Many believe the answer to the obesity pandemic is education—Educate people about nutrition, physical activity, and health matters. But many of the messages being broadcast the most loudly are not just distorted and misleading, for some of us, they add to our increasing stress and worry. I believe that profit-driven changes in food processing and …
Category: weight bias in the media
The Paradox of the American Body Image
American culture is riddled with paradigmatic paradoxes in weight and weight loss, body image and body images. Trying to wrap your brain around them may twist your thoughts into knots. What comes to mind first is the immense value our culture puts on both physical beauty AND indulgent food. They cannot realistically co-exist! Yet, we …
Are There Double Standards for Weight Loss Diets?
Does a vegetarian ever say, “It’s a special occasion, I’ll have the prime rib!” Do vegans think it’s good for the soul to have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s now and then? Would Kosher Jews believe that God is sure to forgive them for an occasional nosh on something as delicious as bacon? Do …
Is Losing Weight as Easy as (not eating) Pie?
If someone told you being a millionaire was really fabulous and showed you scenes of wealthy people living a pleasure-filled life, would you become all inspired and motivated and say “I’m going to become a millionaire too!” And off you go, filled with inspiration and motivation to do…um, what exactly? This example may sound ridiculous …
Chris Christie’s Weight: How Perceptions Change as Weight Changes
It was about a month before the 2012 election that I heard someone in the media say that they’d be concerned about Chris Christie’s weight and health if he were a candidate for president. I remember when Dick Cheney’s heart condition was sometimes brought up as an issue. But until now, I’ve never heard anyone …
Fat Shaming Where You Might Not Expect It
If you’ve looked at any news outlet in the last couple of days you probably saw the video of Wisconsin news anchor Jennifer Livingston responding to a viewer who wrote to tell her that she was too fat and that she has a responsibility to be a role model for the viewing public, especially girls. …