Over the past several months, Sharpton has regularly singled out fat followers for the kind of ridicule that he himself once endured. For example:

* During a March 29 address, Sharpton recalled running into a former classmate from Brooklyn’s Samuel J. Tilden High School. But the woman, now pushing 300  pounds, was no longer the physical specimen of her youth, a fact that made Sharpton rueful. “Ain’t nothing worse than ruining your life over somebody that don’t look that good anymore.”

The woman, Sharpton recalled, “was slim, trim, the finest girl in Tilden.” Now, however, “she obese,” added Sharpton. The reverend then followed with the observation that, “Every fine girl is two big Whoppers away from being obese.”

* On April 5, Sharpton told of an upcoming community fashion show being organized by his daughter Ashley, and noted that some women, due to their size, would not be able to participate.

Mimicking a passed-over candidate, Sharpton said, “Why Ashley didn’t have me model?” He answered himself, “’Cause you too fat! We doing full-body size, but we ain’t doing the oversize.” He added that “jumbo” women would not make the cut.

After laughter subsided, Sharpton noted, “Since I lost weight I talk about fat folk real bad. I like keeping fat folk around me so I can just talk about them.”

* On the day before Easter, Sharpton mocked women anticipating a candy score the following day.  “As old as you are… you overweight, obese, got diabetes looking for some corn candy and jelly beans.” He added, “Talk about the resurrection, you gettin’ ready to have a crucifixion if you eat them jelly beans.”

Later in his address, Sharpton recalled that the last time he flew coach was a 1994 trip to South Africa with other preachers. He recalled being stuck in a middle seat between “two of the fattest preachers” on the trip.

* Chiding a portly aide during remarks in late-April, Sharpton said, “I know how to make you jog. All I got to do is just put a fried chicken sandwich right here.” As he said this, Sharpton mimicked holding the sandwich on a stick as a lure. “And you’ll run as far as I got that chicken sandwich.”

* While urging followers in late-May to attend a rally against Boko Haram at the United Nations, Sharpton said, “A lot of y’all ain’t doing nothing but going to lunch. And most of y’all don’t need no lunch. Y’all need to walk over to the UN and lose some weight anyhow.”

* During June 28 remarks, Sharpton recalled once ridiculing a female diner who ate across from him at Sylvia’s, the Harlem soul food restaurant. After watching the woman devour half a fried chicken, two sides, and dessert, Sharpton recalled, “I just got mad.” When the waitress asked if she wanted anything else, the woman “had the nerve” to ask for a cup of coffee with Sweet’n Low,” said Sharpton. “So I couldn’t take it anymore and said, ‘Miss, lemme ask you something. All of that you took, what do you need Sweet’n Low? I mean, you just make yourself feel better? You might as well pour the whole bag of sugar in the cup.”

via Al Sharpton Is A Bigot… Against Fat People | The Smoking Gun.

A pageant mom in Florida is the subject of an upcoming episode of Untold Stories of the E.R. after forcing her daughter to ingest tapeworms in order to slim down for competition.

Upon checking into the emergency room with severe stomach pains, nurse Maricar Cabral-Osorio thought the teen was pregnant. But an ultrasound showed no fetus — although there was an inexplicable growth in her intestines.

Recounted and reenacted for Discovery Fit & Health’s anything-but-subtle medical scare docudrama, the unfortunate teenage contestant’s condition became clear upon a fateful trip to the bathroom.

“It was a toilet bowl full of tapeworms,” Cabral-Osorio recalled.

“It was so gross and she had pooped all these tapeworms. There were a couple that were very long and wiggling around trying to get out of the toilet bowl.”

Having passed the parasites, the teen was then assumed to be fine. But one question remained — how did she get the tapeworms in the first place?

After an apparent fight between the mother and daughter, it became clear the mother bought a pill of tapeworm eggs in Mexico and forced her daughter to take it to lose weight for an upcoming pagent.

“We were wondering how did she get those tapeworms, and then you saw the mom turn white,” Cabral-Osorio said.

“The mom was apologizing to the girl. It’s like ‘I’m so sorry. You know, I did it just to make you a little skinnier. You needed some help before we went on to the pageant.”

It is unclear when the incident occurred or if criminal charges were brought against the mother.

via Pageant mom fed daughter tapeworms so she would lose weight – Breitbart.

A new wristband design will deliver an electric shock if the wearer does not meet fitness goals.

The Pavlok wristband will be designed to track daily performance.

According to the company’s website, the Pavlok compels you into keeping workout and fitness goals by using feedback, reinforcement and electric shock.

via New wristband will shock users if they miss fitness goals – DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is suggesting major changes to grocery stores to “nudge” Americans to purchase healthier foods when they shop.

The agency commissioned an “expert panel” to make recommendations on how to guide the more than 47 million Americans on food stamps into spending their benefits on fruits and vegetables.

The group released an 80-page report this month presenting their ideas, which include talking shopping carts and a marketing strategy for grocery chains that would feature better store lighting for healthier items.

“Most Americans, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, do not purchase enough whole grains, dark green and orange vegetables, and legumes, and purchase too many items with excess calories from fats and added sugars,” the report said.

“At the same time, the food retail environment is saturated with food marketing messages, including health and nutrition claims and information, advertisements, and promotions for many unhealthy food items,” it said.

Initial suggestions from the USDA on how to alter the grocery environment include stores offering “SNAP-Ed cooking classes” and consultations with dieticians.

“In this approach, the supermarket is the classroom and shoppers receive support on how to maximize their healthy choices using products retailers promote via the weekly store circular,” the report said.

Another idea included a point-based system where food stamp recipients could receive movie tickets in exchange for healthy food purchases. Grocery store staff could also be used as “ambassadors” for the USDA’s agenda.

“In this role, floor staff has the ability to re-direct consumer purchase towards more healthful choices by explaining the incentive or the nutrition labeling system,” the report said.

The USDA said the ideas are “intended to change the choice architecture of the food retail environment to make healthier choices more prominent,” which is in line with first lady Michelle Obama’s stated second term agenda to “impact the nature of food in grocery stores.”

“These strategies, in particular, draw on principles of behavioral economics to nudge consumers towards healthier choices,” the report said.

The panel came up with six preferred strategies: discount coupons for SNAP recipients; rebates of up to $60 for healthy purchases on EBT cards; buy one get one free deals for SNAP recipients; a targeted marketing plan to promote healthy food; a USDA loyalty card; and new specialized shopping carts.

via USDA Suggests Changes to Grocery Stores to ‘Nudge’ Consumers to Eat Healthy | Washington Free Beacon.

The 440-pound body of a man was rejected from a morgue at an Australian hospital for being “too fat” after a funeral director had driven more than two hours with the deceased in her hearse.

Joanne Cummings drove the body to the Hedland Health Campus in Port Hedland while blasting her air conditioning to keep the corpse cool and then had to go right back.

“I actually had to turn around and drive two hours home to Roebourne and keep him in my car overnight,” Cummings told Australia’s ABC.

According to Cummings, Hedland Health Campus rejected a 550-pound body last year. HHC staff apparently don’t mince their words.

“(A member of staff) walked out and looked at this gentleman in the back of the car and said: ‘He’s too fat, he can’t go in the fridge’,” Cummings told the North West Telegraph.

“I could probably put a baby elephant in one of those fridges and it’d fit through the door, and they’re refusing entry for a human being. My issue is if that was your father, mother, partner… you wouldn’t want them refused entry into the mortuary.”

WA Country Health Service regional director Ron Wynn said the hospital may look into installing equipment that can store larger bodies.

“It is imperative that at all times a deceased person is treated with the utmost care and respect and viewings are arranged so as not to cause distress and inconvenience to grieving families,” Wynn said in a statement.

via 440-pound body rejected from Hedland Health Campus morgue for being ‘too fat’ – Breitbart.

Luckily, the Government has come up with a new plan to tackle child obesity. Under a deal with Disney, characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse – along with the clan from Monsters, Inc. – will lead their own exercise videos, designed to get children moving for an hour a day. They don’t call those public health officials mad geniuses for no reason, do they?

Actually, I’m pretty sure they don’t call them geniuses at all. Which is unfair, because this new incentive is nothing short of it. Forget the nation’s obese children: I’ll be the first to hunker down with Monsters, Inc.’s Sulley as he deadlifts his way – in thonged Spandex – to the blue furry body of his dreams. I’ll be there on the mat with Goofy – who with his long, lean physique has always struck me as the ultimate yoga buff – attempting a perfect downward dog, and lunging along with the snowman from Frozen as he sweats it out to Let It Go.

Of course, the slight anatomical discrepancies between your average primary-schooler and, say, Mickey Mouse, could be an issue, but they’re probably no less disparate in body shape than Cindy and her aspirational female devotees. And with our biology results slipping down the world’s league tables, who’s going to tell the difference between their own physique and that of a lederhosen-wearing cartoon mouse anyway?

With one in three of Britain’s children overweight by the end of primary school, child obesity is – I realise – no laughing matter. Which is why it seems rather odd to make it one.

“Imaginative solutions” is what the government’s Change4Life campaign likes to call it. But it’s when people start getting imaginative – food manufacturers with their ingredients, parents with their children’s physical activities – that the problems start. There’s nothing imaginative about broccoli or kicking a ball around a park. But lace your child’s broccoli with Coca-Cola and settle him in front of a TV set on which a Disney character can be seen kicking a ball around a park, and it’s full marks for creative thinking – no matter what the outcome.

Thanks to the creative thinking from Change4Life, we may well suddenly be seeing fleets of overweight British children bending it like Baloo all over the country – but there are other concerns. For one thing, the endorsement conflicts. Will Mickey have to resign as the face of Pez Candy, and will Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins relinquish her lucrative ice-cream cake sideline? More importantly: will the disclaimers at the start of these exercise videos be clear enough? Because Cindy’s side crunches didn’t half mess up my left hip.

Obese children can now get fit by watching cartoons – genius! – Telegraph

Soaring obesity levels mean one in 10 deaths in England and Wales is now caused by excess weight, the chief medical officer has warned.

Prof Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England, said that a “normalisation” of being overweight meant many people did not recognise that they weighed too much, and that the extra pounds could shorten their life.

Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, she highlighted research which shows that about 10 per cent of deaths in England and Wales are the result of excess weight.

The study, by the University of Cambridge, suggests that next year, between 40,000 and 53,000 deaths in England and Wales will be attributable to extra pounds, including more than three quarters of diabetic deaths and one quarter of deaths from heart disease.

Dame Sally said she was concerned that spiralling obesity levels, with two thirds of the population now categorised as overweight or obese, meant that many such people were blind to it, and to the associated risks.

She said she was particularly concerned by studies showing that most parents of overweight children did not believe their offspring weighed too much.

via Excess weight causing 1 in 10 deaths, top doctor warns – Telegraph.

But, as a cardiologist who has been in practice for nearly three decades and written more than 800 medical publications, including two text books, I am here to tell you that fatness has been sorely misunderstood.

Indeed, there is much evidence to suggest that, just as a glass of wine a day has been proven to impart health benefits, so body fat in the right amount can be exactly what we need to live long and healthy lives.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting that people of ‘normal’ weight start embracing cream buns and piling on the pounds.

But if you are already carrying extra fat, it’s not the end of the world, especially if you maintain a certain level of fitness (and I don’t mean being able to run a six-minute mile or committing to an exercise regimen on a par with an Olympic athlete’s).

For the millions of people categorised as overweight or mildly obese by the most commonly used standard today — the body mass index, or BMI — the good news is that achieving optimal health may mean staying exactly where you are in terms of weight.

That’s right: you don’t have to set your sights on getting your BMI down to ‘normal’, defined by the World Health Organisation as between 18.5 and 25.

You may, in fact, be much better off sustaining a BMI of between 25 and 30 — ‘overweight’ in WHO terms — or even slightly above, venturing into the realm of the mildly ‘obese’ (BMI above 30).

This advice holds true for people who want to prevent chronic illness and those already living with it, but it was those in the latter category who first inspired my research into this subject more than a decade ago.

Day in, day out I care for heart patients in Louisiana, the most obese state in the U.S.. And, like other colleagues in the cardiology profession, I began noticing that patients who are on the chubby side often live longer after diagnosis with heart disease than do their thinner counterparts.

We call this idea that fat can protect you from an early death the ‘obesity paradox’ and to say that it has ruffled a few feathers in my field is an understatement.

As I began to publish research papers on this phenomenon, I faced a tidal wave of ingrained ideology. Even veteran scientists and respected journal reviewers were reluctant to entertain new thinking about fat, but the science has since spoken for itself.

Over the past few years, a multitude of studies around the globe have not only confirmed the existence of the obesity paradox but demonstrated that it also applies to a host of chronic ailments in addition to those related to the heart, including diabetes, cancer and kidney disease.

We often attribute excess weight to an increased likelihood that these conditions will be worsened or aggravated as a result, but the evidence proves otherwise: people who have been diagnosed with any of these ailments fare better in the long run if they are overweight or even mildly obese than if they are normal weight.

One explanation is that when the body is bearing the weight of a chronic disease, it requires more energy than usual so it makes sense that extra fuel in the form of body fat is helpful.

via A controversial book by a top doctor claims being overweight can help you fight disease – and even live longer | Daily Mail Online.

A 315-pound man is accused of hiding dozens of bags of heroin in his belly button.

Greenville police arrested Randall Streeter following a traffic stop on May 29 and discovered 150 bags of heroin in his car and $1,200. WNCT-TV reports that police then found an additional 40 bags of heroin hiding in Streeter’s navel, along with crack cocaine and Percocet pills.

The Greenville Regional Drug Task Force seized a total of 340 bags of heroin during its investigation of Streeter.

Authorities say that Streeter was selling large quantities of heroin at a Greenville Econo Lodge, WNCT reports.

A passenger in Streeter’s car, Marshall Wayne Wilson, was also arrested and charged with heroin trafficking and is being held on $75,000 bond at the Pitt County Detention Center.

Streeter has been charged with numerous counts of trafficking heroin. He is being held on a $1,000,000 bond at the Pitt County Detention Center.

via Police: 315-Pound Man Hid 40 Bags Of Heroin In Belly Button « CBS Charlotte.