Obesity scapegoat wears thin

10th March 2008

Obesity scapegoat wears thin

posted in Fat Acceptance, Fitness/Exercise, Health/Nutrition |

I always read advice columnists whenever I’m procrastinating at writing papers, and I came across this rather interesting letter to Dear Abby.

Despite a family history of high blood pressure, Dawn Edwards, a self-described “healthy, vibrant mother of one” and “active health-conscious vegetarian,” thought she was at her physical peak. So when she experienced nausea and lower back pain, she assumed she might be pregnant. Instead, she was shocked to learn she was in kidney failure. After 10 years of dialysis, Edwards received a transplant and now works to promote kidney disease awareness and education. Writes Edwards:

Many people don’t realize that high blood pressure and diabetes are the two leading causes of kidney disease. More than 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and millions more are at risk. Screening for kidney function is not part of a routine physical examination, and kidney disease generally shows no symptoms — so if you have a family history of high blood pressure or diabetes, you are at risk.

Edwards’ letter doesn’t reveal her weight, but it is to be assumed by the descriptive characterization of her health, she is at least relatively thin. Of course, Edwards could be a proponent of Health at Every Size, in which it’s recognized that you can be healthy and active at any weight, but for the sake of this argument, let’s assume Edwards is among the majority of people who have been sold the special-interests-funded medical mantra that fat is unhealthy.

Which leads me to this: High blood pressure and especially the dread diabetes are two of the most common health-related disorders doctors and researchers like to use to fan the flames of obesity fear mongering. While there very may well exist a correlation, one’s family history and genetic predisposition remain the highest predictors for the great majority of illnesses and diseases commonly attributed up to obesity. By suffocating these disorders beneath a warm blanket of obesity, thin people like Edwards are led to develop a false sense of security in that because their BMI falls within that arbitrary and narrow range deemed “healthy,” their risk for developing such health-related problems is slight to none.

Take type 2 diabetes, for example, the most popular medical whipping boy of the anti-obesity establishment. To develop diabetes, you must first inherit the predisposition to diabetes and of the two types of diabetes, it is type 2 diabetes - the type most often blamed on obesity - that has the stronger genetic basis. In fact, family history is such an overwhelming and dominant factor in whether one develops diabetes that a recent study called for the formal addition of family history in public health strategies aimed at detecting and preventing the disease.

When a thin person develops diabetes or kidney failure, it’s most often attributed to a strong family history or to some freak anomaly of nature. Yet when a fat person with the same family history develops the same disorder, it’s automatically blamed on their fatness. Even more dangerous are those scary cases in which a person has a genuine disorder entirely unrelated to weight, but are dismissed by doctors who can’t see past weight to treat the real problem.

Environment is a trigger in many disorders, sure, but even people with extremely healthy lifestyles are destined to develop health problems if there exists a strong family history - just ask Kazz or Mike Benson. And I don’t dispute the role that nutrition or lack thereof plays in the development of some disorders, like diabetes. What I do dispute are the ungrounded assumptions that as a group, fat people eat poorly and engage in behaviors that are more likely to contribute to disorders like diabetes. In fact, studies have shown that fat people eat no differently than thin people, and in the case of diabetes, some studies claim that one’s diet is inconsequential in the development of the disease. I also question studies that purport the health hazards of obesity as an independent variable, especially when the data - which is often funded by groups with a financial vested interest in seeing a particular outcome - is questioned, refuted, reasserted and then disproven time and time again in what is known as the obesity paradox.

Poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle do cause health problems - in people of all sizes. So, too, does one’s genetic predisposition and family history play a strong, if not the strongest, role. By exaggerating and over-inflating the tenuous and often hypothetical influence of obesity in the development of illness and disease, the medical establishment is only hurting the very people they strive to help.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Fat Acceptance, Fitness/Exercise, Health/Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 10th, 2008, Mindy

said:

I really wonder about the whole chicken and egg thing with diabetes and weight. The pco information states that insulin resistance can cause weight gain and make it hard to loose weight. Fat, in theory adds to the insulin resistance, which is a precursor to diabetes. So IR makes you fat and that fat “causes” the diabetes, but if you hadn’t had the IR in the first place you wouldn’t be fat. (for a hypothetical ‘you’).

So do the weight related risk factors cause the illness and the people with out the fat risk factors are the anomalies or do the people with the fat as risk factor actually have the fat as a symptom of the problem.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

2 On March 10th, 2008, caseyatthebat

I really appreciate these kinds of posts, because they give me the vocabulary when having conversations with people about FA and HAES. Thanks for stating things so succinctly!

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

3 On March 10th, 2008, BigLiberty

Well put, Rachel. This line:

“Take type 2 diabetes, for example, the most popular medical whipping boy of the anti-obesity establishment.”

made me laugh. Because you’re right, and your point that not only does demonizing adiposity possibly contribute to wrong diagnoses or maltreatment of fat people, it contributes to the potential harm of thin(ner) people whose symptoms of a conventionally wise “fat-related” disease get attributed to something different, which leads to the ignorance of symptoms or a wrong diagnosis.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

4 On March 10th, 2008, Karen

I know what will help the obseity as an independent variable, maybe. Then again maybe I’m just overly snarky.

When you go in, get bp/weight/temp taken and the doctor comes in and says “you’re too fat” how about if you whip out a statement for him to sign that looks something like this:

“It is my professional medical opinion that, because I felt no need to examine (patient’s name) his/her problems are caused entirely by weight, and that trimming down to a (circle one)BMI/waist-to-hip ratio/weight of ______ is the only possible course of action to cure, mitigate or otherwise treat (insert list of patient’s medical issues here).

Since the only possible cause of (restate list) is high BMI/waist-to-hip ratio/weight, I state with certainty that a normal sized patient never would have developed these issues.”
(have doctor sign and date)

Anyone think this would result in treatment for the obese? And, maybe, for better treatment for the thin, once we can tell that obesity or lack of it, is, at very best, an extremely minor indicator of health issues? I’ve said before, this is a total health care issue. If doctors are missing problems because “everyone knows TEH FATZ causes it” then how many normal to thin people are also getting substandard care because they couldn’t have X because, in chorus “everyone knows TEH FATZ causes it.” These doctors are incompetent to diagnose ANYONE.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

5 On March 10th, 2008, hotsauce

yup to all of this. and i’d just like to make an anecdotal addition that one of my best friends, who is 27 and skinny as a rail, has high cholesterol. she discovered this a year ago and has been working on lowering it. my uncle, a 54-year-old runner and golfer and the definition of a well-rounded intuitive eater, also has high cholesterol. he’s thin, too. and my skinny grandmother developed type 2 diabetes even though she subsists on lettuce and fish.

i could probably come up with more examples but i’ll spare you. good post, rachel.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

6 On March 10th, 2008, nonegiven

Research done on young, lean, healthy relatives of people with type 2 diabetes shows they are already insulin resistant and the insulin resistance itself may be caused by a defect in the way the mitocondria process energy:

Insulin resistance in the first-degree relatives of persons with type 2 diabetes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12761455?dopt=Abstract

Impaired mitochondrial activity in the insulin-resistant offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14960743?dopt=Abstract

Molecular Mechanisms of Insulin Resistance in Humans and Their Potential Links With Mitochondrial Dysfunction
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/55/Supplement_2/S9

In my personal experience the amount of my body fat has very little effect on my insulin resistance.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

7 On March 10th, 2008, Emerald

Of course, family history can also be used as a weapon…to give fat people even MORE of a ‘reason’ to lose weight. My very thin mother has, ever since I was a 140lb teen, warned me that if I didn’t lose weight, ‘you’ll get diabetes like your uncles’. Two of the seven siblings in my dad’s family have type II - my dad himself wasn’t one of them, but my mother seems to think that their build, which I did inherit, is in itself lethal and all I need to do is diet it away. The supreme irony? She’s recently been told she’s showing signs of pre-diabetes, and of course, she’s absolutely furious. Because thin people can’t get it, right?

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

8 On March 10th, 2008, devil

Although I’m not diabetic, it does run in my family. I mention it to my doctor from time to time, but he blows it off because I’m thin. So does everyone else. “Oh, you COULDN’T be diabetic at your size!”

I hate that people just assume others live/eat a certain way based on body weight (and body weight alone). It’s so narrow-minded.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

9 On March 10th, 2008, Karen

devil, Oh, do I hear you. I don’t have that problem with my doctor, he seems pretty decently grounded in actual causes for illness. But everyone else seems to assume I’m doing SOMETHING RIGHT because I’m not fat. It actually depresses me, because, like the fatties who eat normally, everyone assumes I’m lying.

I envision a world where someone tries to figure out what your lifestyle actually is before passing judgment on it. Anyone who wants to live in this world may attempt to become one of my multiple personalities.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

10 On March 10th, 2008, apricotmuffins

my marathon running uncle developed type 2 diabetes, and they decided to put him on medication because his diet was already so good that they couldnt improve it to help control the blood sugars. He’s whippet thin and as fit as they come - and only in his late 30’s.

It makes my blood boil when people refer to type 2 diabetes as a ‘lifestyle’ disease. Im at a high genetic risk for it - my grandmother has it (very late onset though, and 3 of her children do including my mother. Theres no lifestyle to it - I can try and stave it off for as long as possible but in all honesty - i dont think im going to be spared. If i get treated like somekind of dirty sinner because of it, there will be hell to pay.

HELL TO PAY.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

11 On March 10th, 2008, Jon B

This post makes great sense.
My mom has this kidney disorder. I’ve forgotten the name (Something like “False” or “Negative” is in my head if that rings any bells… Like false xyz disorder), but it was taking blood from her heart; She has a balloon near it now. She also has high blood pressure, and it does run in the family. CDNEC, but my brother actually has the same thing, so I’m in the running as well. It is likely to come.

I’m thin, and my brother is really muscular. Yet he is developing the disorder, and we both have blood pressure that isn’t low or particularly high, but people would assume to be lower because of what we look like.

You should look at my fitness book. In the first chapter, it discourages the idea of taking genetics into account when setting fitness goals, but then in a later chapter is says that everyone SHOULD take genetics into account. They can’t decide. :p

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

12 On March 10th, 2008, La di Da

The type 2 diabetes thing is especially annoying. Yeah, if it was caused by being fat, a damned sight more fat people would have it. As it stands, and according to the various standards of what counts offically as T2D, between 5 and 10 per cent of the “officially obese” have it (says Gina Kolata, and I’d trust her research more than an anti-obesity group). It’s rarely mentioned that the vast majority of these people are over the age of 45, and most of those over 60, as with the thin people who have it. T2D is a disease of genetics and ageing.

Christ, I went to a specialist for sinus problems, and the first thing he asks is “Do you have diabetes?”, and he seemed genuinely disappointed when I said no. “You have a lot of diabetes in your family,” warned another doctor I saw, perusing my medical history form: one sibling with type ONE diabetes, and a grandparent who developed T2D in their late 80s after a series of mini strokes, the only two people in the history of our family known to have any kind of blood sugar problems. That’s a lot of diabetes!

I’m not going to spend a lot of time worrying about it either. T2D is held up as some kind of terrifying spectre, when, although it greatly increases your risks of certain health problems, is very manageable and not some life-destroying thing to spend your days worrying about. Certain authorities make it sound on par with inhaling lungfuls of asbestos. That’s not helping anyone, least of all people who actually have the disease.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

13 On March 10th, 2008, Bree

Diabetes runs in my family. My grandfather has it and so do his sisters, so I’m at risk for getting the disease. One of his sisters did lose weight about fifteen years ago, but guess what—she still has diabetes. It’s not a lifestyle choice and while it is a burden, it can be controlled and you can live a normal life with it. I’m so tired of the medical industry always associating it with fatness. It is a common disease that effects people of all sizes and health.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

14 On March 10th, 2008, Carrie

The diabetes paradox- oh, I know thee well. It runs on my mom’s side of the family, both Type 1 and Type 2. My mom’s mom has it- she falls in the “overweight” category and everything is managed very well. My mom’s sister has it- and she is a freaking stick, her blood sugar is all over the place. My mom doesn’t have it- and she’s at the border of normal/overweight (I’m guessing). I have reactive hypogycemia and so am *very* worried about developing diabetes, which can’t be helped by my eating disorder.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

15 On March 10th, 2008, Fat Girl

I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said.

Just adding in my 2 cents- I’m “lucky” in that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes all run in my family, and you know what? Even the THIN members of the family are affected- my thin dad’s got sky high cholesterol, my thin uncle has high blood pressure… It makes not one whit of difference.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm

16 On March 10th, 2008, twincats

My uncle (not blood related) is 61, walks (faster than I can trot) 4 miles, six day a week (mail carrier) and has probably no more than 12% body fat. Guess what? He’s got congenitally high cholesterol and now diabetes.

I’m 5′7″ and weigh about 245. My cholesterol is in the low 200’s, but my b/p and glucose levels are quite low.

I wouldn’t trade with him for anything, poor guy!

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

17 On March 10th, 2008, jaed

I mention it to my doctor from time to time, but he blows it off because I’m thin

devil, you need to find another doctor. Seriously. If you’re at risk because of your family history and your doctor resists looking at the possibility because of your looks, well… a lot of people have insulin resistance, even progressing to diabetic levels, for years before they’re diagnosed, and a lot of subtle damage can be done to the body during those years. (Not to sound alarming, it’s just that you and your doctor need to know.)

I’d worry that a doctor that behaves this ignorantly about diabetes might have problems with attitude and knowledge in other areas, too.

posted on March 10th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

18 On March 11th, 2008, wellroundedtype2

My two cents here, as a person who has been living with type 2 since the ripe old age of 25 (I’m nearly 40 now) is that you can’t “give yourself diabetes,” but that physical inactivity and certain patterns of eating (high saturated fat probably most of all) can cause the onset to occur earlier. A recent study showed that a low-fat, vegan diet controlled diabetes really well (although for me, that would be a fairly depriving diet). Stress can have a big impact on blood sugar, as well.
As far as preventing diabetes goes, I think delay is probably a better concept, and also, it’s often not hard to manage once you get the hang of it and you have a good diabetes educator.
I could go on an on about type 2. I think eliminating fat prejudice/hatered/discrimination, especially among health professionals, would go a long way in improving care for all sizes of people — thin people with prediabetes or diabetes or hypertension may get diagnosed and treated earlier, and fat people with prediabetes or diabetes wouldn’t be driven away from health care and they too could be diagnosed and treated earlier.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 12:55 am

19 On March 11th, 2008, Jackie

I agree. I’m going to Disneyworld in April, but I’m a bit anxious. It’s hard for me to know what’s healthy anymore, cause everything amounts simply to fat=unhealthy, and I wanted to go on some thrill rides. I was going to ask my psychatrist instead of my doctor about it, since last time my doctor used a too small cuff on me for my blood pressure, and insisted that I had high blood pressure when I said it was too tight, and therfore a incorrect reading.

Of course, I can’t simply just find another doctor, because they might prescribe a diet. I mean, people just don’t know how frustrating it is. I don’t even see why doctors call themselves doctors, if they can’t look past the fat. What’s the point, when I can’t trust my doctor to understand that a blood pressure reading off a too tight cuff is why it appears I have high blood pressure. Of course though, it’s just easier to assume I have high blood pressure cause I’m a fatty and maybe I’ll loose some weight then. I’m not saying my doctor is suggesting that, but it’s like if you read into it.

Then also I’m wondering if I’m having a mid-20’s crises. Maybe I’m just not ready to realize I’m too old to get away with the stuff I was able to at 16. Sorry for the rant, it’s just I really needed to vent.

I just saw a Mystery Diagnoses where this girl didn’t get diagnosed for a pulmonary heart problem, cause people were too busy saying she’s fat, she needs to loose weight. Once she looses weight she’ll magically recover. Who cares if she’s passing out everytime she tries to exercise, it’s probaly cause she’s so lazy her lungs are atrophied. Seriously, they suggested that. When the heck will people get past this?!

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 2:14 am

20 On March 11th, 2008, Meg Thornton

My favourite story regarding type 2 diabetes is rather close to home. In fact, it’s the relationship between myself and my partner. Now, I’m fat. I look fat. I’m short, I’m fat, I’m unfit, and I look like the textbook example of someone who “should” have type 2 diabetes. There’s just one small problem: no history of it in my family. My partner, meanwhile, who is tall, thin in build, and shared a similar diet and lack of exercise routine to myself, wound up being diagnosed with it after a very long period of sustained high stress, and now takes medication daily to deal with it. But if someone took a photo of the two of us, and we asked a completely neutral associate to choose the person with the type 2 diabetes, I strongly suspect they’d pick me.

This isn’t to say I don’t have chronic illnesses - I have endogenous depression, and I have an underactive thyroid which was diagnosed when I was in my late twenties (I’ve been on medication for it for the last ten years) and which I suspect has been a problem since approximately my early teens. In both cases, there’s a family history to be taken into account - the depression comes from both sides of the family, and the thyroid problems are pretty strongly linked into Dad’s side of things. Of course, on the other side there’s a history of low blood pressure from my mother’s side of the family, and three out of four of my grandparents survived into their nineties (oldest was 95 when she died, youngest was in his 70s).

Quite honestly, given the history of mental health problems in my family, I figure I’m better off paying more attention to my mental health than my physical health anyway. I’d rather live a shorter, happier life than a long, miserable one any day.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 5:04 am

21 On March 11th, 2008, Sarah

This is a topic that I find frightening because of how real I know it is. A few years ago, I had terrible stomach pain and was diagnosed with Fatness, which I say because I really don’t understand how the doctor came to that conclusion given the symptoms, nor did his explanation make sense. I asked for another doctor who examined me and told me to go to the emergency room because she thought it might be appendicitis. It was and I went into surgery. I’m still scared and pissed off about that. I mean, I was going to a concert that night and had I not asked for a second opinion and gone about my plans, I could have died! I made a formal complaint and it was taken seriously but I shudder to think of how many dangerous decisions that doctor had made simply by looking at the patient. This I am sure would be MANY patients since my pain-causing Fatness was due to my size 12, 160 pound body.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 7:02 am

22 On March 11th, 2008, Karen

Y’know, I’ve never really considered putting my doctor up for the fat friendly doctors list because a)I’m not fat, and have no experience with the prejudice (though I do fear it now) and b)my mom, who uses the same doctor, isn’t THAT fat. I mean, she’s only 180. She barely qualifies as obese. But, Sarah, you make me reconsider. My mom is 5′3″ and 180, so, unless you’re under 5′ and 160, she’s probably noticably fatter than you. None of us has ever gotten blown off. My sister is overweight, said she had bad knees, and her weight was mentioned as a possible aggravating factor, but not as a cause or a cure. If you go to a specialist and the specialist doesn’t work out he’ll listen to your reasons and find you a better option. He recognizes the little things, like that you have to be functional for your job, and will do whatever he can to help you get there. I’ve always known he was a GOOD doctor, I’m just not sure how much of this qualifies him as fat friendly. But if someone is yelling “OMG TEH FATZ KILZ” at someone who is only 160, maybe its more of a case that my doctor isn’t specifically fat UNfriendly.

A good doctor who knows you ought to be able to tell a couple of things just by looking at you, but, seriously, this is insane. These people aren’t doctors. They just aren’t.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am

23 On March 11th, 2008, Rachel

Several years ago, just before The Diet That Would Become an Eating Disorder, I discovered grapefruit juice. Which is to say, I had always thought I hated grapefruit all throughout my childhood (despite really never trying one) and then took a sip of grapefruit juice and discovered I loved the stuff. For two weeks I drank grapefruit juice like it was water.

I had to get a physical for a job I was interviewing for. They noted that my sugar levels were elevated and suggested I follow up with my family doctor. I did, and he told me I was on the verge of developing type 2 diabetes and blamed it on my weight (I also have a family history of it, but he never mentioned this as a factor). I did not mention my grapefruit juice kick because I didn’t understand its relevance. He put me on Glucophage, a medicine that helps control blood sugar.

My desire for grapefruit juice passed. A month or so later, I noticed no effects whatsoever from the Glucophage (He also led me to believe I would lose weight with Glucophage and I didn’t) and went back in for a follow-up. Despite losing no weight whatsoever, my blood sugar levels were back to normal and I went off the medication.

So, there.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 10:12 am

24 On March 11th, 2008, Karen

You family doctor is supposed to say, “huh, it wasn’t like that before. Did you change anything? What did you have for breakfast?” That kind of thing. He’s supposed to have a history with you to know what is going on with you. That’s why you keep the one for awhile instead of going to whoever happens to be handy. That is supposed to be the entire point of keeping ONE doctor from which all recommendations come.

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 10:38 am

25 On March 11th, 2008, Easybake

Yeah, only fat people can get type 2 diabetes. Which is why Halle Berry has it. Makes perfect sense. *Headdesk*

posted on March 11th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

26 On March 12th, 2008, Jackie

Hi. I am the person who posted the above post on March 11th at 2:14 am. In lue of you not providing an e-mail adress with which to contact you. I would like to know why you banned me from your website via my Sidekick’s ISP?

I would like to know what I did wrong. Was it complaining about sizeism, cause I do belive this site is about fighting sizeism. Is it suggesting that it’s hard to find a doctor who isn’t sizeist, because you know that it’s difficult to find one. I cannot see why you would have a problem with what I posted, if this indeed is a fat acceptance website, where one would feel they could post about such issues without feeling judged.

Feel free to ban me from your site from this ISP too. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be participating in a site that claims to be for fat acceptance, only when it wants to be.

posted on March 12th, 2008 at 1:01 am

27 On March 12th, 2008, Rachel

Hi Jackie-

Frankly, I’m not sure what comment you’re talking about nor do I remember banning you in particular - in fact, I haven’t banned anyone in the past two months. I only resort to actual banning in the case of bigoted trolls or people who don’t respect that this an eating disorders site patronized by people with eating disorders. If you are the person who posted a huge paragraph in all caps, you may have been marked as spam. Or, if someone else using Akismet has also marked you as spam, chances are, you fell into my Akismet spam filter, too.

Oh, and my email address is clearly listed on my About page.

posted on March 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am

28 On March 12th, 2008, Jackie

Ok, thanks. Sorry for getting upset, it just is like, I have had people ban me from their blogs for completely arbitrary reasons, and I thought perhaps that was the case. I’m glad it’s not. Perhaps the Akismet doesn’t like Sidekicks.

posted on March 12th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

29 On March 12th, 2008, Julia Havey

I promise, I am not a bigoted troll! I was once 290, lost 130 and am still what many may consider “fat”–just ask the YouTube generation, they are brutal, to them, if you are not a size 0–you are FAT.

Anyway, I wonder if we would have agreement on this:

Whether “fat” or “thin” people who consume unhealthy foods are going to manifest the byproduct of it somewhere. My tall, thin, muscular husband does a lot of sports, eat well but had a love of late night junk food. He had no body fat to show for it, but he had high cholesterol and triglycerides–almost killed him.

A diet that is lacking in proper human nutrition; whole foods, fruits, veggies, whole grains, proteins, water…is going to deliver less than optimal health.

If we could all agree on that, I think we could do a lot to get people healthier (note that I didn’t say skinny!).

A pursuit of optimal health so that we ward off disease as best possible given our unique genetic predisposition to them, to be able to do what we want with out lives when we want–whether it’s climb a mountain, ride a unicycle, or live to be 100 with no illness! Life on our terms without restrictions placed by illness or lack of mobility or ability…

Isn’t that a mutual goal?

posted on March 12th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

30 On March 13th, 2008, Karen

A diet that is lacking in proper human nutrition; whole foods, fruits, veggies, whole grains, proteins, water…is going to deliver less than optimal health.

If we could all agree on that, I think we could do a lot to get people healthier

The biggest reason not to “all agree” is that whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies, lower fat, does not have any evidence of preventing disease.

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/10/junkfood-science-exclusive-big-one.html

Not even your daily multi-vitamin can be said to really help.

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/03/vitamin-whiplash.html

Just because “we all agree,” and most do, does not make something true. Last time I checked, neither science nor God altered due to democratic majority consensus, even overwhelming majority consensus.

posted on March 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

31 On May 23rd, 2008, Eyes wide shut on diabetes? » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] a previous post on diabetes and obesity, La di da made the great point that: T2D is held up as some kind of [...]

posted on May 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm

32 On June 4th, 2008, Even a thin person can get diabetes » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] posts: Eyes wide shut on diabetes? Obesity scapegoat wears thin Click to Bookmark This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm and is filed [...]

posted on June 4th, 2008 at 5:04 pm