Fat Chicks Rule

I was going to wash my hands of it.

I originally was going to stop posting about the Rudd center who kept claiming they were so against weight bias and swear that they don't pressure people to lose weight nor do they go on assumptions.  Then I was sent from the Rudd Center this great assumption, I mean Op ed piece about how New York MUST pass the tax on soda.  For the sake of the children, the diabetics and the fatties.  

On a personal level this tax will almost never affect me.  I don't drink soda.  I buy organic root beer maybe 2-3 times a year and I buy soda for a yearly holiday party. 

My problem is the assumptions from both the state of New York and the Rudd Center.  Fat people must be fat because they can't stop drinking soda.  If only they would just stop drinking it.  I don't drink it, haven't for about 10 years or so. So can I get a tax exemption for the $20 of soda I buy per year for thin and fat friends at my party?  

Now let's talk about diet soda, shall we?  Studies are showing that your body reacts to diet soda worse than sugar.  Not to mention nutrasweet and splenda aren't exactly proven to be healthy and natural.

You want a healthy state, try this: free health care for all.  Every single person who needs health care should get it.  No one should have to choose between seeing the doctor and rent.

And we can pay for it with a tax on diet soda.  

Fat positive news

I'm sick today so I'm posting some fat positive stories that have been in the news lately.

Hudson News reviews FatLand, Frannie Zellman's first novel takes place in the future where fat people have created their own country to get away from draconian health policies of the US. I've haven't read the book yet (just ordered it on Amazon) but I've heard some good things.  

HAES is promoted at Diet.com.  The sky is falling!  It's worth reading, but be warned, you will be assaulted by diet ads. 

And a size positive article from the Lantern, the Ohio State University.

Removing the stigma means more than just saying there is a problem.

A few months ago I got an email from the Rudd Center that they had created an online course to help medical professionals reduce weight-bias stigma.  The Rudd Center recently came out with a series of YouTube videos about the same subject.  For this, I applaud them.

That being said, the Rudd Center still encourages weight loss as a cure (even after countless studies have proven that diet-and-exercise methods of losing weight rarely work over the long term).  For many fat people it's the pressure to lose weight that causes the biggest problem.  Instead of curing us, insuring us, making sure we have the same legal rights as the “bodily correct”, we are told to lose weight as if this would make everything better forever.  If the Rudd Center really wanted to reduce obesity’s social stigma, they would stop pushing us (and pushing others to push us) to lose weight.   If they truly want to make us healthier, they must remove weight as a predictor of health.   Linda Bacon's study on Health at Every Size proves that.  In the study, the women doing HAES kept healthy habits while the dieters they were compared to did not. Guess who was healthier at the end of the study?

To prove my point, I bring you to an event from a year ago sponsored by the people who would like to beat us with celery: Kaiser. The Best Me is a show that teaching kids not to be fat. The biggest problem with the event’s showcasing technique is that it’s described as being for “obese” children. Just what every chunky ten-year old needs to hear: “Honey! This is great! It’s for fat kids like you! ” But if you read the event description without the mention of obesity, it comes across as being designed to encourage children of ALL sizes to eat healthy food and move around more.  Removing the word “obesity” removes the stigma yet encourages eating right and exercise.  Easy, peasy.

Moving as fast or as slow as you can.

I usually keep all comments on this list, even negative ones unless they are spam or truly vulgar.  That being said, I rarely reply to negative responses merely keep them there to show the world what kind of hateful comments fat people get.   However, I got one two weeks ago that I just thought was funny.  The commenter said that I would lose weight if I would just exercise and that if my thin friend didn't exercise she would get fat.  I thought it funny because I walk all the time and my thin friend barely moves.   Yet she is deemed healthy  purely because she is thin and I am assumed to be lying on my back eating bon-bons purely because I am fat.

But the point of this blog post is about exercise and how important it is to get regardless of your size.  Exercise release endorphins that make you feel good.  You deserve to feel good. 

You don't have to be competitive about it (unless you want to), just find something you enjoy and do it. You don't have to run the NYC marathon, do the movement that you love.  I walk almost every day anywhere from 1-5 miles per day.  It makes me feel good. I am less tired when I move. 

And on the other hand, you also have the right not to move.  That doesn't make you morally in-superior.  (Those are reserved for people who make fun of others to feel better about themselves).  No one should ever tell you what to do, or who to be.