Category: weight prejudice and bias

The Truth of My Mother and a Lifetime of “Think Like a Thin Person”

As I continue my month-long visit with my parents, I am learning more about their lives in their senior years. My mother remains as slim as she’s always been. We were talking yesterday about what a “hard time” her friends here in the community give her, especially at the pool. Despite being generally in their …

Continue reading

Being a Fat Spy in a Thin World

After the President’s stunning speech yesterday in which he discussed when he had been regarded with suspicion himself, the discussions and arguments about race are raging on. A friend brought this video to my attention. It’s a segment from the ABC television show, “What Would You Do?” Much of the conversation is about white people …

Continue reading

An Overlooked Detail of the George Zimmerman Trial

Like the rest of the nation, I was riveted by the George Zimmerman murder trial especially since it was taking place very near to where I am from. I grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the next county over from Seminole county, the location of Sanford. When I was a kid, Sanford was known …

Continue reading

Science is Discovering “Food Brain” EXISTS

Dr. Arya Sharma has posted this article about a study that gave an ADHD drug to people who experience binge eating up to several times a week. Click this link to read the full article. I can remember when cravings would come into my mind and could literally torment me until I would give in and …

Continue reading

Food on My Mind—And Off My Mind

Mornings are awesome for me. I never think of food in the morning. There’s nothing I could even want if you waved it under my nose. For my entire life, I’ve never been hungry when I first get up. I have to be up for a couple of hours. But the really amazing thing to …

Continue reading

Cracked.com is Your Accurate Source for Health Information

Cracked.com will surprise you. Sure it alternates between hilarious and fascinating with articles like “Five Famous People You Won’t Believe Didn’t Really Exist.” But sometimes Cracked.com posts some really interesting stuff, like today’s article inspired by the recent Chris Christie news “According to Science, Fat is Officially Incurable.” The whole point is summed up in …

Continue reading

Considering Why Lower Income & Food Insecurity Equals Higher Weight

Among the findings from his landmark analysis of the Midtown Manhattan Study on mental health in 1964, Dr. Albert “Mickey” Stunkard was the first to identify that lower income appears to correlate to a higher rate of obesity. Essentially, poor people are fatter which seems to present a paradox that food insecurity leads to weight …

Continue reading

Jillian Michaels Shows Her True Hateful Colors

I just saw an interview with Jillian Michaels on CBS Sunday Morning. She talked about how she’s now a “brand.” She talked about being so stressed out she wants to eat ice cream for dinner and drink wine straight from the bottle. She talked about being so busy she hasn’t been to the gym for …

Continue reading

The Double Standard of Diet Choices and Weight Judgment

I visited friends this weekend; former neighbors of mine with whom I have developed a rather close and unlikely bond. Michael is the pastor of a Baptist church. He has worked extensively in the most impoverished corners of Africa, primarily to address systemic causes of AIDS and the impact of crushing poverty. Michael’s life experience has …

Continue reading

The Vicious Weight Bias That Has to End

When I was a kid and I helped with the laundry, I thought my mother’s clothes seemed like doll clothes. My mother has always been a tiny little slip of a lady. Now that she’s in her seventies, I have tried to come up with strategies for boosting the nutritional content of the food she’s …

Continue reading