Fat Talk

Okay. I've just watched the most vapid show on TV. I don't want to demean the show or anyone who watches it. Hey, I was watching it! And I didn't change the channel. I could have but I was mesmerized. To protect myself from a lawsuit (you never know), I'm not going to divulge the name of the show but it is a reality show that portrays a wealthy family of women who are all quite beautiful. One of the young women was going to pose nude for a PETA campaign. A worthy cause. This particular sister is bigger than the others. Bigger is the best descriptor because she is taller and curvier. Her step father remarked, upon hearing that she intended to pose nude, "Shouldn't you try to lose some weight before you do it?" I was appalled. Amazed. Thankfully, she had an intact self image and ignored him although she did become visibly angry. Probably not as angry I was!
Then I came in here to work on the computer. I received this web site from Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, the co-author of Intuitive Eating: https://secure.pursuantgroup.net/pursuant4/deltadeltadelta/fall08/dddselect/flashstory.asp
It will take a while for the site to load. Be patient. It's worth it. I might have sent the link last year when they were having this campaign to stop the "fat talk". Even so, it's worth watching again.
Funny that it arrived in my mailbox just minutes after the segment with the step father commenting about losing a little weight.

Book recommendation and my theory of evolution

I'm reading three books right now, Nasty Bits by Tony Bourdain, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver. It's Fat Politics that's captured me the most. That's not really true-Pausch's book is amazing. He's amazing. But I cry while I read it so I have to read only a few pages at a time. Tony Bourdain is starting to be a boar. Love the guy. Love that he's out there and seemingly honest all the time. Love the sly smile. Oh, and the tall lanky body even though he could benefit from a little resistance training. But that's another story. It's just getting old to read about what a wild and crazy guy he was in his youth. Okay. We get it. You used drugs. You drank. You had indiscriminate sex on the stove with everyone and anyone. You cursed. You punched people. Move on. Do you have to gloat about it in every essay? Every book? What did you cook? Did you cook?
Fat Politics is a look at the "obesity epidemic" from another angle. According to the author, the obesity epidemic doesn't exist. Wait a minute. I'm fat. You're probably fat. The person sitting across from you is probably fat. Take a look around you-in the airport, at the supermarket, at work. Lots of blubber. Was it always like this? No. We are indeed getting fatter by the day.
His thesis is not that we as a nation-as a world-are not getting fat. Of course we are. But is it the health crisis that the media tells us it is?
I'm only into the first 20 or so pages so not ready to discuss his ideas fully but he presents some very strong evidence against a health epidemic stemming from the ever widening of out butts.
So if it's not as much a health issue as we hear and read and tell each other-then why do we spend so much time (and money!) on trying to lose weight? That's the "politics" part of the title.
More after I finish reading the book.
But first, my own theory of why we are all getting fat.
The Obesity Issue According to Sharon:
Natural selection. Think about it. If being fat were indeed such a health issue, then why are we living longer? Is it just because medical science is so advanced that docs can keep even us fatties alive longer? Are kids fat just because they don't exercise and eat McD's? I think not. I think kids are fat because of natural selection. I think the world is fat because of natural selection. I think our genes are being preferentially selected. Because we are hardier, perhaps? I don't know. I'm not finished formulating my hypothesis. But that's what I think and I'm sticking to it!