HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 43, 2018
October 19 - October 25, 2018
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Happy reading!
Articles & Blogs
Superfoods like acai and goji berries are popular, but what makes them 'super', and are they worth your money?
by Tegan Taylor
“throwing "super" labels on food reinforces the myth that eating healthily is expensive, and that a single food can be enough to compensate for an otherwise unhealthy diet or lifestyle"
14 Things Your Loved One With An Eating Disorder Wants You To Know (But Is Afraid To Tell You)
by Lisette Hoschek
“Eating disorders are prevalent, complicated, and often stigmatized. People struggling with them typically have difficulty speaking up and expressing their needs directly."
What to do about trolling, beyond “just letting it go”
by Your Fat Friend
“Even with the best intentions, responding to trolling with just let it go renounces any responsibility to combat this troubling, pervasive phenomenon. It makes us complicit in the spread of trolling, tacitly allowing it by insisting that it has become a fact of life that simply cannot be helped."
The food supplement that ruined my liver
by Jim McCants
“at least 80 cases of liver injury linked to green tea supplements have been reported around the world, ranging from lassitude and jaundice to cases requiring liver transplants.
Choosing a dietitian – do some research first
by Terrille Bruere
“to work in areas that involve change in peoples lives or emotional or mental health concerns you need both post graduate training and a commitment to ongoing self reflective practice.”
Your #mealprep obsession could signal an eating disorder
by Lauren Steussy
“platforms like Instagram have amplified orthorexia, especially since food culture is so emphasized on it.”
How to respond to client disclosures of trauma when you're not a therapist
by Jenna Daku
"You may not be qualified to explore and support them to heal from their trauma, but as a human being in a helping profession you are definitely equipped to offer them the human experience of compassion, empathy, and kindness.”
Why “natural” food has become a secular stand-in for goodness and purity
by Rachel Sugar
"the idea that natural is synonymous with good and unnatural is synonymous with evil really does run through history strongly — it’s just how we conceive of what’s natural that gets complicated.”
3 Practices For Coping With Body Image Distress In Recovery
by Sarah Rzemieniak
“the fear that I might never feel at peace in my body was one of the biggest obstacles to being able to give up my eating disorder behaviors and fully recover.”
Rise of the 'fat activist'
by Rosemarie Lentini
“Over-emotive language that is medically inaccurate means we’re not having a holistic, serious conversation about health”
First Female Viking Warrior Proved Through DNA
by Kristina Killgrove
“Though some Viking women buried with weapons are known....a female warrior of this importance has never been determined, and Viking scholars have been reluctant to acknowledge the agency of women with weapons."
5 Porn Stars Debunk The Myth Of The Perfect "Porn Pussy"
by Lux Alptraum
"It’s just another sales tactic to shame women into thinking their beautiful, unique, life-giving [genitalia] aren’t good enough.”
Take The Cake: A Fat Babe Donated Her Wardrobe to Goodwill & This Happened
by Virgie Tovar
“Before I left the store I offered up a little prayerful promise – silently – to keep her clothes in the family. And to pass them on to another fat babe when the time was right.”
Infertility And Feminism: When Pregnancy Is Political
by Cecily Kellog
“choosing to be a mother is a feminist decision. As a fully-informed, long-time feminist, I walked into pregnancy and parenting with my eyes wide open and fully aware of the magnitude of my decision.”
'Soft porn' and Instagram: how plastic surgeons fuel body image anxiety
by Kate Aubusson
"This problem of body image is increasing and it was fairly obvious to us that [we cosmetic surgeons are] seen as part of the problem and should be part of the solution”
As a food editor, here's what I learnt from my year of eating alone
by Myffy Rigby
"eating alone is the final stage of growing up as a single woman, after learning how to wire an amp, pick a lock and throw a shark. Yes, it can be a rough ride but learning to love it releases a real sense of emancipation. And best of all, you’re on the ultimate date. What better company could you be keeping, really?”
Why we need satisfaction to feel healthy around food
by Vincci Tsui
"Eating food is more complex than taking medication, and taking care of your health is so much more than managing your condition.”
Superfit Hero's Body Positive Fitness Finder Makes It SO Easy To Find The Right Trainer
by Georgina Berbari
"finding someone who aligns with all of your body positive goals (aka someone who prioritizes performance over appearance) can feel a little like swiping through duds on a dating app.”
Work Tip? "Stop Dieting" Says This #XLBossLady
by Virgie Tovar
"In order to survive, subordinated people always have to understand the world in ways that dominant people can be oblivious to.”
100 Easy Ways to Make the World Better for Trans People
by Kai Isaiah-Jamal
"We need you to be on the look out for how you can use your privilege for our benefit and not yours, and how to actively respond to, argue with, and call out transphobia in your everyday conversations and the national news."
Body Image, Dance and Eating
by Fumi Somehara
"We need you to be on the look out for how you can use your privilege for our benefit and not yours, and how to actively respond to, argue with, and call out transphobia in your everyday conversations and the national news."
Why do digital health startups keep failing?
by Paul Yock
"Digital health products need to appeal not just to individual consumers but to a complicated landscape of stakeholders”
Fat Chat: How obesity measures up as a global health crisis
by Alanna Mitchell
"Focusing on fat as a health crisis and giving people the idea that slimming down depends solely on their personal choices deflects attention away from the broader causes of ill health.”
Research &
Clinical Practice
Shamed into health? Fat pregnant women’s views on obesity management strategies in maternity care
by George Parker
“weight management approaches, intersecting with and perpetuating fat phobia, were not found to promote maternal and child health. Rather, in their precipitation of feelings of anxiety, guilt, shame, and fear, pregnancy health and well-being was compromised.”
_____
The harm that happens in the space between good intentions and unintended consequences is unacceptable in this era of real-time technological connectedness. We’re just not listening.
_____
Parker, George. "Shamed into health? Fat pregnant women's views on obesity management strategies in maternity care." Women's Studies Journal 31.1 (2017).
The shame of fat shaming in public health: moving past racism to embrace indigenous solutions
by I. Warbrick, H. Carne and A. Dickson.
"Rather than improving health for indigenous peoples, weight and weight loss–centred approaches may actually cause harm.”
I. Warbrick, H. Came, A. Dickson, "The shame of fat shaming in public health: moving past racism to embrace indigenous solutions" Public Health (2018).
JAMA Forum: Given Their Potential for Harm, It’s Time to Focus on the Safety of Supplements
By Aaron Carroll
Anything we do for health has to be considered in the context of benefits and harms. When the former outweighs the latter, it’s reasonable to proceed. But in the case of supplements, for many if not most people, the benefits appear to be minimal to nonexistent.
Frankly, We Do Give a Damn: The Relationship Between Profanity and Honesty.
By Gilad Feldman, Huiwen Lian, Michal Kosinski, David Stillwell,
““We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.”
Feldman, Gilad, et al. "Frankly, we do give a damn: The relationship between profanity and honesty." Social psychological and personality science 8.7 (2017): 816-826.
Insulin Therapy Does Not Itself Induce Weight Gain in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
by Etienne Larger, Pierre Rufat, Danièle Dubois-Laforgue, and Séverine Ledoux
As type 2 diabetes progresses, insulin injections may be needed as the body’s capacity to produce insulin decreases. Most people lose weight in the time before anyone realizes they need extra insulin. Sometimes this happens before they even know they have diabetes at all, and sometimes they don’t realize that it’s not the current weight loss diet that they’re on that’s driving the weight loss.
This study found that once insulin was introduced, their body weight eventually found its way back up to around the weight they were before that unintentional weight loss. This is good support for a kind of ‘body weight comfort zone’ as theorized in ‘set point’ theory.
Larger, E., Rufat, P., Dubois-Laforgue, D., & Ledoux, S. (2001). Insulin therapy does not itself induce weight gain in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care, 24(10), 1849-1850.
Soapbox & Shareables
Do you know a man who eats?
Researchers from QUT are looking for Australian men to do a 20 minute online survey about body attitude and eating habits.
Find out more: www.bodyfoodsurvey.com.au
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