HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 49, 2018
November 30 - December 6, 2018
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Happy reading!
Articles & Blogs
Fattistsplaining
by Amazonialove
”The most marked similarities between “fitness culture” and diet culture is the notion that in order to make progress, “loss” is necessary and “restriction” (as in manipulation of macros and calories) is essential. It is the focus on “loss” that makes fitness very much an echo of diet culture”
My Wish for Those With PCOS Who Feel Like the Doctor's Office Is a Battle Zone
by Erin Valentine
“Since we live in a society obsessed with outward appearance, women with PCOS tend to feel ashamed purely from a genetic illness that they had no control over getting.”
'I wasn't skinny yet': Why Jess' illness went under the radar
by Laura Placella
"adolescents who have lost large amounts of weight should be assessed for a possible eating disorder, no matter their size”
Tummy Troubles
by Gwyneth Olwyn
“Allergy, intolerance and sensitivity are often identified by those with eating disorders as reasons for not being able to reintroduce a broad array of foods back into the diet.”
Great (long) piece detailing how to navigate food avoidance and physical gut pain in people with an eating disorder, including self-diagnosed intolerances.
'My Obsession With Bodybuilding Made My Hair Fall Out’
by Rini Frey as told to Rachael Schultz
“I went from being obsessed with being skinny to being obsessed with being lean. I wanted my abs and veins to pop and I wanted muscular glutes and lean arms. Looking back at pictures, I’m still shocked at how small I really was. But at the time, I thought I wasn’t lean enough.”
CW: Account of eating disordered behavior and food intake and contains moderately problematic after/before body images
What your thinness takes from you
by Your Fat Friend
“Your thinness took your ability to believe me, and people who look like me. It stole away with your ability to identify and believe the bias we face — the bias that lives in those around you. It took the fullness of the world around you, reduced it only to those who look like you, quietly and passively erasing the rest of us.”
New paper on the Weight of Expectation: how obesity stigma is felt in the flesh
by CLAHRC West
“Similar to how being embarrassed in a social situation is felt physically, obesity stigma was shown to trigger psychosomatic stress. Being made to feel bad about yourself came to be deeply – and quite literally – felt in the bodies of people engaging in weight-loss services, making their bodies less knowable to them.”
5 tips to make your fitness space more affirming & accessible
by Ilya Parker
"We need practitioners to provide safe and supportive environments where all clients feel cared for and respected.We DON’T need folks projecting their limited view of what bodies should look and move like.As a trainer it is your duty to check your personal biases and be mindful of how your biases manifest into discrimination."
When Good Therapy Turns Bad
by Sonia Neale
"We all know good therapy when we experience it, that warm fuzzy feeling where we are heard, understood, validated and start healing from the inside. But what about bad therapy, what does that feel like? And what if bad therapy turns ugly and ends in termination? Here are five reasons why good therapy turns bad and ends in termination.”
Here’s Why the Definition of Body Positivity Isn’t Up for Debate
by Kaila Prins
“if you’re attempting to use some “evidence-based approach” to reach a premeditated weight, size, or shape, then you’re not body positive. That doesn’t mean that you don’t care about your body. But it most certainly means that you’re not practicing body positivity.”
My beautiful death
by Gillian Genser
“It was nearly impossible to create art in this state. My brain was no longer capable of conjuring up anything except anger and misery. But I believed I was dying, and I wanted to finish the sculpture of Adam before I was gone. I had no idea he was the thing that was killing me."
Why We Need To Talk About Male Body Positivity
by Alley Pascoe
“As a society, we’ll be better if we can get men to have this conversation [about body positivity]. There’s still a lot of terrible toxic masculinity in the world. And a lot of that is coming from a place of insecurity in men. If we can address the insecurity early, then it doesn’t develop into misogyny.”
AANA bans “unrealistic or unattainable” body image in advertising
by Josh Loh
"The Australian Association of National Advertisers’ (AANA) has updated its Code of Ethics to prohibit the portrayal of “unrealistic or unattainable” body image in advertising materials.
In beauty-obsessed South Korea, plus-size models are fighting to be seen
by Kelly Kasulis
“the western plus-size market also has misguided expectations of its own: Asian women are far too often stereotyped as skinny and petite, making them an afterthought in the movement to show bigger bodies.”
Khloe Kardashian And Cardi B Aren’t Selling Tea, They’re Selling Body Dysmorphia In A Bag.
by Kimberly Foster
“While we can’t expect digital celebrities to be perfect role models, when your livelihood depends on a community (comprised of mostly girls and women) trusting your influence, exploiting that relationship by profiting from their insecurities is unethical.”
The World’s Deadliest Psychiatric Disorder
by Emily Kate
“An eating disorder should not be taken lightly. It should not be joked about, passed off as “a phase,” or diminished in its validity. Especially by medical professionals, who (from my experience) often don’t know an ED from a hole in the ground.”
Out of the Straitjacket
by Michael S. Weinstein
“I had convinced myself that I had end-stage depression, that there were no other treatments, and that I would be forever depressed, as I remember my grandfather being. Yet my healing has been considerable. I am happier and more optimistic than I have ever been in the past 50 years. I have never enjoyed being alive more than I do now, in each present moment.”
Doctors, Diet Culture, and the Danger of it all: An Open Letter to Medical Professionals
by Lisette Hoschek
“An eating disorder should not be taken lightly. It should not be joked about, passed off as “a phase,” or diminished in its validity. Especially by medical professionals, who (from my experience) often don’t know an ED from a hole in the ground.”
Fat by choice: happy (and healthy!) at the intersections of size and mental health
by Sam Dylan Finch
“As thin, I had the privilege of not confronting my fatphobia. But sixty pounds later, I had no choice but to examine my attitudes, because there was nowhere to hide.”
The Modern Chef's Guide to Being Angry
By The Angry Chef
“when links are found between consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods and ill health, all that is being demonstrated is a sociological link between these two factors.”
4 Days of Intensive Therapy Can Reverse OCD for Years
By Diana Kwon
“Before my life was a struggle, it was about surviving every day...I now enjoy all the things I can do, and I have a very healthy relationship with my family and friends.”
Your Anti-Diet Gift Guide
By Nina Mills
“Finding anti-diet gifts can be tricky, because there is always that risk that while the gift seems innocent and anti-diet on the outside, on closer inspection you can smell whiffs of stinky diet culture.”
Oh, the F factor diet...
By Shira (A Sequin Love Affair)
“Bodies change throughout our lives; puberty, menopause, life circumstances… and we can spend our lives chasing after this illusion of success and happiness or we can put our energy elsewhere.”
We Need to Talk: Diet Culture and Veganism
By Marieke (The Vegan Harvest)
“Diet culture is everywhere and it manifests in different ways depending on the situation or community. In veganism, I see diet culture show itself”
The Latest Crop of Instagram Influencers? Medical Students.
By Vishal Khetpal
“there is a difference between using your expertise to inform arguments and using your expertise to make some extra cash selling products to consumers”
Soapbox & Shareables
Another fantastic video from Healthy Tasmania :-)
Excellent! - groovy body diversity ;-)
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