If a 20-stone, 30-something woman comes into hospital with a bad diabetic attack, does she deserve to be at the front of the queue or the back? She has chosen to stuff her face with Mars bars and Coke, and is now suffering the consequences of her choice. She cannot claim ignorance of the dangers of her diet: the Government has carpet-bombed us with health advice, from schools to GP practices. Class no longer regulates access to healthy living: everyone who can watch the telly, let alone read the magazines, knows that a high-fat diet will make you look bad and feel worse.

Does the obese 30-something lay claim to NHS services and a hospital bed when this means thousands of others will have to do without?

The septuagenarian who develops breast cancer has done nothing wrong – except grow old. The NHS has to consider that there are deserving cases and undeserving ones. Age should not be a barrier to optimum care; but bad habits should be.

Why should fat people take precedence over the elderly in the NHS? – Telegraph Blogs

Dara-Lynn Weiss attracted national media attention by putting her obese 7-year-old daughter on a diet, writing about it in Vogue, and ultimately scoring a book deal. Her story is relevant in American where 1 in 3 children are obese. There’s a need for information on how parents can help their overweight children—but Dara-Lynn, who fat-shamed her daughter in public, got it all wrong and only sets a bad example for other moms in similar situations. And as we all know, the last thing the world needs is yet another example of bad parenting.

When Bea Weiss was 6 years old a pediatrician diagnosed her as clinically obese. Bea was 4 ft. 4 in. and 93 pounds.

Bea’s mother, Dara-Lynn Weiss, sprang into action and put her daughter on a strict diet. The Manhattan socialite also fat-shamed Bea, humiliated her in public, and once she denied her daughter dinner because she consumed brie, filet mignon, baguette and chocolate at her school’s French Heritage Day. Another time she stopped her daughter from eating a salad because it was overly dressed.

“She did everything we recommend people don’t do,” Lynn Grefe, president of the National Eating Disorders Association, told Time. “To us, diet is a four-letter word.”

Manhattan socialite shames fat daughter, writes about it in ‘Vogue’ | The Mommy Files | an SFGate.com blog

Soda sales have been declining for the past seven years, but the pace of the decline quickened in 2011 despite growth in the overall beverage market.

Americans continue to guzzle more bottled water, ready-to-drink tea and coffee, sports drinks and energy drinks, rather than sip on soda and fruit juices, according to beverage statistics released Tuesday.

Drop in Soda Sales Accelerates as Healthier Options Grow – US Business News – CNBC.

Marah Rhoades remembers when her daughter, Emilia Cooper, started to worry about weight. She was 5.

Thats when boys at her Brooklyn school started calling her fat. Emilia, now 9, has always been taller and more broadly built than most of the other kids in her class, and she quickly learned her body type made her a target for teasing.

“At that point she became very aware of weight,” says Rhoades. “She started coming home and telling her 3-year-old brother, If you eat that youre going to get fat.”

“We all exercise a lot, and its definitely just her body type,” says Rhoades. “We started having a dialogue about it, but its hard for her to understand that there are different bodies.”

Fat is the new ugly on the school playground. Children as young as 3 worry about being fat. Four- and 5-year-olds know “skinny” is good and “fat” is bad. Children in elementary school are calling each other fat as a put-down.

As our country becomes more obsessed with increasingly skinny ideals of beauty at the same time that were getting more obese, “Fat hatred has become so pervasive that it is part of the fabric of our language and interactions,” says Dr. Robyn Silverman, author of “Good Girls Dont Get Fat: How Weight Obsession is Messing Up Our Girls and How We Can Help Them Thrive Despite It.” “Fat and thin are no longer simply assessments of size or weight, but rather of character. So you can imagine why adoption of these attitudes, diet talk and disordered behavior is happening earlier as well.”

Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!

Fat is the new ugly on the playground – CNN.com

600-pound man evicted allegedly because of his weight: MyFoxNY.com

A 600-pound Conn. man says his landlord is evicting him and his mom because of his weight problem.

25-year-old Joey Dibendetto lives with his mother Debbie Verab in a walk-up apartment in New Haven.

He is constantly on oxygen and can hardly move. But, when he does move, its causing damage to the apartment.

And thats why he claims his family is being forced out of the Ridgeview Condominiums apartment.

A piece of plywood covers a hole Dibendetto says he put in the floor with his foot.

His mother says its been unfixed for a few months.

The floor and tub are sinking in the bathroom and the family says the toilet doesnt flush anymore.

The son of the landlord confirmed to the local Fox News station that the eviction has nothing to do with any rent problems. He admitted that the family has paid it on time every month. Instead, he cited violations that he would not detail.

Dibendetto says the family has not been given enough time to find a new place to live.

600-pound man evicted allegedly because of his weight

Mad as it may sound, Danish researchers have announced a theory that may not only explain why people all over the world are getting fatter and fatter, but also warn of the serious consequences for life on Earth of continued pollution of the atmosphere by CO2 emissions.

In itself, the theory is quite simple: CO2 contributes to making us fat.

The theory arose several years ago, when Lars-Georg Hersoug studied the development of obesity among people who had been followed over a number of years in the so-called MONICA studies Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardio-vascular Disease in Denmark. These studies have mapped the lifestyles of thousands of Danes.

Hersoug was surprised to see that both fat and thin people taking part in the studies over a 22-year period had put on weight – and the increase was proportionately the same.

Orexins – which are neuropeptide hormones – in the brain stimulate wakefulness and energy expenditure. These hormones may be affected by CO2, and this can cause us to go to bed later, affecting our metabolism so it is easier for us to put on weight. But orexins are also involved in the stimulation of food intake.

New theory: CO2 makes you fat | ScienceNordic

Small quantities of processed meat such as bacon, sausages or salami can increase the likelihood of dying by a fifth, researchers from Harvard School of Medicine found. Eating steak increases the risk of dying by 12%.

The study found that cutting the amount of red meat in peoples’ diets to 1.5 ounces 42 grams a day, equivalent to one large steak a week, could prevent almost one in 10 early deaths in men and one in 13 in women.

The scientists said that the government’s current advice that people should eat no more than 2.5 ounces 70 grams a day, around around the level the average Briton already consumes, was “generous”.

Dr Frank Hu, co-author of the study, said: “Given the growing evidence that even modest amounts of red meat is associated with increased risk of chronic disease and premature death, 2.5 ounces 70 grams per day seems generous. The bottom line is that we should make red meat only an occassional rather than regular part of our diet.”

Red meat often contains high amounts of saturated fat, while bacon and salami contain large amounts of salt. Replacing red meat with poultry, fish or vegetables, whole grains and other healthy foods cut the risk of dying by up to one fifth, the study found.

Red meat is blamed for one in 10 early deaths – Telegraph

Adult obesity rates were higher than 15% in all but three of the 190 metropolitan areas that Gallup and Healthways surveyed in 2011. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents were the most likely to be obese, at 38.8%, while people living in Boulder, Colo., were the least likely, at 12.1%.

More Than 15% Obese in Nearly All U.S. Metro Areas

An attempt by Disney to address childhood obesity is being “retooled” due to complaints from fat-acceptance groups and weight-loss surgeons.

Habit Heroes, an interactive exhibit at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., is being redeveloped after Disney received complaints that the attraction stigmatized and hurt overweight children, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The exhibit, a joint effort with the health insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield, attempted to encourage healtheir lifestyles by showing kids the dangers of fatty foods and inactivity with cartoon superheroes named Will Power and Callie Stenics and chunky supervillians named Snacker and Lead Bottom.

People were distressed that the “villains” with the bad eating habits were all drawn with overweight bodies, further stigmatizing children and adults carrying excess weight.

Disney shutters Habit Heroes childhood obesity exhibit after complaints – NY Daily News

NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) is appalled to learn that Disney, a traditional hallmark of childhood happiness and joy, has fallen under the shadow of negativity and discrimination. It appears that Disney now believes that using the tool of shame, favored so much by today’s healthcare corporations, is the best way to communicate with children.

Disney, in partnering with Blue Cross/Blue Shield to create the new Epcot attraction and on-line game, Habit Heroes: http://www.habitheroes.com/bad-habits-gallery, has taken the side of the bullies. The attraction and game feature negative stereotypical characters such as “The Glutton, Overeating and eating too fast”; “Snacker, Too much fatty, processed food”; “Lead Bottom, Not enough exercise”; “Stinkbomb, Bad hygiene”; “The Fungus, Eating rotten or expired food”; “Stress Case, Stressing Out”; “The Prescriptor, Ignoring doctor’s advice” and “Cereal Killer, No time for breakfast”. The use of these stereotypes, traditionally used to torment overweight kids, will potentially reinforce and strengthen a cycle of bullying, depression, dis-ease, eating disorders and even suicidal thoughts.

NAAFA recommends that Disney and their partners, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Wellpoint, review NAAFA’s Child Advocacy Toolkit. This toolkit is a resource that focuses on a health-centered approach to improve the health of our children without doing harm.

Disney theme parks and characters have always been associated with positivity
and joy; there is no upside to following this new negative path. Let’s keep
Disney theme parks “the happiest places on Earth!”

NAAFA encourages everyone to call and write Disney to express your outrage.

NAAFA Press Releases: Hi Ho! Hi Ho! A-Stigmatizing Fat Kids We Go!