Drop the "y".

I was going to blog about the pretty bad case of antenatal depression that I am dealing with and usually do deal with in the refractory period between begging for death nausea and actually being able to function in my life. But that post may never get written. Its depressing - imagine that, depression can be depressing? So I thought I'd return to a topic that motivates me... natural childbirth, nah not today.... circumcision... nah, but check out this abridged version of a very well made documentary on the subject: Cut the film ... the podcasts there are also excellent.

Today it will be HAES...

While in my fog a lot has been moving and shaking in the HAES world.  Georgia put up fat shaming billboards with child actors. Which claimed problems that none of the children actually had problems with. The HAES community with Ragen's organizing raised 20,000 dollars to produce a counter ad campaign with body positive messages. Even people who make a living off of shaming fat people (Jillian Micheals) was appalled by the campaign and said "let me be clear, shaming children is never the solution for any problem"... shocking I know... since shaming adults is a perfect career for her.

Another actor was digitally altered and put on fat shaming billboards without his permission claiming he had diabetes and amputation of his leg from it. Neither of which was true.

Don't even get me started on Carnie Wilson's second weight loss surgery.  The weight loss surgery industry is booming. Shame sells. (PS. this was the rage inducing line I read though : "A representative for Allergan, the maker of the LAP-BAND System®, told ABC News that the company is compensating Carnie Wilson to be a media spokesperson."  excuse me while I scream into a pillow

Weight loss surgery industry again makes the claim that weigh loss surgery cures diabetes.. was the study of enough surgery recipients for long enough time to be valid? NO. And of course your glucose will be low in the immediate period after surgery. You are LITERALLY starving. You are, that is how the stomach amputation works. Does it last 5, 10, 15 years? I don't know research there is sketchy. Complications however are well documented, just not easily accessible. And how about they talk about why they use medical problems such as diabetes to get funding for the surgery but are cutting on people all the time who are metabolically healthy with NO diabetes,NO high blood pressure, etc. and they themselves will say not a thing was wrong with me but I was fat.

Disney added a new feature at Epcot under the direction of Blue Cross Blue Shield where thin heroes "Cali-stenics" fought bad guys with ummm you guessed it fat bodies - like Glutton and lead bottom.  Because the happiest place on earth should come with a dose of fat shaming?  An outcry was almost immediate and the exhibit has been taken down for re-tooling, hopefully that means taken out back to the trash dumpster. As Dr. Yoni Freedhoff put it:

"So thanks for being so helpful Disney - I mean if your kid's not overweight or obese, here's to Disney reinforcing society's most hateful negative obesity stereotyping, and if they are overweight or obese - what kid doesn't want to be made to feel like a personal failure while on a Disney family vacation?"

The world went NUTS over Paula Deen's announcement of her type II diabetes. Paula Deen has no moral imperative with the world to share her medical history no more than the chef at your favorite restaurant does. She cooks food on TV, doesn't force feed it to you and you can make the recipes or not. Being mad that her food is not healthy is kind of silly. She is not Micheal Pollan and shouldn't have to be. If Paula Deen is enemy number one then the Pioneer Woman should be right up there with the Devil himself.

(now Paula peddling a diabetes med, that I am NOT a fan of.  see above for Carnie peddling weight loss surgery with compensation while saying "its about health")

Some other thoughts on Paula Deen:
-you don't know how she eats. Just because you have watched her show a few times doesn't mean you know what her diet or exercise habits are.
-even if you did, research isn't conclusive about what causes diabetes.
-some people could TRY their whole lives to get diabetes, work every possible unhealthy lifestyle choice and they won't get it. You know why? because its much more complicated than we think. But its easy to judge when we think we know.

which leads me to what I really wanted to talk about...

I got accused of not taking things like diabetes seriously from someone because I am a Heatlh at every size advocate. So I thought once again I'd try to clarify what Health at Every size means to me since it seems to confuse folks:

I was reading this post the other day with some critical claims about why Health at Every size should go mainstream but probably won't. (I disagree) And there was a comment from Dr. Burgard that was a hammer to the nail moment for me:

It is HEALTH, not HEALTHY, at Every Size, and we do not contend that people of all weights are always healthy, or that everyone is always at their healthiest weight. There are pathological processes which result in weight displacements, up or down. HAES focuses on preventing/treating those processes. 


We are so accustomed to believing that pursuing weight loss is good, we fail to demand data for it, and instead demand data that it's "not good" - but you can't prove a negative. The burden of proof is on people who are proposing an intervention to change weight, to show that it is safe and effective - not at 6 months out, but at 2, 5, 10 years out. 


It does not help people to feel that their lives are on hold until their bodies are "acceptable." It does not help people to engage in temporary and unsustainable efforts to become "acceptable." It does help people for all bodies to be deemed not just acceptable, but precious and worthy of care. That means sick bodies, fat bodies, starved bodies, "ugly" bodies, less functional or mobile bodies. The bodies that we pathologize are the homes of people we are making sicker and less able to participate in the world. That is a pathological practice that we can change.

That! That is exactly it.

Health at every size means just that - every single person at whatever body size they are has a right to respect and the pursuit of happiness and health. It's not a blanket statement that everyone is healthy at any size.
"Healthy" is a difficult thing to achieve or measure and self worth is not negated when you are not "healthy". You can be healthy and unhealthy across the entire spectrum of body sizes.  Being Healthy or not is society's new elitism. And in that ball of mess, dieting, even if masking as a new lifestyle choice, has gotten a voice of reason that it does NOT deserve.

Dieting may be leading you further away from health and mental stability.  Dieting has a poor track record. 95% failure rate. And complications from weight cycling are documented.

So the message is simple to me - Healthy practices are valid - exercise, whole foods, a variety in your diet, mostly plants, etc.
But those healthy practices don't lose validity if they don't make you skinny.

There is no wrong way to have a body, therefore there is no right way to hate your body.  
from here