The good, the bad and the nutty.

The good

This awesome billboard has gone up in Atlanta until the end of may. 

 

The California weight loss clinics I wrote about last September that push lapband surgery as an easy and simple way to lose weight are being investigated. 

The ubiquitous ad campaign and the surgeons affiliated with it are under intense scrutiny. At least three wrongful death lawsuits have been filed, and the Los Angeles County Coroner is investigating one of the deaths. And according to a spokesman at the California Department of Insurance, the agency has initiated an investigation into allegations of insurance fraud.

The Bad

The April issue of Vogue has a story about a mother, Dara-Lynn Weiss, who put her 7 year old daughter on a diet because *gasp* her daughter was fat. Her response wasn't to get her daughter to eat healthier and move more, but an actual diet that included skipping meals  (she didn't allow her daughter to have dinner because she had a big lunch), moralization of food (foods became 'good' and' bad'), and no attempts at moderation. (Her daughter is not allowed pizza at the weekly school pizza day because she ate a corn salad.) The mother herself clearly has issues with food.  Projection, anyone?

I'm not a fortune teller but I think I see anoxeria or bulimia in her future or she might actually be *gasp* fat.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, Australia, Amy Smith the CEO of Jenny Craig Australasia, will be speaking at the  conference for educators for girls. It is igniting a storm of protest. 

On May 25 Amy Smith, the CEO of Jenny Craig, will present to a conference of educators for the Alliance of Girls' Schools (AGSA). Described as a "champion of women's health" by Catherine Misson, Principal of Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Jenny Craig's CEO will be enlisted to "inspire" attendees: what they learn will impact on what they bring back to the classroom.

Already letters from health professionals have begun flooding in, with some voicing their protests from as far as the US and Middle East. They all agree on one thing: Global giant Jenny Craig, which profits from the billion-dollar diet industry, is not an appropriate 'leader' for educators of young girls.

Sign the petition here against it.

The nutty.

From my neck of the woods, New York City Mayor Bloomberg has decided that certain foods can't be donated to the poor and homeless because *gasp* they can't tell if the how much salt, fat and fiber the food has.

Glenn Richter arrived at a West Side synagogue on Monday to collect surplus bagels — fresh nutritious bagels — to donate to the poor. However, under a new edict from Bloomberg’s food police he can no longer donate the food to city homeless shelters. 

So if you're homeless, hungry and poor in New York, make sure you dumpster dive for some carrots instead of getting some fresh bagels. The bagels might make you fat and we can't have that happening. 

Comments

[Dee]

Well, all the ragged homeless people cluttering up our streets are unsightly enough already. Imagine how much worse they'd look if they were fat as well. /sarcasm.

[Pissed off in australia]

That last part about the bagels is just FUBAR, and a reflection of exactly what is wrong with so much of the world today. Better that people fucking starve than get fat because god knows getting and being fat is the worst thing anywhere anytime. Fucked up.