HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 9, 2019
March 1 - March 7, 2019
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
Why ignoring lived experience is the biggest mistake the mental health field ever made
by Tabitha Farrar
"Lived experience should shape treatment. At the moment, in some cases, I think we have this the wrong way around. The theory is shaping treatment, and people who don’t fit the theory – often the majority of cases – are written off as problematic.”
How did home cooking become a moral issue?
by Rachel Sugar
“We really tried to talk both about food as a source of joy and power and love, and a source of stress and struggle and inequality — for the same families in many cases.”
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/2019/3/5/18250471/home-cooking...
What do the people of the world die from?
by Hannah Ritchie
"we are living longer lives while fewer people - especially children - are dying from preventable causes. But...we still have a long way to go.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/health...
Orthorexia: Eating Clean, but Crumbling on the Inside
by Kate Becker
“While better-known eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia tend to focus on food quantity, orthorexia is all about quality and selecting foods that are “pure” and “clean.” ...Orthorexia can be difficult to spot because it often begins quite innocently, with healthy choices like cutting out red meat. But the list of off-limits food just keeps growing.”
https://www.bu.edu/research/articles/orthorexia-eating-disorder-nutrition-and-social-media...
Three Essential Steps to My Recovery: Rage. Reclamation. Relationship.
By Carmen Cool
“For me, recovery [from my eating disorder] began when I felt my spirit begin to uproar. The fury was necessary. I couldn’t move forward without it.”
https://www.edcatalogue.com/three-essential-steps-recovery-rage-reclamation-relationship...
Vulnerability & Accountability in the Age of Blamelessness
by Your Fat Friend
“Our stories of learning are essential because all of us are problematic. Not one of us sprang from the womb fully formed, understanding every aspect of everyone else’s experience.”
https://medium.com/@thefatshadow/vulnerability-accountability-in-the-age-of-blamelessness...
Why I Won’t be Pursuing Weight Loss as a Solution to my Chronic Pain
by Naomi Finkelstein
“There’s a good chance that I’d have the same pain even if I weighed less...Even if I were to starve myself thin now, the damage caused by a decade and a half of pushing-through-the-pain workouts and a nervous system tortured by the stress of weight cycling has been done."
Busting Myths About Eating Disorders
by Emily Fonnesbeck
"It’s become culturally acceptable to struggle with food and body image, so someone that has a serious eating disorder could easily fly under the radar and delay treatment. The quicker an eating disorder is diagnosed and treatment interventions begun, the better the chance at a full recovery”
https://foodandnutrition.org/blogs/stone-soup/myths-about-eating-disorders...
Preschoolers don't grocery shop: The parallels between dental care & weight focused medical care
by Anna Lutz
“food, shame and dental care and the parallels with weight based medical treatment”
https://sunnysideupnutrition.com/preschoolers-dont-grocery-shop...
'Pill shaming' and stigma causes regional Australians to battle mental illness for longer
by Laura Collins
“The research that we have done in relation to access to health care indicates that around 20 per cent of a person’s health outcome is impacted by a timely, appropriate and affordable access to care”
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-03/pill-shame-causing-longer-battles-with-mental-illness...
Take The Cake: Diets Don't Work (But They Do Give People These 4 Things)
by Virgie Tovar
“four roles that dieting serves for people who are dieting”
https://ravishly.com/diets-dont-work-heres-why...
My terror of being fat drove me to anorexia, but I was rescued by the thrill of fighting for a cause
by Eleanor Higgins
“Of course, eating disorders have deep and complex meanings that differ for each person and therapy can be invaluable if you have access to it. But supplementing treatment with an immersion in body-acceptance, fat-activism etc. may help, as can being part of a collective fighting for a cause you believe in, so long as you don’t use it as another method of sacrificing yourself.”
CW: includes account of experiencing an eating disorder
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/eating-disorders-anorexia-fat-shaming-body-positivity...
This is why mindfulness isn't working for you
by Rebecca Ruiz
“People’s expectations of mindfulness are sometimes far higher than what the tool could ever deliver.”
https://mashable.com/article/why-mindfulness-isnt-working-for-me...
Many Women Don't Recognize Their Heart Attack Symptoms. Many Doctors Don't Either.
by Carolina Moreno
“spreading the word about the particular ways heart disease can manifest in women is crucial to making sure they recognize the signs and get the help they need — and fast.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/women-heart-attack-symptoms...
This Ad Campaign Celebrating Postpartum Bodies Should Be Happening All Around The World
by Jen McGuire
“I wonder how I would have felt if my newly changed body had been represented with any kind of honesty in the media. Maybe I would have understood that these changes were normal, that most women struggle with them, and that embracing the body you have is a powerful, beautiful thing. Sometimes all it takes is a little representation in the media to remind you of that fact.”
https://www.romper.com/p/this-ad-campaign-celebrating-postpartum-bodies...
The costs of academic publishing are absurd. The University of California is fighting back.
by Brian Resnick
“If you’ve ever tried to look up an academic journal article, you’re probably familiar with this frustration: You find the study or analysis you’re after, only to learn it’ll cost you $30 to access it."
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/1/18245235/university-of-california...
We Need to Talk About How Eating Disorders Affect Our Sexuality
by Melissa Fabello
“eating disorders don’t only affect people’s relationship to food. Instead, they interact with sufferers’ and survivors’ overall experiences in their bodies, including sexuality.”
https://www.healthline.com/health/eating-disorder-sexuality-series...
'Super' foods are often nothing of the sort, Queensland nutritional researchers find
by Lexy Hamilton-Smith
“the researchers are yet to find any....food [promoted as a ‘superfood’] living up to its marketing claims, arguing the hype continues to outweigh the science.”
CW: please ignore the statement about protein balls and weight gain - they’re not magically ‘super’ at that either! 🙄
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-02/super-foods-do-not-live-up-to-hype-say-qut-researchers...
Top 10 Tips on how to improve your daughter’s body image. Number 9 changed my life!
by Amanda Stokes
“”The scales aren’t for you, you can’t weigh awesome”, i’d say, knowing full well that i needed to walk my talk. Getting rid of the scales allowed me to realize that i am so much more than a number, and my weight no longer defines me.”
https://amandastokes.com.au/top-10-tips-on-how-to-improve-your-daughters-body-image...
Diet Culture Dangers: Could your Child Be Heading for an Eating Disorder?
by Lesley Shilling
“Tracking, much like stepping on a scale, can trigger behaviors that increase the risk of disordered eating behaviors while undermining young people’s trust in their ability to fuel and care for their own bodies.”
Soapbox & Shareables
FAST TRACK TRIAL Academy for Eating Disorders (AED)Research Risk/Benefit Ethics Position Statement
"Research that promises few to no reasonably anticipated benefits alongside serious risks in a vulnerable population, such as appears to be the case in this study, should not proceed.”
Research Risk/Benefit Ethics Position Statement https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Research-Risk-Benefit-E…
Lend your support to stop this trial here: https://www.change.org/p/the-honourable-speaker-and-the-mem…
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:
'Evidence Based Practice:
more than just a literature search'
Ep 20: For the consumer, the term 'evidence based' is meant to give some kind of assurance that the thing works in the way you’re saying it does, whether it’s a sham-wow or new weight loss surgery technique. However, for the practitioner who actually cares that they’re offering real evidence-based care, not just marketing platitudes, evidence based practice comes with a framework and involves far more than a cursory google search.
Subscribe now at: https://www.patreon.com/UnpackingWeightScience
and instantly access 15 episodes before the rest of the world!
Episodes 1-5 are now on iTunes!
Search 'Unpacking Weight Science'
to listen to them for free!
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