a healthy helping of the peanut gallery’s remarks. The audience is encouraged to write in with their very helpful ideas on how to fix these people’s problems, and then […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Health, International, Media, Question, Weight Loss | 10 Comments »
January 19th, 2009
I ran across this news in my google reader, and at first blush, it made me happy–a picture of a little girl with a hula hoop! The idea of a small sponsoring an exciting activity day for kids, saying Hey, kids, it is cool to go out and play and run and be active and […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Health, Kids, Media | 13 Comments »
January 16th, 2009
An adoption agency in Britian is likening an obesity to smoking, drinking, drug addiction, alcoholism. Damien and Charlotte Hall, who have been pursuing the adoption of a baby, had their application rejected because his BMI was too high, and was considered to violate the agency’s “suitability criteria.” His BMI is also considered evidence that he […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Health, International, Kids | 10 Comments »
January 16th, 2009
I saw a thought-provoking post on suethsayings this week about a contestant from The Biggest Loser named Eric, who lost 214 pounds on the show and then went on Oprah to talk about gaining back 107 of them. (Oprah and The Biggest Loser in the same post! When categories collide!) Oprah had invited him a […]
Filed under: Biggest Loser, Celebrities, Diet Talk Warning, Exercise, Health, Oprah, Personal, Question, TV, Weight Loss | 53 Comments »
January 14th, 2009
My baby cousin, who I should not call my baby cousin because she is twenty years old and that is pretty much an adult, is just beautiful. She used to be a pretty little girl, but she has grown up into a spectacular woman–smart and funny and generous, but she also lucked out physically. She’s […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Feminism, Health, Kids, Media, Personal | 18 Comments »
December 31st, 2008
Yesterday I was at the gym thinking that, since it’s almost January 1, I might have to start waiting for elliptical machines again pretty soon. It’s the time of year where people make resolutions to lose weight, to go back to the gym, to “get healthy.” And the gym gets crowded, and Weight Watchers meetings […]
Filed under: Exercise, Food, Health, Personal, Question, Weight Loss | 23 Comments »
November 19th, 2008
A new study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reveals something interesting (and possibly counterintuitive to many people) about poor, obese children: they aren’t eating enough. Children living in poverty are obese in part because they don’t eat enough to meet the daily nutritional requirements needed for cell function and metabolism, a study […]
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Health, Kids, Science | 18 Comments »
November 12th, 2008
Oatmealapalooza Originally uploaded by mo pie If you were following my Twitters last weekend, you may have noaticed I was in Chicago, where Quaker Oats hosted an all-expenses paid weekend for a bunch of bloggers who turned out to be mostly food, weight loss, and fitness bloggers. (I say this because I’m about to give […]
Filed under: BlogHerOff, Diet Talk Warning, Food, Health, Meta, Personal, TV | 24 Comments »
October 30th, 2008
The name of this product, the “pink patch,” sounds so innocuous, doesn’t it? It’s a nicotine-patch-like patch (okay that was some awkward construction) that is being marketed to teenage girls as a weight loss tool. (And it’s for girls, so it’s pink of course.) The takedown of the Pink Patch at Fitness Fixation is just […]
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Health, Kids, Weight Loss | 16 Comments »
October 27th, 2008
I was interested in this New York Times article about a new, “less invasive” weight loss surgery, currently in the experimental stage, in which surgeons go down the patient’s throat and staple the stomach from the inside. In Mexico and Europe over the past two to three years, 98 patients have had the new weight-loss […]
Filed under: Health, Science, Weight Loss, WLS | 22 Comments »
October 17th, 2008
Thought it couldn’t get any crazier than the baby food diet or the swallow a tapeworm diet? While surfing around gossip blogs today, I ran across a reference to celebrities going on an “IV diet.” As in intravenous. Diet. I found the blurb here: One of Hollywood’s dirty little secrets is the ‘IV diet’, in […]
Filed under: Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Eating Disorders, Gossip, Health, International, Science, Tidbit, Weight Loss | 16 Comments »
October 6th, 2008
A couple of people have sent me this link this morning, and thank you very much to all of you! The New York Times has written an article about de-stigmatizing fat, the fat acceptance movement, and the genetics of obesity. An absolute must-read. But some activists and academics, part of a growing social movement known […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Fat Positive, Health, Media, Science, Tidbit | 12 Comments »
September 18th, 2008
How’s this for a concept: Enjoying food instead of dieting, because dieting doesn’t work. It’s a movement! It’s a zeitgeist! Or at least it’s an article in the New York Times: After decades of obsessing about fat, calories and carbs, many dieters have made the unorthodox decision to simply enjoy food again. That doesn’t mean […]
Filed under: Celebrities, Food, Health, Media, Science | 17 Comments »
September 17th, 2008
This news article landed in my inbox shortly after I’d read this very funny post at Shapely Prose, and both got me thinking about exercise. At Shapely Prose, Kate writes about a recent article asserting that people who are predisposed to being overweight can avoid being overweight by exercising a mere three to four hours […]
Filed under: Exercise, Health, Question, Science | 82 Comments »
September 12th, 2008
Generation XXLOriginally uploaded by crayolarabbit I used to see this ad in San Francisco, when driving onto the onramp of the Bay Bridge. It’s an ad for Kaiser Permanente, which is the same HMO that does the “thrive” commercials. My main issue is that this ad portrays a young girl (of course it’s a girl) […]
Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Fatism, Health, Kids, Media, Tidbit | 18 Comments »
September 10th, 2008
Ooh boy. One researcher from Britain says that, since diets don’t work, the best answer is to start performing weight loss surgery as a “preventative” measure, even on those whose BMI is less than 35. “Surgery is currently the only effective treatment for obesity … It not only helps people lose weight by physically decreasing […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Cold Hard Cash, Health, International, WLS | 29 Comments »
September 9th, 2008
You guys know the drill by now, right? Ex-barista, Starbucks addict, blah blah. So I’m always interested in the latest news from the Bux. Last week, they launched a menu of new, healthier breakfast options: lower in fat, higher in fiber, lower in calories. And it’s about time. Because seriously, it was impossible to find […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Cold Hard Cash, Food, Health, Personal | 18 Comments »
September 4th, 2008
Something that we haven’t talked about yet—but which others have, of course—is the proposed increase in health insurance costs in Alabama, directed at the overweight. That is, you have one year to get “healthy” and if you fail, you have to pay an extra $25 per month in health insurance. From Wallet Pop: So, what’s […]
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Exercise, Fatism, Health, Race & Ethnicity, Weight Loss, Work | 21 Comments »
August 21st, 2008
Oh this is a fucking wonderful idea: an MTV reality show called Model Maker that asks women to lose up to eighty pounds in twelve weeks. Doing the math, that’s approximately seven pounds per week. The goal is, of course, to be “thin” and “beautiful” enough to be a model. (One of the prizes is […]
Filed under: Eating Disorders, Feminism, Health, Media, Personal, TV, Weight Loss | 15 Comments »
August 20th, 2008
After a whole lot of OBESITY EPIDEMIC OMG!!1! in the news lately, finally we have some good news in the New York Times, where the headline reads “Better to Be Fat and Fit Than Skinny and Unfit.” The researchers chalk it up in part to the assumptions people make when they hear the words “overweight” […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Fat Positive, Health, Media, Personal, Science | 18 Comments »
August 11th, 2008
News flash “half of overweight adults are heart-healthy” according to this new, totally shocking study: You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Fat Positive, Fatism, Health, Tidbit | 25 Comments »
July 31st, 2008
I’m suspicious, in general, of nutrition information provided by restaurants. The lowfat ice cream cone at McDonald’s is supposedly 150 calories, but I’ve had them hand me a cone that was piled so high with swirls that it was about to tip over, the dairy equivalent of a game of Jenga. I know full well […]
Filed under: Advocacy, Food, Health, Personal, Question | 29 Comments »
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