No Shortage of Fat Shaming in the World
A bioethicist (!!!) thinks we need more fat-shaming to combat obesity. http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/HCR/Detail.aspx?id=6184 is the original article, below are two responses.
The Worst Thing You'll Read All Day (Shakesville) Lissa: I say again: No one has ever gotten healthier, in any way, by being constantly treated like garbage. And no one has ever gotten bullied into feeling better about themselves.
A Case For Shaming Obese People Tastefully I have no words to express my disgust for this bioethicist but thankfully, Lissa at Shakesville (link above) has already done it for me, while artfully dissecting his arguments.
A Dose Of Reality: My Exclusive Interview With Biggest Loser Finalist, Kai Hibbard (Part 1 of 3) An example of the damage that can be done by the fat shamers of the world. I can't describe how she was treated as anything but abuse.
Fat shaming is indeed a powerful force and it already permeates our society. It can make nine-year-olds start starving themselves and hyper-exercising. It can cause eating disorders. It caused me to give myself gallbladder disease by the ripe old age of 15. In extreme cases teenagers have died when their electrolyte balance suffered and caused problems with their cardiac rhythm. For me, repeated starvation diets had the net effect of weight gain after the initial loss, a little more each time I went through the cycle. This phenomenon was proved early on in an experiment chronicled in The Dieter's Dilemma* where normal-weight conscientious-objectors were put on a diet in a controlled environment, lost weight, and then were allowed to eat as they wished. They regained the weight and then a bit more, finally hitting a new set point. They also showed the same signs any dieter is familiar with: obsession with food during the dieting phase, irritability, rapid regaining of weight lost and so on. Other studies have shown the same pattern. We still are learning a lot about fat but nothing we've learned so far supports the notion that shaming leads to weight loss or prevents weight gain.
So shame away, America, if you'd like to continue to shame young girls (those most vulnerable to it) into adversely affecting their health and developing eating disorders while their body still needs nutrients to grow. 200-500 calories a day was not healthy!
*The Dieter's Dilemma: http://www.amazon.com/Dieters-Dilemma-Eating-Less-Weighing/dp/0465016537 See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment
The Worst Thing You'll Read All Day (Shakesville) Lissa: I say again: No one has ever gotten healthier, in any way, by being constantly treated like garbage. And no one has ever gotten bullied into feeling better about themselves.
A Case For Shaming Obese People Tastefully I have no words to express my disgust for this bioethicist but thankfully, Lissa at Shakesville (link above) has already done it for me, while artfully dissecting his arguments.
A Dose Of Reality: My Exclusive Interview With Biggest Loser Finalist, Kai Hibbard (Part 1 of 3) An example of the damage that can be done by the fat shamers of the world. I can't describe how she was treated as anything but abuse.
Fat shaming is indeed a powerful force and it already permeates our society. It can make nine-year-olds start starving themselves and hyper-exercising. It can cause eating disorders. It caused me to give myself gallbladder disease by the ripe old age of 15. In extreme cases teenagers have died when their electrolyte balance suffered and caused problems with their cardiac rhythm. For me, repeated starvation diets had the net effect of weight gain after the initial loss, a little more each time I went through the cycle. This phenomenon was proved early on in an experiment chronicled in The Dieter's Dilemma* where normal-weight conscientious-objectors were put on a diet in a controlled environment, lost weight, and then were allowed to eat as they wished. They regained the weight and then a bit more, finally hitting a new set point. They also showed the same signs any dieter is familiar with: obsession with food during the dieting phase, irritability, rapid regaining of weight lost and so on. Other studies have shown the same pattern. We still are learning a lot about fat but nothing we've learned so far supports the notion that shaming leads to weight loss or prevents weight gain.
So shame away, America, if you'd like to continue to shame young girls (those most vulnerable to it) into adversely affecting their health and developing eating disorders while their body still needs nutrients to grow. 200-500 calories a day was not healthy!
*The Dieter's Dilemma: http://www.amazon.com/Dieters-Dilemma-Eating-Less-Weighing/dp/0465016537 See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment