Doing my part to help the mitten industry

15th October 2009

Doing my part to help the mitten industry

posted in Fat Bias, Mind & Body, Personal, Rachel |

I’ve been chuckling at the many blog posts on the absurd AOL Shopping piece on how fat people are, wait for it…. DOOMING the mitten industry! While certainly a marketing gimmick on AOL’s behalf, the piece is based on an actual study that found that fat people generate more heat and release it through their hands — you know… kind of like the X-Men’s Pyro. It seems that my fat bod didn’t get the message though, because I have positively ice cold digits. In fact, I messaged my husband this morning that I need to find gloves that won’t make me fat-finger the keyboard, and on a lark, googled such a contraption.

Tada… USB heated gloves. Internet? You are amazing.

Cold intolerance can be a symptom of a thyroid deficiency, but I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in my early 20s even before I reached my heaviest weight and I never experienced it until I developed an eating disorder and lost nearly 60 percent of my body weight and most of my sanity in one year. Even now that I’ve regained about 27 percent of the weight and have ample body fat levels, I still get very cold in environments others find comfortable or even warm. Some folks have suggested I may have Reynauld’s disease, but my skin doesn’t turn white as in most Reynaulds cases and I also don’t have the characteristic numbness. And even if I did have Reynaulds, from what I gather, there’s not all that much that can be done medically to relieve it.

So, I just placed an order for these USB heated glove/mittens (sadly, my first choice is sold out and I draw the line at these). Hopefully I’ll soon be sporting hot (fat) little hands like the rest of America’s fatties.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Fat Bias, Mind & Body, Personal, Rachel. 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 October 15th, 2009, SteveD said:

Give me your address and I will send all the Niacin I have!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niacin

Sometimes burns me up at night (even with Asprin).

Now I am kidding. But I hope you can get warmed up. Hopefully you live in Warm are of Country.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

2 On October 15th, 2009, WendyRG said:

I have always had a small to medium amount of padding on my little body and my hands are freezing as I sit here typing. The only time I haven’t been sensitive to the cold is when I was hyperthyroid (twice in my life–I’m in remission now). I will check out your USB gloves.

More fat phobia.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

3 On October 15th, 2009, Bree said:

I’m sitting here typing right now in a warm house and my hands are cold. Thank anemia for that.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

4 On October 15th, 2009, CTJen said:

To be honest, I thought it was the proliferation of knitters in recent years that was the doom of the mitten industry. But wait, it’s so much easier to blame THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC than to actually THINK.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

5 On October 15th, 2009, rachel with a little "r" said:

Mittens? Do any grown-ups actually wear mittens? I need gloves when it is cold so I can move my individual digits. Also, my hands get cold, too. Did they steal that story from The Onion? Because that is some seriously stupid sh*t. I think you have it right about the X-men thing, though: we’re ALL mutants! Normal humans run for your lives!!! I have heard the BS about fatties causing global warming, though, so I was expecting that this would be the threat to the “mitten industry”…but no. It’s simply that fatties won’t want to buy their dumb old mittens because they make their own nice body heat to keep their extremities warm…um, except they don’t. But it’s science! It’s been proven! You can’t argue with science!

OMG you know what else is threatened? The SHOE industry! soon, the only people who will need or even want to wear shoes will be the 1/3 of women who have normal BMI’s or lower! And it will all be fat women to blame for the shortage of choices and higher prices for those women, because the fat women won’t be buying shoes anymore, and we all know how women love their shoes…

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 6:43 pm

6 On October 15th, 2009, rachel with a little "r" said:

OK…this is just silly. Do scientists even HAVE real stuff to do anymore? Or do they make up things?

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

7 On October 15th, 2009, Bronwyn said:

Did the study actually say that or did AOL shopping pick it up and try to use it to sell mittens? I can’t figure it out.. either way it’s ridiculous.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

8 On October 16th, 2009, Alexandra Lynch said:

I am crocheting myself little fingerless glove things to keep my hands warm while on the computer. I am contemplating when I get them done doing a little bit more work to at least glove the thumb to the knuckle.

posted on October 16th, 2009 at 1:46 am

9 On October 16th, 2009, June said:

I release all of my stored heat through my fingers! That’s why I wear fingerless gloves, so it can get out safely! I WILL CAUSE THE DEMISE OF THE MITTEN INDUSTRY, PEOPLE! (single-handedly? No, I think I’ll use both)

posted on October 16th, 2009 at 2:53 am

10 On October 16th, 2009, Tracy said:

It’s difficult to make sweeping generalizations about groups of people. Like to say all fat people are nice or crabby or that they are hotter. I’m the only overweight person in my family and I’m notorious for getting colder than anyone.

posted on October 16th, 2009 at 3:25 am

11 On October 16th, 2009, Kath said:

A strong circulatory system is usually what gives people warm hands and feet. If you have good blood flow to your extremities, they will give off more heat than those who don’t have good blood flow. How that can be tied back to being fat… I dunno!

My Grandma has “hot healing hands” – did so when she was thin too. I’ve inherited the same gene it seems, because I’ve always had really hot hands regardless of my size.

posted on October 16th, 2009 at 3:34 am

12 On October 20th, 2009, Liza said:

I didn’t realize mittens had their own industry.

I’m just going to keep making my own, thanks.

posted on October 20th, 2009 at 7:55 am

13 On October 21st, 2009, merri said:

Wow that is so cool I always get cold hands. Well, actually im cold overall. But sitting in a cube all day typing…this sort of thing could be PERFECT! Thanks!

posted on October 21st, 2009 at 8:21 pm

14 On January 1st, 2010, foxy.kate said:

hey
i just came accross your site searching for reynauld’s info – I’m taking adderall, too, and I’m seeing that it can cause circulatory problems.

good luck!

posted on January 1st, 2010 at 1:43 pm