HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 21, 2018
May 20 - 26, 2018
To celebrate 'International No Diet Day' month (May), Health Not Diets online courses are on special!
Unpacking Weight Science $20 off (RRP $59AUD)
Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/SKZK
Non-Diet Approach for Dietitians $45 off (RRP $195AUD)
Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/VRFQ
Enter 'NODIET' at checkout to apply discount
Australians can also get $5 off my books:
The Non-Diet Approach Guidebook for Dietitians for $40
The Non-Diet Approach Guidebook for Psychologists & Counsellors for $45 (including postage)
Order books via email: fiona@healthnotdiets.com
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
Why Self-Compassion Beats Self-Confidence
by Kristin Wong
“While self-confidence makes you feel better about your abilities, it can also lead you to vastly overestimate those abilities.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/smarter-living/why-self-compassion-beats-self-confidence.html
My Life as a Public Health Crisis
by Harmony Cox
“Growing up here never made me question my family’s love, but it did make me aware of the tension between what we were “supposed” to eat and what was actually available to us.”
http://narrative.ly/my-life-as-a-public-health-crisis/
My disability is what makes me superhuman
by Brandon Cook
“what causes disability isn’t physical difference or even punk kids – it’s a disabling environment.”
Choice calls out supplement claims
by Sheshtyn Paola
“From claiming to help with heart function to providing anxiety relief, people stand to be tricked into thinking these products will help with a medical condition.”
https://ajp.com.au/news/choice-calls-out-supplement-claims/
Is Fat a Fetish?
by Your Fat Friend
“when fetishism is brought up with respect to fat attractions, it always seems to bring a cloud over the conversation. Everything darkens. Fetishism becomes an indictment of both the body and its beholder.”
https://medium.com/@thefatshadow/is-fat-a-fetish-b07df64d00d
Choosing recovery when no one gives an rip
by Angie Viets
“what others preach as good—especially in the realm of nutrition—in no way means that it is actually good for YOU. Let’s be honest, it’s probably a terrible idea for them too, but they are responsible for them, and you are always responsible for you.”
https://www.angieviets.com/articles/choosing-recovery-when-no-one-gives-a-rip
Some Women Never Go Back To Their Pre-Pregnancy Weight, And That's A Fact
by Zongile Nhlapo
“The pressure on women to snap back to their pre-pregnant bodies after pregnancy is real, yet a fact that's not largely spoken about is that some women never go back to their pre-pregnancy weight, even if it may seem like a breeze for others.”
The art of the alarmist food documentary
by Annaliese Griffin
“No matter what type of diet you can dream up...there seems to be a documentary touting the benefits of eating in the extreme. Watch enough of them and you’ll discover that there’s a fairly simple formula for success.”
https://quartzy.qz.com/1277389/the-art-of-the-alarmist-food-documentary/
Getting beach body ready
by Alex Conason
“We need to put the blame where it belongs: on diet culture, not your body. We have been conditioned to think our bodies MUST look a certain way to do certain activities, but this just isn’t true!”
https://drconason.com/getting-beach-body-ready/
Two towns are 48kms apart. One has twice as much tooth decay
by Julie Power
“For 40 years, dental therapist Jennifer James has had the "unique experience" of treating children in Bathurst, which has fluoride in its water, and 48 kilometres away in Oberon, which doesn't.”
Poor lose doctors as wealthy gain them, new figures reveal
by Denis Campbell
“people in the wealthiest areas [of England] have benefited from an even better service... [while] vulnerable people are having to suffer in silence without being able to see a GP.”
Vegan YouTube Stars Are Held to Impossible Standards
by Jordan Bissell
“There are so many opinions about the right way to be vegan that anyone who posts meals online almost inevitably receives some amount of backlash.”
Dear Fat Woman On Vacation
by Levana Slabodnick
“But, my sister, when I looked at you on the stage that night, before your humiliation, I saw that you were no longer a shrinking violet. I saw a woman who made a decision to take up as much space as she needed.”
http://www.scarymommy.com/dear-fat-woman-on-vacation/
Dead Girl Walking...
by Deah Schwartz
“I never knew there was anything wrong with my body until they started weighing me at school...[and] zapped away my self- esteem in one defining moment.”
http://www.drdeah.com/dead-girl-walking/
Me and my penis: 100 men reveal all
by Laura Dodsworth
“A lot more men feel a sense of shame or anxiety about their size, or an aspect of their performance, than I would have thought. What really moved me is how much that shame and inadequacy had bled into different parts of their life.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/27/me-and-my-penis-100-men-reveal-all
Let's talk recovery from a clinical perspective
by Nadia Craddock
“For people who are naturally bigger, weight restoration within the process of recovery can mean being re-exposed to the stigma, oppression, and daily micro-aggressions that may have contributed the development of their eating disorder in the first place.”
http://www.notplantbased.com/2018/05/14/recovery-clinical-perspective/
9 Volunteer Jobs That Could Boost Your Health
by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
“choose a volunteer activity that matches your physical fitness level and of course, one that you enjoy and drives your passion.”
https://www.nextavenue.org/volunteer-jobs-boost-health/
“Recognize the Shame You Feel Was Imposed On You:” 4 Ways I’m Learning to Heal From Toxic Shame
by Lin Kaatz Chary
“toxic shame is often instilled in us at a very early age, long before we have any ability to distinguish what is true and what isn’t, what is real and what isn’t, and what truly belongs to us from what doesn’t.”
https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/7-ways-im-healing-from-toxic-shame-lin/
Instructions On Caring For A Fat Brown Girl’s Heart
by Virgie Tovar
“I am not harmless. I am not grateful for basic decency or humane treatment. I am not someone from whom you can take without gratitude, recognition and reciprocity.”
https://ravishly.com/instructions-caring-fat-brown-girls-heart
Almost half of Australians are being ‘conned’ into taking supplements, vitamins
by Alana Mitchelson
“At a minimum, we’d like to see these companies display a clear warning on the pack informing people that these claims are based solely on traditional use and have no scientific basis.”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2018/05/24/do-vitamins-work/
Girls With Working Moms Get Better Jobs and Higher Pay, According to Research
by Kristen Bahler
“according to a growing body of research, working mothers have an overwhelmingly positive influence”
http://time.com/money/5272659/working-moms-better-kids/
Type 2 diabetes: Intermittent fasting may raise risk
by Ana Sandoiu
“although this diet may lead to early, rapid weight loss, in the long-term there could be potentially serious damaging effects to ... health, such as the development of type 2 diabetes."
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321864.php
Seven reasons not to compliment someone on weight loss — and what to say instead
by Carrie Dennett
“While some people welcome such observations, there are a number of reasons it’s better to take a different approach when you’re tempted to praise someone’s weight loss.”
What to do when someone else's weight change is triggering
by Angie Viets
“you will continue to be challenged by diet culture because it’s the world in which we live. It is essential to create a resilience plan for acceptance of not only your own body, but for other bodies.”
https://www.angieviets.com/articles/what-to-do-when-someone-elses-weight-change-is-triggering
7 Plus-Size Asian Bloggers Talk About Representation
by Laurel Dickman
“self-image is a complicated thing. When we are seen and reflected by the media, it humanizes us to the rest of the world — sometimes even our own families.”
https://ravishly.com/plus-size-asian-bloggers-representation
The Pressing Need for Everyone to Quiet Their Egos
by Scott Barry Kaufman
“There seems to be this growing belief that the goal is always to win. Not have a dialectical, well-intentioned, mutual search for overarching principles and productive ways forward that will improve humanity-- but to just win and destroy.”
Making sure my daughter doesn't see herself through the haze of an Instagram filter
by Laura Clydesdale
"three questions parents can ask girls in these situations: -What do you think of that picture?" -Why do you think she took it?" -Who do you think this photo was for?"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/parenting/ct-daughter-instagram-essay-20180522-story.html
Research &
Clinical Practice
It aggravates me no end when I see BMI being treated like a behaviour in research. There are no health behaviours (or combination of habits) that predict BMI in any way that is useful. _____ Using BMI in this way reinforces the incorrect assumption that people with higher BMI's eat and move in different patterns from people with smaller bodies. It also erases the fact that changes in BMI can come about from a huge of combinations of factors, some health behaviour related, but many are related to not-great things like eating disorders, illness, grief and poverty. _____ This study is useful to demonstrate this point because it looks at fruit and vegetable intake, regular physical activity AS WELL AS BMI (as a behaviour). The assumption that has been used to justify 'healthy weight' as a behaviour is that people with a BMI less than 25 must 'eat well' and do 'correct' amounts of physical activity (this means even by their own justification that the use of BMI as well as fruit/veg/activity is redundant ARGH). If 'healthy weight' were actually reflective of health related behaviours, they would have found a high overlap between the 'healthy weight', 'fruit/veg' and 'physical activity' groups. But they didn't. Only 3% of the population didn't smoke, ate 5+ fruit/veg, was physically active and 'healthy weight'. The strongest overlap of 'habits' was in non-smokers, and that's because of the high general prevalence of non-smoking. _____ While you're there, check out the top of Table 1 for the age related relationships - people gain weight as they age (no surprise), but they also eat more fruit and veg and get more leisure time physical activity...... Education and Household Income also show clear relationships with all of the 'habits' investigated here..... _____ Reeves, Mathew J., and Ann P. Rafferty. "Healthy lifestyle characteristics among adults in the United States, 2000." Archives of Internal Medicine 165.8 (2005): 854-857. _____
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/486522
'Attributable fraction' refers to the proportion of 'blame' that can be placed on a particular variable for (in this case) all-cause deaths. Low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) was the winner, with high blood pressure and smoking coming in third and fourth overall. Also note the differences between men and women, particularly for cardiovascular risk factors. Interesting....
Blair, Steven N. "Physical inactivity: the biggest public health problem of the 21st century." British journal of sports medicine 43.1 (2009): 1-2.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/43/1/1.full
Incidental anarchy
by Giles Maskell
“It is a truism in radiology that the more we image the more we will find. Some of it will help to advance the patient’s health, but much of it won’t.”
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/05/22/giles-maskell-incidental-anarchy/
Soapbox & 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 June 4th is:
"Weight-Neutral Health-Enhancing Habits"
In this podcast I discuss the sorts of studies that differentiate BMI from health behaviours, and look at the behaviours associated with longevity, delay and avoidance of disease, as well as behaviours which enhance health outcomes at any weight and health status. Key research papers will be discussed as well as strategies for how to use them in your work.
Subscribe now at: https://www.patreon.com/UnpackingWeightScience
and instantly access 6 months of episodes before the rest of the world
AUSTRALIAN WORKSHOPS!!
Sydney and Melbourne BOOK NOW
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