HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 13, 2018
March 25 - 30, 2018
As always, if you like what you read here, please support the original author by liking/sharing/following/up-voting/subscribing directly to their feed.
Happy reading!
Articles and Blogs
Plus-size male models recreate a Calvin Klein ad to make a point about fashion’s other size issue
by Rachel Lubitz
"We exist and we are constituted by many different things. Whether big, tall or simply fall outside of the worlds standards, we are all handsome and worthy.”
Breaking My Childhood Body Shame: How I Learned to Love My Body Enough To Listen To It
by Elliott DeLine
"The more comfortable I am with myself, the less I expect things of others’ bodies as well. This is what I wish my parents, and some of my aunts and uncles, had worked on before they decided to have children."
Weight Gain Is Normal When You Become BoPo
by Virgie Tovar
"Being thin is not about loving yourself more than fat people do. Being thin is not a product of morally superior habits. Being thin is not evidence of mind-body alignment.”
Anti Diet Riot Club: the body-positivity meetings taking on ‘diet culture’
by Lizzy Dening
“The club hopes to create “a supportive space for people to explore (and critique if need be) all the topics surrounding body acceptance” via a variety of events, from BoPo life drawing to yoga for all sizes.”
The Made-Up Story About How Big Sugar Shifted the Blame to Fat
by David Merrit Johns and Gerald M Oppenheimer
"the real enemies in modern nutrition are hyperbole and oversimplification.”
CW: some weight centric content
‘Clean eating’ trend has eating disorder specialists concerned
by Leslie Young
“if you spend all your time worrying about what you’re eating, and anxious about it, and afraid of food, that deprives you of one of life’s important pleasures and reduces your quality of life.”
'If you have an agenda with food, kids will sniff it out'
by Sarika Chawla
“it's your job as a caretaker to decide what, where and when they will eat. It's their job to decide whether they'll eat it and how much.”
The Anti-Obesity Rhetoric Is Not Helping Anyone And We Need To Start Seeing That
by Sarah Frances Young
“Research has shown that shaming people for their weight is far more likely to lead to obesity than weight loss... It shows that our war on bigger bodies is only harming people’s mental and physical health, not helping them.”
Why mindful eating is weight inclusive
by Lilia Graue
"We need to reframe our [mindful eating] teachings to make room for humans of all sizes and levels of ‘health’ to be nourished in mindfulness and compassion, without expecting bodies to change externally as a marker of ‘success’, ‘progress’ or healing."
Forced Intimacy: An Ableist Norm
by Mia Mingus
“I have experienced forced intimacy my entire life as a disabled child, youth and adult. I am always expected to do the work of opening myself up for others’ benefit, education, curiosity or benevolent oppression.”
9 signs that you have a healthy diet even if it doesn't feel like it
by Arielle Tschinkel
“The good news is, if you do eat to satisfy your body's hunger and if you eat a wide variety of different foods without fear or guilt, you are probably eating more healthfully than you think."
Research &
Clinical Practice
Gastric sleeve surgery for weight loss is the current fashion. About a decade ago it was the gastric band but that has now fallen from grace because things started to go wrong (a post for another time). Here is a study describing an 11 year follow up of the gastric sleeve operation. Note how many people they couldn't find (and thus we have NO IDEA what has happened to them). Note how many people went on to have more weight loss surgery (again - that they KNOW of - as it's common for people to avoid their initial surgeon due to self blame if they didn't achieve the promised outcomes). _____ The main aim here is to encourage people to approach this surgery with eyes wide open, not just surgeons brochure in hand. _____ The other canary in the coal mine here is the rate of NEW gastric reflux, a condition that has a clear and well-established path to oesophageal cancer. Other very recent papers have also observed this phenomenon in people who have had gastric sleeve surgery with concern. _____ Arman, Gustavo A., et al. "Long-term (11+ years) outcomes in weight, patient satisfaction, comorbidities, and gastroesophageal reflux treatment after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy." Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases 12.10 (2016): 1778-1786. _____ http://www.soard.org/article/S1550-7289(16)00018-6/abstract
Risk In Perspective: Zero Risk Is an Impossible Dream
by Alison Bernstein
"One of our fundamental cognitive biases is that we have an outsized focus on novel and unfamiliar risks."
Transplantation in the obese: separating myth from reality
“there is no evidence to demonstrate that intentional weight loss pre-[kidney]-transplantation improves post-transplant outcomes.”
Arif Khwaja, Meguid El-Nahas; Transplantation in the obese: separating myth from reality, Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Volume 27, Issue 10, 1 October 2012, Pages 3732–3735,
"the concept of weight bias is an important variable when considering wellbeing across the spectrum of weight-related issues.....To achieve sustainable reductions in weight bias at a population level, substantive modifications and collaborative efforts in multiple settings must be initiated." _____ Alberga, Angela S., et al. "Weight bias: a call to action." Journal of eating disorders 4.1 (2016): 34. _____
“Based on observational evidence, levels of chocolate consumption seem to be associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of cardiometabolic disorders.” _____ Buitrago-Lopez, Adriana, et al. "Chocolate consumption and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis." Bmj 343 (2011): d4488 _____ https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4488
Shareables
Like podcasts?
How about bite-sized podcasts that you can claim as professional development?!?
I've designed the Unpacking Weight Science Podcast to suit health professionals, health science students and anyone who wants to know more about human body weight, health outcomes, interpreting weight related research and the far ranging effects of weight bias.
Twice a month, my 20-30 minute podcasts unpack different elements of weight bias & stigma, weight research, BMI, health behaviours and weight neutral approaches. Paid subscribers (only $5/month!) get the podcast six months before everyone else, plus full show notes, reference list, self-test quiz and resource materials for use in practice. This equates to an hour of professional development each month :-)
Available for subscribers on April 2nd is:
'How we got here: BMI meets death'
A history of the development of the BMI (including how 'obesity' ended up on child growth charts), how we discovered there was a relationship with weight and death, and how a few powerful men gifted us the weight-centrism we have today.
Subscribe now at: https://www.patreon.com/UnpackingWeightScience
I got to guest host the All Fired Up podcast last week!
Listen to Louise Adams from UNTRAPPED eviscerate the ‘evidence base’ for hypnosis for weight loss (with a little help from me 🤓)
AUSTRALIAN WORKSHOPS!!
Bookings via www.healthnotdiets.com
Want these 'live'? Then follow me on Twitter (@FionaWiller), Facebook (@HealthNotDiets) and Instagram (@FionaWiller)
Want some training in the non-diet approach or unpacking weight science? Resources include books, courses, workshops and handouts: visit www.healthnotdiets.com
See anything you think I'd like to share or comment about? Post in the comments below or email me at fiona@healthnotdiets.com