HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 50, 2018
December 7 - December 13, 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 & Blogs
Bad Science?
by Matthew Abrahams
”we need to be really cautious about how we interpret the findings that come from [mindfulness and meditation studies] and to keep in mind that they do have limitations. We could use them as a jumping-off point to create good studies, and then we can get good scientific evidence rather than stuff that’s biased."
Why Eating Disorder Treatment is Failing Us All
by Sararh Thompson
“even if someone had educated me on what eating disorders were, I don’t think I would have even thought that I was included in that definition. And that, in and of itself, is part of the problem. I had all the symptoms, but because I was fat, it seemed impossible that I could be struggling with something socially defined as a disorder that seemed to exclusively affect smaller people.”
CW: graphic account of eating disorder behaviours
'White Fragility' author Robin DiAngelo asks why white people are so 'fragile' discussing race
by Sarah Malik
"The ultimate goal is to understand how to go beyond defensiveness, to acknowledge and affirm how we are implicated and benefit from institutional racism”
City of Freiburg has a brilliant alternative to disposable coffee cups
by Katherine Martinko
“The Freiburg Cup is proof that creative green alternatives [to disposable coffee cups] do exist; its model could easily be exported elsewhere around the world.”
'Tis the season to feel guilty - wait, what? How to tune out diet culture noise and tune into your joy this holiday season
By Colleen Reichmann
“Diet culture is a legit Grinch. It’s voice is there, in all of our ears, all year long. But come holiday season, grinchy scroogey diet culture capitalizes on our food focus by getting even louder.”
The athletes starving themselves for success
by Ben Robinson
“Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (Red-S)...occurs when sports people restrict their diet in the belief that constant weight loss will keep improving performance, to such an extent that some of the body’s functions begin to shut down.”
Dealing with an eating disorder
by Tom Fairbrother
“The vast majority of club runners are already at or below a healthy weight, so the obsession with the scales and driving down this number to get faster is misguided, short-sighted and dangerous, especially as weight and BMI are extremely poor indicators of fitness and health.”
Time to Question Obesity-Based Cutoffs in Kidney Transplantation?
by Randy Dotinga
"it’s time to treat obesity as one risk factor among many others and not as an independent and additional hurdle for transplant listing.”
Medicare help to treat eating disorders
by News.com.au
"It is not only the largest single step forward for eating disorders, it is the first time there has ever been a dedicated eating disorders item or set of treatment services available under Medicare”
Hannah Gadsby meets Roxane Gay: ‘Trolls get incensed by a woman daring to think she's funny. I'm very funny’
by Rebecca Nicholson
“Writing about rape wasn’t the hardest part about writing Hunger, at all. It was writing about fatness, and thinking about my body in this world, and the kind of issues that people throw in your way.”
Food Addiction: The science shows us it's not a thing.
by Tzivie Pill
“at this point in time it is inappropriate to diagnose an individual with a food addiction. Rather, a clinician should explore the possibility that what might be classified as a food addiction may be more properly diagnosed as binge eating disorder.”
New Australian study busts anorexia myths
by Mahsa Fratantoni
“It’s actually the size of the weight loss that determines a person’s risk, rather than the end point of weight...We see this in adults in the healthy weight or above healthy weight range as well.”Good to see better recognition of AN at every size, pity it’s still deemed ‘atypical’ due to weight bias.
CW: end is weight biased
F*** Thin; I Choose Fat
by cannebodyhearme
“the body you leave behind is no comfort to those who love you, because it becomes vividly clear at the moment of death that you are not your body.”
CW: contains some gloriously NSFW language
Research & Clinical Practice
The emergence and characteristics of the Australian Mamil
by Adrian E Bauman, Katrina Blazek, Lindsey Reece and William Bellew
“The habitat of the Mamil [middle aged man in lycra] is predominantly in affluent suburbs of major cities, often near water...Mamils provide mutual midlife support for each other and engage in challenging cycling on expensive machines, but may not contribute to increasing overall physical activity levels among adult Australians.”
A worthy joint winner of the Medical Journal of Australia’s Christmas Competition 😂😂
Bauman, A. E., et al. "The emergence and characteristics of the Australian Mamil." The Medical journal of Australia 209.11 (2018): 490-494.
Intuitive, mindful, emotional, external and regulatory eating behaviours and beliefs: An investigation of the core components
by Jessica Kerin, Haley Webb & Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck
“These findings highlight the complexity of eating behaviour by revealing that although many adaptive and maladaptive eating concepts appear to tap opposite ends of a continuum of attuned versus disinhibited eating, several other adaptive and maladaptive eating concepts are better described as tapping somewhat unique attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and behaviours regarding food and eating.”
Kerin, Jessica L., Haley J. Webb, and Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck. "Intuitive, mindful, emotional, external and regulatory eating behaviours and beliefs: An investigation of the core components." Appetite 132 (2019): 139-146.
Obesity as disease: Metaphysical and ethical considerations
by A. Charrow & D. Yerramilli
“if obesity is designated a disease, the health outcomes for those affected will be worse. Disease ascription will promote stigma... individual-level interventions... [and] will gloss over the inaccuracy of BMI as a means by which to determine health.”
Charrow, A., and D. Yerramilli. "Obesity as disease: Metaphysical and ethical considerations." Ethics, Medicine and Public Health 7 (2018): 74-81.
Soapbox & Shareables
“Dietitian Sarah Peck explains more about HAES and how it can help us [dietitians] connect compassionately with our clients.”
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.
The 20-30 minute monthly podcasts unpack different elements of weight bias & stigma, weight research, BMI, health behaviours and weight neutral approaches. Paid subscribers (only $5/month!) get instant access to the previous 15 episodes plus full show notes, reference list, self-test quiz and resource materials for use in practice. This equates to an hour of professional development activity each month :-)
Available for subscribers now is:
'Obesity': Unpacking 'Risk' vs 'Disease'
Ep 18: This episode delves into the definition(s) of 'disease' and 'risk factor' and how body size has come to be understood by various 'body size stakeholders'. At its core, the question is, is being fat the same as being sick? And can telling someone that they’re sick, even when they’re not, actually make them sick? is a condition that has both short-term and long lasting consequences. In this episode I unpack the science of malnutrition, it’s signs and symptoms (particularly in heavier people) and as always, how our intentional weight loss focus results in dangerous malnutrition invisibility.
Subscribe now at: https://www.patreon.com/UnpackingWeightScience
and instantly access 15 episodes before the rest of the world!
Episodes 1-4 are now on iTunes!
Search 'Unpacking Weight Science'
to listen to them for free!
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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