Educating kids, not scaring them

Great ideas for educating kids on nutrition and weight control, not forcing them

Obesity Epidemic- Scare mongering or real threat?

The Skeptical Inquirer examines the Obesity Myth and the skewed figures of the CDC. They come to the conclusion: "There is no doubt that many of our concerns about obesity are alarmist and exaggerated, but it is also apparent that there is a real health risk associated with it."
This is a well reasoned analysis of the hype surrounding the obesity epidemic and examines the flaws in the CDC's figures.

Fat and Employment

A couple of recent surveys have found that fat people will be overlooked for a position rather than a thin person with the same qualifications. Overweight people have had anecdotal evidence of this for years. This article looks at the social attitudes behind this phenomenon, another article reports that Wal- mart is "not going to employ fat people". If you look more closely at the information that it is actually reporting, what they are really getting at is making their floor staff do more physical work so they are not sedentary. While they are trying to cover their butts by creating a fitter work force, I don't believe that they are trying to "weed out the fat as the article would have us believe.

Finally some sense

A report on the annual Nasso conference in Canda this week, says that doctors have found that:
As long as people don't smoke, eat healthy foods and get enough exercise, excess weight may not be as much of a health risk as is commonly thought.
Findings by scientists at the US Centres for Disease Control show that being merely "overweight" does not, by itself, increase the risk of disease and death. While obesity remains a major cause of early death, fewer people die because of excess fat than previous research indicated.

Cheeseburger bill

The US senate is passing the Cheeseburger bill to protect corporations from "frivolous obesity lawsuits".

This legislation confuses me. While on one hand there are nanny state laws coming in to protect kids from obesity, but on the other hand, they are promoting personal responsibility in nutrition. Now while I am all for personal responsibility, I also believe there needs to be some corporate responsibility on behalf of the fast food industry: they need to improve the quality of their food, cut out unnecessary fats and calories, and most importantly, advertise responsibly, don't exploit kids with collectible toys, don't over advertise and don't use discount coupons to increase sales.

Sex, TV and Idols

It seems fat stories tend to clump together in the middle of the week, traditionally "slow news days", I guess because there is always some perspective or other to "the obesity epidemic".

This week seems different, there is a diversity of stories on different issues.
First up, NZ Idol. I'm not a Kiwi- but I teach a lot of NZ and Polynesian kids, so the story of Rosita Vai, the now newly crowned NZ Idol being critised as a bad body role model struck a chord with me. I have always been in awe of the size and grace of Polynesian women and Rosita clearly has that poise and inner strength. She is clearly talented- but Sir Howard Morrison criticised her a poor role model and not having the image to make it in the industry. Rosita is now the fourth plus size winner of an Idol competition, following Ruben Studdard (US), Michele McManus (UK) and Casey Donovan (Aust.). If the voting is truly by the viewers (an entry for another time and place)- then what are they saying? Clearly the viewing public has no problem with plus size Idols, so bring it on.

On the other hand, Dianne Holloway looks at the attitude to fat on TV. From the car crash viewing of The biggest Loser to the new sitcom Thick and Thin, it seems issues of size on TV are still about poking fun or being just plain mean.

A couple of sources have examined a new study that found obese people had better sex lives once they lost as little as 10 per cent of their weight. Now over and above the logistical issues, it appears it is all about self confidence and attractiveness. Once they succeed in losing weight they feel better about themselves, and therefore more sexy. Voila- improved sex life! It seems so logical, but why this perception after weight loss, couldn't we work on improving self image while still fat and therefore have great fitness- inducing fat sex.

Big Girls feature on the catwalk

In both Galliano and Gaultier's fashion shows this month, plus size models have featured. The theme of Galliano's show was everybody's beautiful and included people of all ages, sizes and shapes. Of course the blonde stick insects took up a lot of time, but it was nice to see a diversity of bodies on the runway, even if some reviewers claim it was for a theatrical effect that was humorous to the audience.

Tags:bbw plussizefashion plussizemodels

Weight News Round up

Yee-hah! I feel like a cowgirl. Let me wrassle those news articles into submission. To be serious, there have been a few positive and thought provoking articles from around the world this week. Truthfully, I've had such a huge week, I'm not going to spend a heap of time commenting, but they are worthwhile.

First up, another myth busted: French women do get fat, France is facing a health crisis of 15% obesity compared to 30% in the US and almost the same here in Australia. Generally, the reasons are still the same, but the government's response is different.

I'm torn on the issue of childhood obesity. I understand it is a health issue that needs to be addressed, but as a former fat but fit kid and a professional who deals with teenagers, I am concerned about the approaches being offered. There is the shame based, boot camp style, humiliate them into a healthy weight which may be effective, but the long term emotional effects are huge. The current popular one is the nanny state where we will restrict food where we can, ignoring the lack of exercise, media influence and availability of poor food choices elsewhere.
Or we could take the current approach being discussed in France. While not quite my favourite: personal and parental responsibility with support, time and resources provided where necessary, it makes sense. The producers of junk foods will have to display prominently warnings or information on the true fat and sugar content of their food or face a 1.5%tax on their media budgets. There's nothing I like better than a little bit of corporation responsibility for their contribution to the "obesity epidemic".

Fat in America is a size positive look at fat discrimination in America, drawing heavily on quotes from Naafa and Paul Campos. However, it doesn't take the article to it's logical conclusion- if size discrimination is so awful, of course the overweight and obese wouldn't chose to be fat.

Fat Americans not entirely to blame.

Joe Baskerville puts forward a concept that has been self evident for some time. That the hours and stresses of modern life are a contributor to the increasing size of Americians. With less time to excercise and make their own meals, stressed workers are turning to processed food and ignoring the health of their off-spring. Sometimes the obvious makes so much sense

Lots of stuff in the news

I'm back at work and I went away for the weekend, so I've missed a lot of stories. Everytime I seem to turn around, there's another one. It's a good mix of positive and negative, but a lot of the negative stuff keeps me angry all the same.

In the SMH this weekend, Adele Horin claims that the lean are now a minority in Australia. The sound results she's based this claim on: her observations on a trip to Wet 'n' Wild. Sadly, we've seen this sort of hand wringing over the obesity crisis ten times over. Her claim is that we are becoming just like America in the obesity stakes, we are battling a culture of fast food and being sedentary, but of course losing weight is easier for the middle class. She doesn't address the Coca colonisation that has made Australia culturally similar to the US, the work demands on our time, or ways to improve nutritional and activity outcomes for the working and welfare classes. Just more hand wringing and asking for government help. Do we really want to the nanny state to help us lose weight?