HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 41, 2019

November 22 - December 12, 2019

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Happy reading!

Articles & Blogs

Why I’m calling for stars to come clean about their eating disorders

by Eve Simmons

“I wondered, as I listened to her confession, was there just something different about eating disorders that is particularly unpalatable, and shameful? Why is it that public figures are reluctant to discuss their eating problems with the same openness as they are other mental health issues?”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7717835/EVE-SIMMONS-Im-calling-stars-come-clean-eating...

Let’s Talk About Unsolicited Weight-Loss-Themed Gifts

by Ragen Chastain

“Whether it’s a diet cookbook, a membership to Public-Weigh-In-Watchers, a “health food” delivery service or something else that we didn’t ask for, giving fat people the gift of judgment is some bullsh!t – at the holiday season or any other time.”

https://danceswithfat.org/2019/12/10/lets-talk-about-unsolicited-weight-loss-themed-gifts...

Instagram launches body positive campaign to tackle eating disorders

by Maddison Leach

“With so many influencers and social media personalities only promoting a 'perfect' image of themselves online, it can be hard for young people to understand that what they see on Instagram often isn't achievable or real.”

https://honey.nine.com.au/latest/instagram-body-positive-launch-campaign-eating-disorders...

The body-positive movement excludes women like me — those who aren’t ‘acceptably fat’

by Heather Jones

“properly-fitting clothes gave me new confidence and pride in my appearance, and prompted me to invest in more clothing.”

https://www.thelily.com/the-body-positive-movement-excludes-women-like-me...

Five Questions to Ask Instead of “Is This Really Body Positive?”

by Your Fat Friend

“My fat activism is about building a world that considers and values fat folks’ experiences just as much as thin folks’. No caveats.”

https://medium.com/@thefatshadow/five-questions-to-ask-instead-of-is-this-really-body-positive...

Don’t Buy a Fitness Tracker for Your Kid

by Angela Lashbrook

“A punitive or even rewards-based system to encourage young people to move more won’t be effective in the mid or long term, and could cause or worsen obsessive thoughts and behaviors in some kids.”

https://onezero.medium.com/dont-buy-a-fitness-tracker-for-your-kid...

Products mocked as “lazy” or “useless” are often important tools for people with disabilities

by S. E. Smith

“It’s not just that people with disabilities have a use for items like these and are tired of hearing that they’re wasteful or silly: When the need for such products is called into question, it can exacerbate social divides that contribute to larger policy issues that keep people with disabilities from public life"

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/20/17791354/products-people-disabilities-sock-slider-banana-slicer-lazy...

Gratitude Lists Are B.S. — It Was an "Ingratitude" List That Saved Me

by Liz Brown

“For years I'd been listening to well-intentioned people who told me to be grateful for how lucky I was...What they didn't realize was that while these practices were helpful for many people, in my case they made me ashamed to be honest about how bad I was feeling and work through that pain.”

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a45386/gratitude-lists-dont-work...

For Fat Folks over 50, I Got You

by Amelia Mitchell

“I fully lived as a “good fatty” for a long time. I was dieting, exercising, showing that even though I wasn’t slim, I cared, I was making an effort. That was very inspirational to others, it was “good.” Except it was unsustainable. Except that I was trading my humanity to be acceptable and lovable.”

https://aunt-amelia.com/for-fat-folks-over-50-i-got-you...

Rebecca Alexander Wants to Make It Easier to Be Fat in Public

by Evette Dionne

“There are lots of reasons why spaces don’t fit fat people, and none of them have to do with anyone being too big. They all come back to some shortsighted design decision that was made 70 years ago that no one has felt the need to update. When you start to see that data, it becomes a lot easier to accept yourself.”

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/rebecca-alexander-bitch-50-interview...

I never want to be thin again

by Catherine Deveny

“Crushing depression doesn’t always look like greasy hair, tracksuit pants and Netflix. Sometimes it looks like breathless overdrive.”

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/i-never-want-to-be-thin-again...

Excess Weight Can Weaken The Flu Shot

by Richard Harris

“The virus is able to grow to higher [concentrations] and spread deeper in your lungs, which is not what you want during an influenza infection"

Weight centric but important PSA.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots...

Cotton On

by The Angry Chef

“it is reasonable to question why the likes of Fearne Cotton cannot see the harm that their dietary messages might visit upon others, almost always people with fewer resources, and less capacity to recover. However brave and important someone’s admission might be, whilst an Amazon search of their name still brings up a list of best-selling diet books, they need to be held to account.”

https://angry-chef.com/blog/cotton-on...

I’m Not Your Typical Ultramarathoner. Here’s What I Want Everyone To Know About Size And Fitness.

by Emily Abbate

“For anyone who feels like they, too, don’t exactly fit the typical “runner” mold, Valerio shares her essential tips for not just getting started but also sticking with it long into the future.”

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a29628423/ultrarunner-mirna-valerio-on-size-and-fitness...

Research & Clinical Practice

Learning to eat intuitively: A qualitative exploration of the experience of mid-age women

by Emma Louise Barraclough, et al.

Nearly all women [in the study] did not want their family or friends to experience the same mental and physical distress they had experienced with food and weight. These women were ‘motivate[ed] to role model the right kind of attitude [eating intuitively] to food’.”

Barraclough, Emma Louise, et al. "Learning to eat intuitively: A qualitative exploration of the experience of mid-age women." Health psychology open 6.1 (2019): 2055102918824064.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177...

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