Tag: bias

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Political and Moral Aspects of Weight Advocacy & Fat Acceptance

I navigate the concept of “fat acceptance” with reticence. It’s sure to incite emotional responses, sometimes even hostility. Weight has become intensely “politicized” and “emotionalized” in our society. How should we consider political and moral aspects of weight advocacy? Are there lines to be drawn? There are two primary issues to address, first of all …

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Why Do You Fail at Losing Weight?

I was fat all my life. It wasn’t until my mid-forties that I finally found what I needed to do to take my weight under control and find a way out of what had caused and maintained an undercurrent of anxiety and even torment in my life. I’ve had to fight off feelings of regret …

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