faulker053

Warning: you just may not like this post! Gorgeous, no? Barnes Museum, Philadelphia I must admit, I’ve been conflicted about obesity. “ Why conflicted ”, you may ask? “ What’s to debate? If you’re fat or overweight you should get down to the normal BMI ”, right? Not so fast. The two sides I struggle with Diabetes and heart disease conferences bombard me with slides linking obesity with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. And I’m warned that obesity is the underlying problem responsible for our ills, including hypertension and even some cancers. For the record, I have had high blood pressure since my 20s as did my father—and no amount of weight loss with our in range BMIs would have been appropriate to lower our risk. So I have my biases when it comes to making assumptions about disease and body weight. The focus on weight loss is unrelenting. Doctors, for instance, will often refer their diabetic patients to me, pounding them with the message that it’s all about their weight. Sure, ...

"Such crazy thoughts in that Aussie article!" Do you think that if only you do the right thing —eat a healthy diet, exercise, get enough sleep—then you will achieve your dreamed of weight, live free of disease and live happily ever after? This, dear readers, is a fairy tale.  If you believe that eating nutrient packed, low calorie foods is solely responsible for whether or not you get cancer, or arthritis or MS, think again. And don’t be fooled by the preaching of Dr. Fuhrman in his book, Eat for Health , that health equals nutrition divided by calories , period. Health is not such a simple equation. And no, eating whole grain, veggie packed meals won’t protect you from an eating disorder either.  If you think that eating 'right' ensures thinness, as was recently emphatically suggested in a popular newspaper article in Australia, it is yet another fantasy. And if you torture your overweight self with the belief that you must lose weight--at all costs, and that your ...