Fat Chicks Rule

Stupid Media.

I managed to sit through about 10 minutes of Celebrity Fit Club before I got disgusted and turned it off.   It had three things I hate most in the world: promoting weight loss as the only solution to good health, celebrities who were formerly fat positive (i.e. beautiful plus size model Mia Tyler and actress Kim Coles) and of course vapid stupidity.  The show was just plain dumb. I still haven't been able to sit for more than two minutes of the Biggest Loser (I already killed a lot of brain cells by dieting, I don't need my IQ to go down any more).

Despite that there is pressure that models not all be heroin chic, during the summer MTV put out a casting for a show called Model Maker which sought women ages 17 to 24 to lose weight quickly, get a make over and compete to be a model.  Not only is it stupid, but it encourages eating disorders especially among a high risk age range (college age women have the highest risk for Bulimia.)  After pressure, MTV pulled the show. 

However I don't know what was worse that MTV thought this would be a good idea or people would fall for it, that people would have seen this show or Celebrity Fit Club or Biggest Loser and think "I have to be like them".  We have to stop allowing the media to dictate who we are especially for shows that are very very stupid. 

Fat Positive shopping.

Check out Voluptuart which features some lovely size positive materials including t-shirts, artwork, mugs etc.  I am especially glad because they carry Marilyn Wann's Fat? So! T-shirts (which I got by nearly mugging her at the San Fran's NAAFA con); Yah! scales (which give you a compliments instead of weight) and Love Your Body bracelets (which is go because my last one just broke).

If you want one stop shopping in fat acceptance check out Kelly Bliss' Plus Size Yellow Pages which includes links to clothing, health, art etc.

It's important to support sites like this because they cater to fat people for a change.

Of course my book also makes a great gift.

I will not be an experiment

Thankfully Merck was nice enough to stop final trials on the new anti-obesity drug Taranabant (Most likely because it wasn't going to get approval) because it's side effects made you crazy, literally.  I am grateful that it was stopped before it got to market.  The drug companies are happy to experiment on us.  The thing is, and this is something I must keep repeating, No diet drug has ever been proven to work in the long run.

We are also not rats.  Apparently rats can lose weight on calorie restricted diets and that can prolong their life.  However this isn't true in humans. According to a recent study, humans on calorie restrictive diets (even ones that are making sure every thing you eat is highly nutritious) aren't living longer than sedentary people eating a 'Western' diet.    

So don't be an experiment, don't allow the diet and drug industry to take control of your body. Refuse surgery, drug experiments and eating less calories than you need to survive. 

Is there something in the water?

There was not one but two size positive stories in the NYTimes this last week.

Gina Kolata, who is not always size positive, has an article about what I've been toting for years (and fat activists even longer) that diets AND exercise don't work to lose weight. Those who advocate Health at Every Size have long known that fitness can improve your health but may not cause you to lose weight.  And lowering the amount of calories you need to survive never works.  So this article is a step up.

A better article is by Robin Marantz Henig about fat acceptance and the fight against fat stigma.  It also totes Health at Every Size, not just the program but the new book coming out this fall.

Yep, the fab Linda Bacon who helped author a journal article (PDF) about HAES has now written a book about it!  You can pre-order your book here (while donated some $ to fat friendly organizations) or if you don't feel comfortable ordering online, you should walk into a major book store and pre-order it directly (The more pre-orders they get the more likely they will carry it in their stores.)

And finally some news of the weird. Apparently when bears eat garbage they get fatter and die more violently (in car accidents).  Statistics on fat people's deaths are very similar.  If a fat person were to die in an auto accident, fat would be blamed for it.

A refreshing change this week, I hope it lasts...