02/23/10

Here Is My Commentary.  I have a similar commentary after the “healthy eating links page”. ("Second Healthy Eating Links Page")  Oh!  And, don’t forget to view the page titled, “A Story From Robyn’s Journey Through Life” if you want to learn even more about this subject. 

Since February 2002, I have been reading, off and on, a book about the “diet INDUSTRY”.  Losing It America’s Obsession With Weight and the Industry that Feeds on it by Laura Fraser.  If you read the “healthy eating links page”, you can see that nutrition is a pet subject of mine.  I have learned a few good things along my journey through life. (See, “A Story From Robyn’s Journey Through Life”.)  Diets to loose weight are not good---they don’t work.  People who spend their time trying to loose weight on low calorie diets are usually doomed to failure.  It seems to me that some of the really obese people, in this country, dieted their way to that weight.  It is not willpower that you need to stick to a low calorie diet.  A lot of the low calorie diets are “starvation” diets.  It takes much more than will power to stick to something like that.  Then when someone can’t succeed at one of these diets, they have failed yet again. So the berating and guilt sets in. The person may eat to try and satiate the guilt. 

The thing is, I was reading the Weston A. Price Foundation website.  http://westonaprice.org/ .  I was reading an article about the diet of the Native Americans.  It was not at all like the “ancient man” type of diet that some “experts” sold to unsuspecting people via their book.  I learned of this condition known as “rabbit starvation”.  If the Native Americans were unable to hunt their traditional foods, they ate rabbits instead.  This did not have proper nutrients for them.  So some people ate rabbits so much that they were bloated.  They could not get their fill.  I think that same type of thing is why we have such rampant obesity in this country.  People are eating junk thinking it is food.  And others eat for their “healthy lifestyle”, not knowing the things they eat are junk.  They eat themselves silly trying to satiate a “hunger” that just won’t go away.  I assume that if you are not getting proper nutrients, no amount of eating will cure the desire for food.  (As I write this, the Inuit are fighting to preserve their way of life.  They are trying to preserve their traditional foods.  They are unique in that their remoteness has allowed them to retain their traditions.  They do not suffer diabetes in the numbers that aboriginal peoples to the south experience.  I think a lot can be learned from the Inuit.)

I just looked up “rabbit starvation” on the net.  I saw something, which I found “funny”.  The one web site that purported to teach “health”, said that “rabbit starvation” was a result of the person getting too much protein. This web site is very influential apparently.  They were promoting the “ancient man” type of diet.  All the web sites I found, that told how to survive in the wilderness, said that you need fat to survive.  They warned, that if you only ate rabbits, you would die.  These web sites said that the way to know if you have gotten enough fat, is to eat the fat until it does not taste good any more.  One site said that beaver tail was a highly prized source of fat.  Don’t take my word for it!  Just go to www.google.com and type in “rabbit starvation”.  I was on the “advanced search” page and I typed it in as an “exact phrase”.

“You’ll Never Know the Difference”.  Ha!

Rather than eating “slow foods” and better yet, “the foods of our ancestors”---we eat junk.  If a recipe calls for “sour cream” we say, “Can’t eat that, it is unhealthy”.  We do not think we can eat the dish with real “high fat” sour cream, once a month or once every other week.  The dish tastes so good that this thought never crosses our minds.  We go out and buy some soy yogurt or a chemical “no fat” sour cream product.  We substitute the “no fat” stuff for the sour cream in the dish.  Then we feel like we can eat the dish every day.  “I did good, I used no fat sour cream!”  Ha!  What an oxymoron.  It cannot be cream without any fat!!  There are times we put up with the bland taste; the lack of flavor.  We tell ourselves that it tastes just as good.  Or we say, “It does not taste near as good.  But my heart loves me”.  This is not necessarily true, read the Weston A. Price Foundation website or the Transfat Info. website.  Sometimes we add things like sugar to the dishes to make the bland no fat version taste better.  Would God give us taste buds on our tongue that taste fat, if there was not something good about it?  The CBC program “Marketplace”, their consumer program, did an informal testing of doughnuts.  They found that the brand of American doughnuts which, are new to Canada, taste better than the Canadian’s traditional brand.  They took both doughnuts to a lab.  They found that the American doughnuts had more fat content.  I would guess that we humans have a natural “love” of fatty foods.  Why are we fighting our natural biology trying to eat the “unnatural” diets of the “Dictocrats”?

I lived in a household with the mentality of the “low fat”/ “no fat” substituting when I was growing up.  I am glad I did not buy into it. 

THOUGHTS ON, DIETING TO LOSE WEIGHT:

“Thimk!” before you diet!!!!!!

I think that if we ate properly and not according to the “diet Dictocrats”, we would have less obesity (and associated diseases).  If we could ban certain types of weight loss methods we would be better off as a society.  The doctors don’t always stress to their patients the dangers and life long side affects of intestinal surgery for weight loss.  They seem to be so interested in money they don’t stress the dangers of the “diet drugs” either.  The one diet drug disaster that caused the heart problems in the 1990’s need never have happened.  People are too eager to lose lots of weight quickly.  No one knows what sort of strain people are putting on their hearts by losing large amounts of weight quickly.  If a person looses a large amount of weight quickly, and then they gain it back just as fast----what strain does that put on someone’s heart?  Would the strain be even more deadly if the person losing and gaining, already had damage to the heard because of chronic long term obesity?

It has always been my understanding that people in accidents can lose drastic amounts of weight while they are in the hospital.  Also, it seems to me that the doctors and nurses try to keep the person’s weight up so they can keep their strength.  I would think it would not be good for any sick person to begin losing weight.  So I would seem to me that the extremely thin people we are seeing more and more are at a disadvantage if they get into an accident or suffer some terrible sickness.  Also in this “vein”, I know that anorexics, do great damage to their hearts by not eating.  It is my understanding that, when you do not get proper nutrients, the human body starts to “eat” or get its nutrients from muscle.  NOT FAT.  The heart is the largest muscle in the body.  I would assume that the heart is the first muscle attached, since it is the best for the purpose.  I am not sure.  

All I know is that when trying to lose weight, you have to BE VERY CAREFUL!  As they say in England, “Mind how you go!”.  Don’t fall for every fad diet that comes along.  Eat a sensible diet of “real foods” as much as you can.  A great principle from the Bible is “All Things In Moderation”.  Make sure you eat a variety of real foods.  Make sure you get enough food.  If you go to bed hungry---or you are hungry at odd times in the day, then you need to adjust your intake.  Maybe you are hungry because you have a deficiency in something.  Don’t eat too much of one thing.  Get plenty of water and sleep.  But don’t sleep too much.  If you drink too much water you can drown.  Get some exercise.  Take romantic walks in the evening with your sweetie.  Don’t over exercise. 

I also think we need to change how society views “size”!!  A woman that is a U.S. size 14, is NOT necessarily a fat person! (A U.S. size 14 is a European, size 44 or UK size 16.)  I would enjoy being a size 14 again.  When I was a size 14 I was given this message by some of the adults in my life, that I needed to loose weight.  Size 14 is the beginning size for the “plus” sizes.  Those of you who knew me when I lived in Littlefield (My high school years) will know, that if I had lost too much weight I would have been very sick.

I saw a newspaper clipping that told about the measurements of Miss America contestants.  They started that contest in the 1920’s.  Women were shorter then.  Even though women in the pageant are getting taller all the time, their weight and “size” measurements, are decreasing.  To me, this is a bad message to send to women.  “You are only beautiful if you are smaller than a size 14”. I saw an interview with a model or actress.  She was saying that “industry” people wanted her to loose weight.  She was a size 14.  The program presenter said she was brave for sticking to her guns and not loosing weight.  She was remaining a “plus sized actress”.  It is awful, when we as a society view normal sized women as being “fat”.  I was shocked.  This woman did not look fat at all.  If she lost weight she would be anorexic. This woman was considered a “plus sized” woman.  She looked “normal” sized to me.  She did not look overweight at all.  Why can’t the “plus” sizes start at a more realistic place—say size 20 or 22?

By the way, a woman has to have at least (I believe the figure is,) 15% body fat on her body or she won’t be fertile!!  We have infertility rates going sky high.  The “over stressing of thinness in America” could be one of the causes.

I don’t believe that people should be obese.  I just believe we need to look at people realistically!!  Just because you are a “person of size” that does not automatically mean you are unhealthy!!  One woman, who is a size 14, might be a “normal” sized person.  Another woman who is a sized 14 might be overweight.  I wish we did not lump everyone into the same height/weight chart!  Everyone is trying to promote “diversity”.  Yet we are not promoting diversity of body shapes.  Women who are size 14 or larger can be perfectly healthy.  When I was sized 14 the doctors never found anything wrong with me.  I am not sure the general public realizes it, but it is possible to be too thin.  We should love people and accept them regardless of their size or shape.  We shouldn’t look at someone as “unhealthy” just because of their size or shape.  Look at an athlete.  I saw an athlete in a documentary.  He was a tri-athlete.  He did the grueling races.  He saw a doctor regularly---maybe even more often than the average person.  The doctor declared him fit to run in these races.  They interviewed his doctor and the doctor said he was not overweight.  He was all muscle.  Yet according to the way “they” figure things, he was considered obese. 

I know obesity in children is a problem.  But there are kids who are “naturally” chunky.  There are some people who are not thin.  They are genetically “plus sized”.  They are not all grossly obese.  Everyone probably has heard of the kid who ate no different than anyone else, yet they were always a little chunky or pudgy.  They had baby fat they never outgrew.  Why do parents take those children and make them diet?  Not everyone is meant to be thin.  I am not talking about 300 pound children.  I saw some women on television.  They were very large.  At least two of them said that they dieted to their current weight.  They talked of how their parents watched every bite they ate.  “Don’t eat that”.  “How many of those have you had”?  They showed childhood photos.  The girls did not look all that overweight.  (I am getting angry, I had better stop writing this section.)  See the page titled, “A Story From Robyn’s Journey Through Life” to learn why I was getting angry.

Clothing for “People of Size”

While I am here, another pet subject.  Clothing manufacturers, should make clothing for “people of size” that is more realistic!!  There is nothing like buying a shirt that is the right size, EXCEPT the armholes are small.  I got bigger everywhere yet my arms stayed small?  No!  Then they don’t make bras that fit right.  AND YES, I did take a proper measurement and do a “proper” fitting. The fancy beautiful “seat cover”, (I mean, lingerie) shop won’t sell things in my size.  At least I operate on that premise, since they did not have my size before.  (I re-checked, they still do not have my size!)  I spent a long session on the phone with a market research person one day.  I was very happy!  I got to try and explain that the famous beautiful lingerie “Did not come in my size”.  “Would you buy our lingerie?” “Yes! If it came in my size.”  “Do you ever visit our shops”?  “What’s the point? Nothing comes in my size”.  I know I could loose weight and fit into these clothes. (In theory.)  But what do I wear until I loose the weight?  And what happens if I NEVER loose the weight?

I bet this whole “commentary” sounds feminist.  I am not a feminist.  I have just learned about the issues surrounding “people of size” from feminists.  I find the whole subject interesting.  Yet it makes me very angry at times.  I write about women more than men in my “commentary”.  I think this issue affects men too.

I have found two news groups that deal with “fat acceptance”.  The moderated one looks to be the nicest.  News groups are on “Usenet”.  Ask your local computer expert how to subscribe and view them.  They are free.  They are wonderful tools and I have learned a lot from them.  There are a, gazillion different subjects.  Each newsgroup is a different subject.  If you don’t want to subscribe to news groups, but you want to read them and now post on them,….go to “google groups”. http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en

This is from my “Healthy Eating Links Page”:

Two good web sites for “people of size”.

National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance http://www.naafa.org/   I am not sure if I agree 100% with that one.  It is a starting point for resources.  The NAAFA web site also gives people something to think about.

This next one seems to have some good resources.  I saw some good clothing companies.  I even saw an ad for a seat cover (lingerie) shop.  This web site had a page with a list of good books to read on this subject.  Size Wise  http://www.sizewise.com/ 

I think of “fat acceptance” like this, “What do I do until I loose the weight?”.  And then, “What if I never lose weight?”.  “My size does not necessarily make me ‘unhealthy’”!  “Why are you, Mr. Business Owner, trying so hard to get rich off my ability or inability to loose weight”?  “I can be “healthy” and “beautiful” no matter what size I am”!!  “I have to accept myself, whether or not I loose weight.  I have to love myself now.  I can work at losing weight if I so choose.  I have to be positive ‘in the mean time’.  I can’t wait until I get thin to love myself.  I might not ever make it to ‘when I get thin’”. 

Ok.  I’m done with my rant now.  (Not really, but I have to stop before I get myself into even more trouble.)

http://www.realwomenproject.com/ The Real Women Project--"Imagine a world radiantly lit by the true beauty and wisdom of women in pursuit of health and justice for all".  --This site is probably very left leaning, or feminist, but I think the premise is probably a good thing.

Here are some articles about dieting to lose weight.  Most of them are from the BBC News web site.  You will find this list included on the page titled, “A Story From Robyn’s Journey Through Life”.

This first article is from the BBC News website, as are a lot of the articles below…

It is about how women are obsessed with their bodies.  Even “normal sized” women will say that they need to lose weight.  It is a real shame that we are promoting this behavior in our culture!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/966757.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2192744.stm  This is from the BBC News web site.  Girls are more apt to diet than boys.  Girls, diet even if they don’t need to loose weight.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/358300.stm  This is a very good article!  Restricting a child’s food choices makes them want the forbidden food even more.  Duh!  As if we did not know that already.  I think children should be taught how to eat properly—rather than just saying, “you can’t have that” all the time.  From what I understand, it is an uphill battle to change a child’s eating habits.  But I think, if from the beginning, all a child knows is good food, they will eventually prefer it to “junk”.  I always liked the foods I grew up eating, better than “foreign” or “strange” foods. (This probably meant that Mom had difficulty getting me to eat, if she tried anything new.)  The foods I grew up eating, have become “comfort foods” to me.  You can’t keep a child from being exposed to “junk”.  But I think if the foods they get at home are mostly good food, then it will work out in the end.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2144997.stm Women who follow fashionable diets may be putting their health at risk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2143836.stm  An anti-dieting book was written by a Canadian-Chinese woman.  It tackles the big Asian dieting craze.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/if/3589269.stm 'Keep fat-phobia in perspective'
 

Low Carb. Diets article at Quackwatch.org.  http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/lcd.html

Uncovering the Atkins diet secret http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3416637.stm
 

The Atkins Diet - programme summary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/atkins.shtml
 

Another one from the BBC News site.  They still use midwives a lot over there.  The article is about how midwives are losing their specialized skills, because they are using them less and less.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2180682.stm