On The Whole

Yours truly on WZTV Fox 17 Nashville: "Fat is Not Always Unhealthy"

A few weeks ago Nick Paranjape of WZTV came out to the Radio Free Nashville studio and interviewed me before, during and after the Health At Every Size show I co-host with Pat Ballard. The story aired last night on the 9 p.m. Fox 17 News broadcast, and again today on Tennessee Mornings.

The Tennessee Mornings segment can be viewed online at http://bit.ly/Dr_Peggy_Elam_on_WZTV_Fox_17.

I enjoyed talking with Nick and sharing some "fat facts" with him. I do want to clarify, though, that as a youth I did not actually develop a full-fledged eating disorder, but what might be called a "subclinical" eating disorder. Dieting and obsessing about my weight definitely did affect my emotional and physical well-being.

The clip contains the usual headless/faceless/frontless fat people background shots, and afterward a bariatric surgeon was asked to comment and -- surprise -- disagreed with me. Overall, though, the segment was pretty positive.

And perhaps it has already introduced some people -- of all sizes -- to fat acceptance and Health At Every Size. I was tickled when a waiter at my and Pat's usual post-show lunching spot recognized me from the broadcast and announced, "You have a radio show!" Which prompted our own waiter (who hadn't seen the segment) to ask about it.

I told her about Health At Every Size, which she immediately "got." She agreed with the importance of focusing on behaviors rather than body size, volunteering that she has high cholesterol even though slender, and has just tried to eat "more beans, less bacon." After our lunch I left her an Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) business card featuring the Principles of Health At Every Size on the back.

ASDAH calls for Health At Every Size & discrimination against none

Association for Size Diversity and Health calls for health for all,
discrimination against none

Capitol Hill visit and media interviews cap recent conference

REDWOOD CITY, CA-- "Health at Every Size and discrimination against no one" was the rallying cry when members of the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) and the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) met with legislators and government staffers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. earlier this month.     

Their message was well received by more than 30 U.S. representatives and senators as well as USDA officials. During ASDAH’s weekend conference ASDAH researchers Linda Bacon, Ph.D. and Deb Burgard, Ph.D. also spoke with journalists for CNN and NPR about the current disturbing trend to blame larger people for the rising costs of health care.    

Bacon expressed concern that many of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s policies perpetuate discrimination and create barriers to health care for larger people by focusing  on ‘obesity’ rather than directly on health. The CDC’s William Dietz, M.D. agreed during the NPR interview that it was “important to focus on health at any weight.”

Newly elected president of ASDAH Deb Lemire was proud of the inroads made during the July 31-Aug. 3, 2009 conference weekend, but cautions that “we must be vigilant in followup with our leaders. Many were simply not aware of the discrimination and lack of comprehensive health policies for people of all sizes, large and small.”

The August 3^rd legislative visits were part of an ASDAH weekend conference that included guest speaker Susie Orbach, UK psychotherapist, scholar and author of the 2009 book Bodies as well as Fat Is A Feminist Issue. Orbach proved to be a powerful ally in ASDAH’s work to embrace all body sizes and shapes, emphasizing the importance of language used to discuss health and acknowledging weight discrimination as both a personal and a civil rights issue.

ASDAH is an international organization composed of health professionals, scientists and activists committed to promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes. ASDAH promotes the weight-neutral movement known as Health At Every Size, which calls for size acceptance, an end to weight discrimination, and lessening of the cultural obsession with weight loss and thinness. For more information or to join, visit their website at  www.sizediversityandhealth.org.

Plus Model Magazine Q & A on Health At Every Size and Pearlsong Press

Lovely Jennifer Jonassen interviewed me for an article in Plus Model Magazine's August issue. Check it out here.

(Thanks to Nancy McMorrow for the photos of me and my dog, Zelda. We had fun that day!)

Health News Review publisher blasts morning TV shows -- "obesity" related stories get the most critcism

University of Minnesota journalism professor Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, warns that "network TV morning health news segments may be harmful to your health" in a note published yesterday. He reports that

The morning news health segments on ABC, CBS and NBC do the following regularly:

• Unquestioningly promote new drugs and new technologies
• Feed the "worried well" by raising unrealistic expectations of unproven technologies that may produce more harm than good
• Fail to ask tough questions
• Make any discussion of health care reform that much more difficult

Health news segments focused on "obesity & weight loss & thinning" get top billing in Schwitzer's overview of poorly reported news, with ABC's Good Morning America leading the list with 4 out of the 6 examples.

The first report on a "breakthrough obesity drug" is described as "oddly" referring to "interviewee's potential conflicts of interest as evidence of expertise. Huh?" Nice that someone noticed the problem when researchers who receive funding from drug companies (or other factions of the weight loss industry) are given pulpits from which to ballyhoo the "killer-obesity" disease- and fear-mongering.

Another Good Morning America segment on "Blasting Inches Off Without Surgery: New Technique to Lose the Fat" is criticized because it "medicalizes a normal state of health -- a few additional pounds or inches."

CBS's Early Show segment on "The Real Skinny: Liposlim During Lunch?" is excoriated for showing

what the anchorman calls a 'healthy, gorgeous' young woman [getting] lunchtime lipo with no discussion of evidence or whether insurance covers it. If your premiums went up because she was in your insurance pool, would you be happy?

Schwitzer also critcizes morning TV  health news segments on paralysis and spinal cord injury, new medical technologies and "America's leading killer -- cardiovascular disease." That last category came in second to "obesity" related segments in the number of examples of horrid health journalism.

"This is a dangerous pattern," Schwitzer writes. "Such stories do more harm than good to public understanding of health care. This must change."

Read Schwitzer's whole statement here.

CDC promotes workplace discrimination with new website

CDC promotes workplace discrimination with new website

ASDAH urges removal of “Obesity Cost Calculator”
from LEAN Works! program

REDWOOD CITY, CA—The Centers for Disease Control’s new Obesity Cost Calculator tool and LEAN Works! program will increase workplace discrimination against overweight and obese employees and especially harm people of color, says the Association for Size Diversity and Health. The U.S.-based international organization strongly recommends reframing the program and removing the tool from the CDC program.

ASDAH supports programming that promotes access to good nutrition and opportunity for physical activity for people of all sizes, states ASDAH Vice President Deb Lemire. However, she cautions, “the CDC ‘obesity prevention tool’ is a license for discrimination.”

By encouraging employers to input employee demographic data to estimate the costs associated with obesity, the CDC is saying to employers that “overweight and obese employees are costing you money,” Lemire says. “It won’t take long for employers to decide that the way to ‘save’ money is to get rid of overweight and obese employees and not hire any more.”

Minority populations have much higher prevalence rates of obesity than do non-Hispanic whites, with the highest rates of obesity among African-American women. Therefore, ASDAH President Dana Schuster notes, the size discrimination propagated by the LEAN Works! program is more likely to impact minorities than it is non-Hispanic whites.

Perhaps even more troubling, ASDAH officials add, is that there is no scientific data to support the CDC claim that those who are larger use more healthcare services—and it’s impossible for the Obesity Cost Calculator to be accurate.

Data from a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) showed that 51% of “overweight” adults are metabolically healthy and 24% of “normal weight” adults are metabolically abnormal. Research conducted by the CDC’s own scientists has found that “overweight” Americans are likely to live longer than those of “normal” weight. Recently published studies of Canadian and Japanese populations have also found higher longevity among “overweight” than “normal” weight people.

“Epidemiological trends are considered significant if there is a doubling of risk or more,” says ASDAH Research Committee Chair Paul Ernsberger, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “Changes in cost are often much smaller, and relate as much to the marketplace as to the physical characteristics of patients. Alarmist reports, including those emanating from the CDC, add the obese to ‘the worried well’—basically healthy but concerned people who drive unnecessary medical tests and expenses.”

“The key to reduced health care costs is the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices for all employees regardless of weight,” Lemire says. “The CDC is doing a disservice to the business community and to larger individuals by spreading misinformation and reinforcing prejudicial stereotypes about ‘overweight’ and ‘obesity.’”

Ironically, she adds, those very stereotypes negatively affect the health of large people through stigma-related stress and poor quality health care. Weight-focused health messages also increase body shame, eating-disordered behavior and health care avoidance, particularly among women of all sizes.

ASDAH is an international organization composed of health professionals, scientists and activists committed to promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes. ASDAH promotes the weight-neutral movement known as Health At Every Size, which calls for size acceptance, an end to weight discrimination, and lessening of the cultural obsession with weight loss and thinness.

Fat Is A Feminist Issue author Susie Orbach to speak at D.C. area health conference August 1, 2009

 The following is a press release from the Association for Size Diversity & Health:

British author Susie Orbach to speak at D.C. area health conference
Fat Is A Feminist Issue author will discuss & sign new book Bodies
Evening event also features "Discover Your Healthy Weight" DVD screening

REDWOOD CITY, CA -- On Saturday, August 1, 2009 the Association for Size Diversity and Health will host special guest speaker Susie Orbach as part of their annual international conference in Washington.

Orbach, most famous for her 1978 book Fat Is a Feminist Issue , will discuss and sign her newest book, Bodies, published earlier this year. The evening event is open to the public, with eating disorders and health professionals especially encouraged to attend.

Bodies brings into sharp relief the startling trend of seeing our bodies as a site of production, something to “work on” rather than something that “works for” us. In the past several decades a globalized media has overwhelmed us with images of an idealized, westernized body and conditioned us to see any exception to that ideal as a problem. Orbach reveals the true dimensions of the crisis, and points the way toward healing and acceptance.

Orbach is an author, analyst and activist, co-founder of The Women’s Therapy Center in London and New York, and co-convener of the website www.any-body.org.

Conversations with Susie Orbach will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 1, 2009 at the Dulles Airport Marriott Hotel, 45020 Aviation Drive, Dulles, VA 20166. Tickets are $35. Hors d’oeuvres will be served and books will be available for purchase and signing. Pre-registration is required by July 24.

Also included that evening will be the East coast premiere of The Body Positive DVD “Discover your Healthy Weight,” presented by filmmaker and The Body Positive co-founder Connie Sobczak.

The Association for Size Diversity and Health promotes Health At Every Size principles supporting education, research, and the provision of services that enhance health and well-being and are free from weight-based assumptions and weight discrimination.

For more information or to register visit www.sizediversityandhealth.org or call the toll-free number 877....

A Conversation with Pat Ballard, Queen of Rubenesque Romances

Just in time for Valentine's Day, romance novelist Pat Ballard chats with Pearlsong publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. in the second of the Pearlsong Conversations. Click here to listen to and/or download the 50-minute mp3 recording of today's conversation.

In addition to Ballard's 6 romance novels and short story collection featuring Big Beautiful Heroines -- or, as her publisher likes to put it, "books in which the fat chick gets the guy" -- Ballard is the author of the inspirational self-help volume 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are).

Ballard & Elam are joined by FatLand author Frannie Zellman as they discuss Ballard's journey to self- and body-acceptance and -love, her writing process, and why a truly happy Valentine's Day and satisfying sex starts with loving your body, no matter what it looks like.

The Pearlsong Conversations are monthly teleconference calls in which publisher Elam chats with a Pearlsong author and fans. To participate in future Conversations -- or listen to archived recordings of previous ones -- go to www.pearlsong.com/pearlsongconversations.htm.

Freedom video

Several months ago I adopted Suchi Waters Benjamin's body-mind-spirit liberation anthem "Freedom" as the theme for my Health At Every Size radio show. Suchi recently released a music video for the song. Check it out here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for reading On the Whole! In honor of Thanksgiving I'm sharing the Health At Every Size blog post below with a link to my Nov. 24 Radio Free Nashville show. And I invite you to check out this Nov. 23, 2008 USA Today article on how gratitude can actullay affect your health year-round.

November 24, 2008 Health At Every Size radio show -- Food Insecurity & Thanksgiving

Today's Fat & Happy Music: "Freedom," "Empty Bowl," "Be At Peace," & "The Waters Edge" (Suchi Waters Benjamin), "This Side of Paradise" & "Funeral Food" (Kate Campbell), "The Flame" (Beth Nielsen Chapman).

Food for Thought:  In the shadow of contemporary hysteria about "obesity" the reality of food insecurity is usually ignored. The Life Sciences Research Office defined food insecurity as "existing whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain." (This definition is a from a 2005 Journal of the American Dietetic Association article on "the hunger-obesity paradox.") The mean Body Mass Index of women in food-insecure households is higher than in food-secure households. The JADA article urges dietetics professionals not to make assumptions about food insecurity status by looking at someone's weight. In fact, "obese adults are more likely to be food insecure." (Which I relate not only to poverty but to chronic dieting.)

"That millions of men, women and children go hungry in one of the wealthiest countries in human history is a shameful reality. That this and other critical problems in America's food system get obscured from public view by bloated concerns over issues like obesity is all the more disgraceful."

Barry Glassner
The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food is Wrong

Audio: Listen to and/or download the mp3 recording of today's show here. (Right click on the link and "save as" to download.)

Food fascists and the revolution

Paul Campos has another great column in today's Rocky Mountain News. This one's on food fascism.

One of my favorite bits is where Paul points out that "the center of the government's current response to the panic over 'childhood obesity'" is the absurd belief that "the reason there are fat kids in America is that fat kids haven't been informed that it's considered desirable in this culture to be thin."

This "rampant insanity," he notes, "makes about as much sense as arguing that poor people are poor because they haven't been informed it's considered desirable in this culture to be rich."

But best of all is his closing recommendation to engage in individual acts of rebellion -- getting angry at "the lies that bombard us 24 hours a day about what's supposedly wrong with our bodies," and about "a culture that's dedicated to making people try to fix things about themselves that aren't broken." 

Enjoy a doughnut, he urges. "The revolution starts one body at a time."

Read the entire column here. (Do yourself a favor, though, and don't read the comments...as with responses to most public articles about fatness, fat hatred abounds.)