China researchers link obesity to bacteria

China researchers link obesity to bacteria


Chinese Study Finds Intestinal Bacteria Controls Obesity

What would it feel like one day to be vindicated?

I often ponder this, though I find myself doubting it will ever happen in America, where too many of us are just fodder for the profit-mills.

It's interesting the research being done in OTHER COUNTRIES. This one barely hit American news. Hmm wonder why? It made the New York Daily news and UK, but haven't seen it in any other mainstream place. That tells you something does it not?

What is coming through our food? Think about that one. I know in my body there are serious serious mal-absorption problems--I'm low on Vit D, and various Vit Bs with recurring episodes of anemia, and no I never have had weight loss surgery. Some have gotten into the gut flora studies, but it could go even deeper then that. I have my theories, that since human beings have done away with truly fermented foods, and real bacterias digesting things, that people's weights are indeed going up. In other words our foods aren't even being broken down like they once were.

Researchers in Shanghai found that mice bred to be resistant to obesity even when fed high-fat foods became excessively overweight when injected with a kind of human bacteria and subjected to a rich diet.

The bacterium—known as enterobacter—had been linked with obesity after being found in high quantities in the gut of a morbidly obese human volunteer, said the report, written by researchers at Shanghai's Jiaotong University.

The mice were injected with the bacterium for up to 10 weeks as part of the experiment.

The experiments show that the bacterium "may causatively contribute to the development of obesity" in humans, according to the paper published in the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISMEJ).

A human patient lost over 30 kilograms in nine weeks after being placed on a diet of "whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods and prebiotics", which reduced the bacterium's presence in the patient's gut to "undetectable" levels, the paper said.

One of the report's authors, Zhao Liping, lost 20 kilograms in two years after adopting a diet of fermented probiotic foods such as bitter melon to adjust the balance of bacteria in his gut, the American magazine Science said in an article this year on his previous research.

Zhao's work on the role of bacteria in obesity is inspired by traditional Chinese beliefs that the gut is the "foundation for human health", Science reported.

The scientists wrote in their latest paper that they "hope to identify more such obesity-inducing bacteria from various human populations" in future research.

Obesity worldwide has more than doubled since 1980, according to the World Health Organisation, with more than 500 million adults worldwide suffering from the condition according to 2008 statistics.

I definitely think they are on to something here.

My Address to the Mean People

I had one post here the other day,

"You're costing the government money, you are a lazy sack of...."

Well you get the gist. I often ponder what years worth of this stuff, did to my heart, mind and soul. Sure one can face the world with daily bravery, but such remarks grow old fast.  Add to that the burdens of fat hating relatives as well.  I ponder the reality of some supposedly thin person that goes on the internet, and finds this website and feels they must waste their time telling some 500lb [or where ever it is now, I know it didn't go up] woman, off, for daring to exist. What kind of inner world does such a person have? One can look in to such a heart and see the black barbed wire and green clouds of stink, with just a second's glance.

I have to edit their nasty grams all the time including the endless ones from Mr. Fake Fat guy, I'm really a fat person obsessed thin lawyer in real life. He has several websites, and some of the size'o'sphere definitely has run into this guy before. A few times I let them go and respond, but then when people like this have their minds made up, not much you can do about it. I mean the backing of the industrial complexes rest behind them. These aren't people questioning what they see on TV. Most of them are almost stereotypes of themselves as they seek to squish you into their stereotypes.

Everyone is into telling the fat people what their reality is and invalidating what we have to say. What an unending crock so many of us have to deal with. You think someone like myself with a website like this hasn't heard it all before? You really think your exhortations to go "diet" and "exercise" are some new revelation brought off the mountain for the fat woman?  Ironic since given this week, I ended up with a leg infection probably from walking around too much--PT program and exercises. But supposedly in magic-lose weight kingdom, exercise is supposed to magically turn me into a thin person as well as eating all the "right" and "proper" food. I will continue with the exercises but give me a break. I bet anything some of these skinnies are scarfing down the seasonal cookies while issuing judgments from on high.

One told me she is a size 00, and used to be a size 16, does that mean she is invisible now or just when she turns sideways?

Why is there even a size called ZERO, or ZERO ZERO, what is something of NOTHING?

Nothing.

That says something to me.

Getting Through December

Can we fast forward to March?

I like Thanksgiving, turkey is a healthy tasty food as well as green bean casserole made dairy free, but can we fast forward through December especially?

This is a hard time of year for me, as the housebound door slams shut, and the days where I can make it out get fewer and fewer to match the more limited light. I am not sure if my wanting to go to sleep by 8:00pm is a sign of worsening seasonal affective disorder but many people go into a would be hibernation this time of year.

Watching these folks go at it every year, gets tiring. How do they have so much money to blow on useless foreign made goods? Perhaps these are these are the folks still with working credit cards, I do not know but the greed fest gets a bit out there. It seems bills are so high now even if you have a good job, you should be saving up some money.

While one wants to reach out to others during the holidays and do what they can, for me December has always been the toughest month of the year. I have to mentally and spiritually prepare for it in prayer. Yes it gets that hard, watching the world go "party", while you are stuck indoors due to unforgiving lungs. This is not easy. This included a family get together where your protestations to have it moved to a more travel friendly month were ignored and realizing your status as the one everyone forgot.

The winter months grind to a complete halt. If I could put myself in a hibernation state, I would do it, and come out sometime the first week of March. Summer I'm housebound but somehow it feels different, because in the summer, there are some cooler days that break things up and there is always the evening..

I know being poor is wearing me out. One can handle being poor and dealing with the day to day stuff, but when you look up and see how the grind has cost you relationships and not having the money to go visit relatives, and just one more reason you get left off the invite lists, it just makes you more depressed. Normal people get to go on vacations, normal people get to go to visit relative's weddings. Ah the sin of envy, I know it's not a good thing.

Winter never has been easy for some of us.

What's In Everyone's Refrigerators?

A Look Inside People's Refrigerators

It interesting to look at what do normal people EAT? And seeing inside refrigerators is one way to do it. I showed the inside of my refrigerator a few times to my home medical professionals. Wonder what they thought of that, but I wanted to show that the cupboards and rest were not full of snacks and the refrigerator full of mountains of cake or fried foods.

What's in my refrigerator now? Let's go look I probably can do an inventory off the top of my head, its a tight week, but let's see some Falafel mix, Almond Milk, 2 left over stuffed peppers made with turkey and rice, 2 apples, some green onions, ketchup, a broccoli head, celery, a few lemons, a bag of black organic grapes, a jar of Veganaise, some sliced turkey lunchmeat, a few Roma tomatoes, Earth Balance-fake butter, Japanese seaweed sprinkles with mustard and pumpkin, I threw my Zatar seasoning box in the fridge, though it probably doesn't need refrigerated, ground turkey--it was a large pack and I only used some of yesterdays for the stuffed peppers, a couple cabbage sections, some carrots, 3-4 Asian Oriental sauces--soy sauce, stir fry sauce--mushroom flavored, and right now that is about it. There was some leftover Daiya cheese in there yesterday but I dropped it on the floor, and had to throw it away.

I've talked about being food insecure before and well we just came off a week low on money for groceries and the stuffed green peppers I made because they had a deal on green peppers and I am supposed to go grocery shopping tommorow. I ate all my Sea Snax. They supposedly are opening a food-co-op in my town and I want to join it and have contacted the people concerned already but hoping it will be affordable and not only for the wealthy.

This frig makes my stomach hurt all that take out...Yes I have noticed a correlation between digestive troubles and eating out and have three SAFE restaurants I frequent on rare occasion but I really only can afford to eat out once or twice a month.  Don't eat out that much, you will be in big trouble!

This looks like a healthy person's fridge, though I probably buy more produce then that, though add more meat when I have a lot of money for food and forget the eggs. 

This article reminded me of when they took pictures of everything people ate in foreign countries for a week...Hey notice these rather very thin Italians seem to eat a lot of carbohydrates and bread?

Here's an American photo. Notice these people are pretty close to average weight, but they have very high calorie food in this picture and quite a bit of it.. I question the whole premise of thin people all sitting around sipping green tea and eating only an apple a day or whatever the diet industry expects me to believe.

Physical Therapy

I've been doing physical therapy for balance and other reasons. When super-obese, one does have to dedicate hours a day to just staying alive, take pills, take a walk, cook food that won't make you worse off, rest and get water off, blah blah blah. They did say I improved, which is good to know. Oddly the physical therapists said I was one of the most motivated patients they've had. Trust me, one knows at these horrible weights the pain even that can lead one to "give up". I have to work out and use those stretchy bands , I do several arm exercises a day related to those.  After I write this and couple articles, I'll be going to do my exercises.

They say strengthening will improve the balance. The Meniere's really has done a number on my balance, having the room tilt on a daily basis stinks though I get a warning from the ears ringing. The doctors saw trouble with my eye movements even years ago,  nystagmus was written all over my medical charts.  Oddly inhaled steroids for COPD and asthma cut down the severity of the attacks, but they still happen and there has been permanent impacts on my balance.

Anyhow, the physical therapists have been nice and the treatment includes daily walks-inside if housebound and out with not, and specific leg and arm exercises. Getting the walker expanded my mobility quite a bit where I am walking more and not having to worry about balance. My pressure sores did heal, but yes sometimes I even stand up to type at the computer, because I have to watch them so closely.  Some years ago, physical therapy backed me away from needing oxygen, and able to get out the front door easier.  When I exercise I do not lose weight or lose so slowly it doesn't matter, well really I don't know where my weight is at now, except knowing I have NOT gained.

If you are superfat and having mobility or other health related problems, some physical therapy and learning daily work-outs and exercises can be quite beneficial.

Hmm something to think about....

Scientists Discover Immune Cells Could Protect Against Obesity

Scientists Discover Immune Cells Could Protect Against Obesity

Well wouldn't this make sense if something went awry in the body to begin with, that started the process of piling on the weight and pounds or affected these immune cells to start? How do you lose weight if you do not have the protection of these cells effectively? What would be interesting to know is why these immune cells are depleted to begin with? I found this study via another article but it had so much blathering about how great weight loss surgery was [what happens when the patients regain the weight?] and idiocy about fat people eating bear claws, I bypassed it and went straight to the source.

New research has found that a type of anti-tumour immune cell protects against obesity and the metabolic syndrome that leads to diabetes. Results showing that immune cells known to be protective against malignancy called invariant natural killer T-cells (iNKT), that are lost when humans become obese, but can be restored through weight loss, have been published online this week in the journal Immunity. Marie Curie Fellow, Lydia Lynch at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland made the discovery and as first author in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, and St Vincent’s University Hospital have shown that therapies that activate iNKT cells could help manage obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease. 

  iNKT cells had been thought to be rare in humans until work by Dr Lydia Lynch at Trinity College Dublin, Consultant Endocrinologist at St Vincent’s University Hospital Professor Donal O’Shea, and Trinity’s Professor of Comparative Immunology, Cliona O’Farrelly, found they were plentiful in human omental fat. 

  “We then found a large population of iNKT cells in fat tissue from mice,” said Dr Lynch whose Marie Curie Fellowship gave her the opportunity to work with Mark Exley and Steve Balk both assistant professors of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and leaders in the field of natural killer T-cell (NKT) investigations. “Now we have identified a role for these cells in the regulation of body weight and the metabolic state, likely by regulating inflammation in adipose tissue.” 

The team also discovered that a lipid called alpha-galactosylceramide (aGC) can lead to a dramatic improvement in metabolism, weight loss, and fatty liver disease, and can reverse diabetes by bolstering cells that have been depleted.

A Reader Responds to My Blog

I've had some good correspondence with this reader and glad they are taking a look at my perspective. I liked how they summed up what I had to say on this blog, so wanted to share it and asked their permission to do so:

"When I ran across your blog, your perspective really stood out because you were not caustic or angry and you were level headed. Some things I have learned from your blog so far, that I intend to incorporate into a new post about practical ideas for weight:

1) People are overweight for many reasons, there is no one way cause, so getting the right help for weight gain is crucial, and help might come from a variety of sources: doctor, specialist, nutritionist, psychologist

2) All doctors are not created equal and most have no background in food, nutrition or metabolism. It is not taught in medical school. Keep going until you find a doctor with experience and will think outside the box on your diagnosis.

3) There is a distinction between a 300 pound person and a 500 pound person and the difference amounts to a real disability.

4) Overweight children should be tested for underlying causes of weight gain, especially at the onset of puberty.

5) Not everyone that is obese is overeating: calories may not be processed in the norm. I actually did read this before from a physician in Austin that does the surgeries on people over 600 pounds. He said that at a certain weight what you eat does not matter, you will still gain it. I thought he was just had a vested interest in surgery.

6) Getting to the bottom of why you are obese, as well as clear distinction between obesity and being overweight is the first step. And very hard to do, as determining obesity is more than BMI or weight by the number.

7) We should all encourage meaningful obesity research."

Sea Snax!

SeaSnax

I discovered these at a health food store. This is the health food store I take a 30 mile round trip sojourn to once a month during non-housebound times. When I find a food that makes me "feel better" after eating it, I stick with it and they taste good! One says spicy but it is flavored nicely so don't let that frighten you away.

Some may think eating seaweed is weird, but these crispy sheets of seaweed taste really good and are low in calories. I was used to seaweed having bought Japanese seaweed before to sprinkle on rice. I can't eat seafood but suspect some are familiar with it via sushi.

Anyhow I wanted to recommend these. My supply is gone now but hope to get some as soon as I can again.

Are Calories Themselves a MYTH?

Calories poorly grasped for maintaining weight:Obesity experts concerned about caloric literacy

I like Dr. Sharma's other writings and website, but disagree about calories.

To be honest, I have wondered to the shock of others, if calories are even "real". A few friends have chuckled saying, "Now Five Hundred Pound Peep, you may be getting out to lunch with this one!"

Some may wonder about me saying, that "Is she insane"? Yeah I know I am pondering something that is a bit different. Just thinking aloud. But what else would you expect of someone like me? Remember I've had enough strange health problems not to buy all the "accepted wisdom" as complete and utter fact. One day if technology and knowledge is allowed to expand anymore and it's not a new "dark age" and if the world hasn't ended by then, well one day, the facts will prove they got fat people wrong, very wrong.

But I always have had that thought lately, I mean given calories don't seem to mean a thing to my body, and I am told all this stuff about how they work, and I never see the evidence, tell me why I should believe the whole "calories in and calories out" myth? Why should I believe fewer calories mean weight loss?  How many fat people do I know that worry about every little bit that crosses their mouths while so many people who are thin, just eat when hungry and let the chips fall where they may, literally.

I know EXACTLY what calories are in everything. I can sit here and add up what I ate today, and yesterday. Every fat person over the age of  25 just about knows every calorie in every food. They drum it into your head. Hey I kept endless food diaries for YEARS. Do Weight Watchers enough and the other stuff, and you got the calories memorized. Toss out a food, the portion, and I bet I can hit within 50 to 100 calories where it's at. By the way for some reason everything you eat out, has far more calories.  I know what foods have more calories then others. With nutrition, given my health food interests and others, I can tell you what foods to eat for healing different diseases. This book is referred to all the time in my household.

They ignore metabolism when it comes to the CALORIES IN and CALORIES out formula, and they ignore the bodily systems that turn calories to fat so automatically and how this system is thrown off.

Hey did you know they literally figured out the calories in food, by lighting them on fire and BURNING them, I kid you not. Any hands? Even Straight Dope admits that is SIMPLICITY, but is the human body simple? NO. Also just adding up the carbohydrates, proteins and fats too seems very limited as well, given that even nutritionists admit to the existence of micro-nutrients.  Hmmm, so if you don't even know everything that exists in food yet? Maybe I distrust science, or maybe I just realize so much of it today isn't as unbiased as it claims. The other day, a food company told me GMOs were safe......hmmmmmm

Do they even understand completely how this energy is utilized? Calories are a measure of "heat", by that alone the fat process is not explained.

How come no fat people ever are studied when it comes to calories?

The math never added up for me. You do realize to be 500 lbs, they expect your caloric intake to be over 10,000 calories a day.  I couldn't afford the groceries. I mean they have so much of our society dedicated to calories in and calories out, and well, all the health magazines, shows, constant beration isn't stopping anyone from getting fat is it? Why do we believe something that does not work? By the way what is with those women's health magazines that tell everyone to lose weight and then put in endless recipes for things like h'ordeuvres dripping in olive oil and 20 dollar a pound fish?

I guess it's like the old days when people believed in spontaneous generation, accepted as fact, not questioned until later. They may light a pound of fat on fire and claim it that it equals 3500 calories and try and divide up the food into the simplest equations, but something isn't adding up. Feel free to disagree with me here, or that I am on too much of a stretch, this discussion is open.

Longer 'exposure' to US may raise immigrants' obesity risk

Longer 'exposure' to US may raise immigrants' obesity risk

This definitely points to environmental causes rather then reduced will power, and lack of discipline and all the lies the obesity profit merchants want to sell us. So what is different about Mexico for instance where a person may be normal and healthy and they move here and fatten up or their children fatten up without delay?

We just couldn't believe the fact that we found roughly a threefold increase from the one extreme… to the people on the other side," said the study's lead author Karen R. Florez, an associate social scientist at the non-profit research institute Rand Corporation, in Santa Monica, California. 

  Past research has found that immigrants to the U.S. are typically healthier in many ways than people in their ethnic groups who were born in the U.S. In February, one study found that Hispanics born abroad had a much lower risk of stroke than their counterparts who were either born or spent most of their lives in the U.S. (see Reuters Health story of March 7, 2012.) 

Florez and her fellow researchers said it's also been established that U.S.-born Mexican Americans have greater odds of being obese than their family members who originally migrated from Mexico. But the team wanted to extend that comparison to people who are still living in Mexico, in an attempt to tease apart and identify factors in the U.S. environment, or in the fact of being a migrant, that might influence obesity risk.

I sometimes wondered seriously if I moved to a country that outlawed GMOs and had a more sane culture and society, would some of the weight drop off? Not going to happen given my low socio-economic standing but it's one I've mulled over. Of course one knows, the poorer people in America have to eat the more adulterated food, thus that too affects the obesity rates.

Weight Loss Surgeon Against Size Acceptance!

The disturbing trend of fat acceptance, one doctor speaks out against it


What would he think of this blog? Since I question aspects of size acceptance and also that barbarity and sanctioned torture known as weight loss surgery? They couldn't have thought of something more painful if they tried to do to fat people to get them to lose weight.

The other day, I went to a book club, it was warm enough to be out, and I saw this one member there, who weighed around 250lbs, and who was actively employed and active, even two years ago the other time I ran into her, and she announced to us, she recently had weight loss surgery. It didn't escape my attention that to even drink a coffee, she had to mix it with a powder to get it down. I forgot the name of the powder but it was one when I did short term assisted nursing care in my 20s, one had to mix with food to thicken it, to get it down the gullets of those with digestive and swallowing problems. Life is hard enough. I found myself worrying about her right then and there.

Anyhow I tire of these weight loss surgeons who have no reality about what makes people obese and who profit off the lies and still play blame the victim and act as if the same amount of control is there for everyone. Yeah, the whole "control" thing as if people chose this. Their ignorance regarding metabolism and such is extreme and continues to worsen.

I know I made the choice never to have weight loss surgery, even having it pushed by various doctors. In my case, I do not think it would work and believe because of the breathing problems, I'd die on the table. I have digestive problems now that range from intermittent anemia, to shortage of various B vitamins and D though I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. There is a time in life, where you say well "I have suffered enough", and all the digestive stuff, where I can so easily end up in pain that leads one on the floor and puking my guts out if I mistakenly ingest any MSG, dairy or eggs or have stress, brought me enough trouble in life, just the thought of weight loss surgery to me sounds like a PTSD nightmare on the roller coaster to hell.

With this guy, I wish he'd find this blog, and come and read and learn. But so few seem to ever have independent thoughts. I guess that tens of thousands of dollars they make for each surgery speaks for itself. Ah so many who are profiting off the obesity epidemic, the mind boggles.

As I have said multiple times, the lies on both sides enable each other.

Are Fat People "a Threat" To America's Future?

"How obesity could impact our health and economy 20 years from now"

Are you kind of squeeked out by being considered a THREAT TO AMERICA's FUTURE?

I'm sorry but when nearly HALF your population is going to be obese, they say 44% in only a few more years, something far more complex then calories in and out is going on.

There are some good suggestions in the report such as voucher for community farms and things like that, and they point out how the poor are fatter but if they think forcing people to exercise and getting more veggies out the door, means automatic weight loss, they need to think again.

Tell me what you think.... I may be writing on this more later...

The Social Stigma of Being Supersized in One's Family #2

During my life, I have faced some familial rejection. I probably could write a book and an entire blog just on that subject alone, if I am ever brave enough to air that much dirty laundry.  That can be risky online.

I wrote this blog entry some time ago:

The Social Stigma of Being Supersized in One's Family

My armchair pyschological analysis, of how certain personality disorders of others have impacted my life to it's severe detriment and how being an emotional person with introspective leanings born to unfeeling stoics and others where appearance means everything has been an interesting journey. The web is full of support, information and education that is very helpful.

This includes the usual saga of being disinvited from family weddings. You see, if you are FAT, people who care only about appearances, even if you dress well and as far as facial beauty did alright, such types want to keep you out of their wedding photos.

Last week, I had this aunt call me up, and brag about a wedding I was not invited to. It was quite strange. It was her granddaughter getting married, what is even odder, is I had already said I could not afford the travel, and health wise it would be too tough, but please send an invitation and at least I could send the wedding party a card, and some well-wishes. Well my mail remained empty. It's those kind of slights that add up.

During the phone call, and this relative knows about my lower financial and health status, she bragged about the wealth of different parties, gifts, money being spent, and others that were invited instead of me.  She made excuses for ill treatment and my being dismissed like I was nothing.  This included other comments about my weight. She weighs around 220lbs and hammers that gong endlessly.  This one issues her poison under a more sickly and fake sweet facade. The whole call was strange, inside I am thinking I would have liked to talk to my cousins again, and the whole message was "Stay Away!".

Years ago, around the age of 21, I was midsized and told I could not be in my sister's wedding party due to my weight. This brought up some really bad memories.

People who have refused to know me or include me in their lives and as I grow older, while some tolerate me and give me some brief notice, the message is to stay away as far away as possible.

I have admitted to myself, I do not have a family in the normal way, that a person has a family. There are some kind and good relatives, and others who do notice I am alive and care, but sadly most of them live far away, and the ones who have these other attitudes can at times influence even them. In fact one even told me, so and so doesn't have to visit you when I told them, I may be housebound due to weather during a would be mutual visit and I responded, "I matter too!"

I think I am growing healthier, because I now tell myself, invest only in those relationships where there is decent treatment, and stay as far away from people as much as possible who treat you like this, who do not see a person inside and who are cold and judgmental.

I will invest my time, energy and more in people who are my good friends, and who love me. I will give love, attention and kindness to those in need of it.

Hurricanes and Disasters

I'm praying for everyone who got hit by Sandy...and really worried about what is going to happen in New York City especially now that the infrastructure seems to have taken a giant hit...

Disasters like this are very scary. One week without electricity and because I sleep on a CPAP, I would be in trouble. One thing that hit me, is what will happen to the old and sick who cannot walk well since all the buses and subways are not running? I lived carless in an urban environment for 5 years so know how dependent one is in the city on these things. How will they get to work? And if they can't? How will they pay their rent?

This storm also happened during the last week of the month where most poor or lower income people have already hit bottom, we do in our household. When I read preparation lists, I think, Whose got the extra hundreds of dollars sitting around to bolster up the supplies when the day to day supplies are barely maintained?

If I could afford it, I would be a prepper but that seems a hobby for the middle class and above set,so many can barely can keep normal food in the house month to month. That said, is it just me or has the American infrastructure grown too fragile and delicate? Why do we still have 1930's technology when it comes to the electrical system, where the slightest puffs of wind bring the whole thing down? Do you all know many European nations got smart and started putting the electrical wires underground?

What is going to happen in NYC, as people grow weary, run out of the first storages of food, and figure out the subway that takes 5 million people to work daily, is damaged beyond belief by saltwater? What is going to happen with the big city criminal element or the drug addicts who can't get their fix, since their wealthy drug dealers probably hightailed it out of town.Are we looking at another Katrina situation? I sure hope not. I dread what could be happening there.

I seriously am worried for those facing flood and other problems. Even states very far away from Sandy got hit with high wind even up to 800 miles away. I know people in Ohio and Indiana who had their lights go dark. Some people never have seen anything like this.

Years ago I got caught in a blizzard in 1993, I had not had my weight gain, but was already a severe asthmatic, and probably weighed around 240lbs at that time and I traveled to North Carolina to look into teaching jobs in mid-March. Well, not listening to my intuition, cost me badly as I went there from over a 1000 miles away in someone else's car and paid heavily for not just cutting ties with this person and finding a bus or train home. This was the "1993 Storm of the Century"

If I hadn't thrown a fit and got my now EX-friend to turn off an exit into Mount Airy NC, we probably would have died. A kindly sheriff would rescue us out of 4 feet of snow drifts and take us to the fire station and then later sadly an unheated hotel with no power, which was better then nothing but trying to survive during that entire week, freezing and with very little food or water--I fortunately had brought a couple boxes of crackers and a couple of gallons of water- was very scary. I lived in extreme fear, that the cold and stress would trigger a huge asthma attack.

One big storm, and civilization itself was stripped away, at least we had gotten to a small town, where we were paid some mind. It would take a week and half, before the roads were cleared and we could leave. I would never return. And with the hurricane, I think of the disabled people, the ill, those who can't walk either from weight or other reasons, those who may be alone and have no family, and it's a scary mix. Ever feel like civilization itself is on the cusp at times? I sure do. And more and more we live in a society that seems jerry-built, and fragile beyond belief. This is a scarier world to be disabled in. Did any of my readers go through Sandy?

"We Who Are Not As Others"

A family member was watching this movie, it is not my usual fare of choice but I watched it curious, about how they showed people in the 1930's with severe disabilities. Some of the movie is sympathetic to their plight such as when one of the Little People affected with dwarfism points out how they are made fun of, and he is made a mockery of, instead of being treated like the man he is.
Boy I could relate to that and said, yes, the world sees you as just your "body", too many times. The smiling mocking grinning faces surrounding him during a few scenes, reminded me of a few times I faced especially as my weight gain came on and I became a "joke" to some wicked people around me.

For us super-fat people there can be those who do mock you and or infantilize you. One thing I always faced was the assumption by the outside world, that I was "slow" and "mentally deficient" based on my body weight. Even in the size acceptance world, those of us who have breached a line are not taken seriously, ignored and dismissed as if we know nothing even though we have lived the most severe form of the condition, that the so called experts and pundits think they know so much about. Marilyn Wann, that comment includes YOU.

The villains in the movie are also shown as hateful and dismissive of those with differences and disabilities. There are horrible things said about those with disabilities, where some of the villains call them "monsters".  This movie was very controversial even at it's time, other parts were very gross and evil, and I would not recommend this movie unless you were watching it for other reasons besides entertainment.

Obviously this being the 1930's, there was less education and people who faced severe differences and disabilities were not treated the same they are today. There was endless abuses and horrors visited upon those facing rare conditions. There was no fat characters in this particular film, the "freaks" ranged from people with no arms or legs, or missing their legs,various forms of dwarfism-Little people, a "bearded-lady",and a "thin man", thrown together for the sake of working for a "circus".

Why do I bring up "Freaks"? I was thinking about what people like this have faced in history, and how many were not taken seriously and their very humanity was denied as shown in this movie. While in the age of TLC shows, and such, there is more acceptance for those who are very different,  and more education, after all Abby and Brittany now work as math teachers,  there does remain a bit of the "side-show" with all this....



 When I had my 400lb plus weight gain within 2 and half years, I know I crossed the status from "normal" status to what could have been considered "freak" status. Today I gather the occasional glimpse and stare, but near 700lbs and since I was still able to walk out in public, the googley eyed stares stay with me to this day. Psychologically all I can tell you is the effect was overwhelming, in my case, things made far harder from the fact I was normal or near normal until my mid-20s. Even trying to explain this to counselors and in other formats, I definitely entered territory, that most normal people could not even understand.

Years ago, even 400lb people were deemed rare enough to be put on the stage, which should tell you something about how we have been fattened up for multiple reasons. The man below was a professional "circus fat man". Today we would see at least 10 near his size in your average mega-store.

[source for pic, warning anti-fat people]

These feelings of being "not physically normal" and realizing I did not fit into the normal web of society in many facets, let to an interest I developed into other people who did not fit the mainstream due to whatever medical malady. In those early years as my body went mad, the emotional hits were as hard as the physical ones, sometimes I do not know how I got through it. Perhaps knowing that others faced even worse and more severe emotional and physical challenges gave me the courage to march on.

While probably 99% of the world brought books like this to GAWK, I bought them to ask, how did these other people handle things? How did they manage to face the world and what could I learn from them? While I of course have personally known those facing everything from severe disfiguring facial maladies to dwarfism, I wanted to especially know what those who dealt with being superfat had to say and what they faced.

In fact most books detailing the lives of "freaks" [an unfortunate title] that, did speak of the lives of the severely overweight. One thing I noticed in these books for the super-fat people who predate the 1970s and 80s, glandular conditions and malfunctioning metabolisms are pointed out as a serious problem for the rare person. Seems to me there was far more wisdom back then at least on that score.

What does it mean to have become one of the world's heaviest people? It definitely does not bring a life that is easy. One common thread I noticed that helped people survive, was finding support within either family or a network of friends or a kind partner. For me I know having my husband stick by my side, helped my life immensely. This is a life where one either forms a strong will, or one doesn't make it.

In days past, many did take to the sideshow circuit, which was a very sad statement of those times.
Thank God, those days are over. There is a reason I put no pictures up on this website of myself because I do not want to be made into a "sideshow" but to have my thoughts held to the forefront.  Very super fat people who do put their pictures online outside of a controlled setting such as a social website with privacy settings are taking a chance of having those photos used for nefarious purposes and by the fat haters of the world.

I am fascinated looking at the pictures of the very fat people of the past, I have even used some of these pictures in a respectful fashion. To me their humanity is what matters, and it is interesting to find a selection of pictures where people actually look like me. I often wonder what their lives were like? Were they loved? Were they treated kindly? Did they live in towns where they were treated with respect? I would move from a place that treated fat people horribly to a very small town where I was treated well by the locals, here where I live now, people are respectful and kind as well too.

Did they have some of the same thoughts, that I have faced? About how they feel so "different", and feeling the effects of never looking like anyone else, feeling so different and out of the mainstream? Was their emotional life like my own? Add a swollen leg, bigger feet and a hearing aid, and the picture below could have been one of me.

Disability rights would bring a end to people being treated like side show "freaks", and education including more knowledge about science and medicine would help those facing a myriad of health conditions, though sadly when it comes to fat people, the old attitudes seem harder to get rid of. 

How many of us now are dismissed and our humanity denied? There definitely needs to be far more understanding out there.

See: "Your Future as a Circus Fat Lady"

Natural Thyroid?

I would like to know from my readers has anyone taken natural thyroid? What were your results with it?

I Reject The Hamster Wheel

One thing I tell people is they have too many standards imposed on people, how many have low self esteem today because they are not a rich successful star of some sort? How many suffer on the hamster wheels of being told they must have the perfect job, perfect body, perfect career, and perfect life? Even Facebook can be an "achievement" contest,where people post pictures that highlight the more positive aspects of their lives as if they are trying to sell their "brand". The people I trust more are the ones who can relay hardship rather then endless bragging about vacations.

I was raised in a critical, hyper-perfectionistic atmosphere where love was in short supply and long lists of your endless shortcomings were announced. When I later became fat, some of the thin family members saw it as a personal affront like I had chosen this way of life. This is why I haven't seen a relative step over the threshold in years of my apartment. This year instead of dragging my housebound and sick self to any holiday meals, I'll issue an open invitation for them to come here and let the chips fall where they may.  Perhaps if I get more brave I will share more unusual family dynamics on this blog, but let's just say, my black sheep status remains fully intact. I plan to rewrite the Sister Fat, Sister Thin entry which was taken down.

  I have to admit even when I read self-help literature and all the focus on goals, I feel my eyes closing and wanting to nod off. The thin and fat thing definitely for women is a core component of this, where if you are fat you are deemed a failure and if you are thin, you are deemed a total winner. My life was strange, even recently going through old papers, I found an old third grade report card where I had gotten 4 As and 3Bs, and my father wrote on the back, "Five Hundred Pound Peep can do much better then this!" Yes I remember that day, where I was told, that my grades were too low and only straight As were good enough.

I was not prepared for how life really would become, early poverty, illness, resiliency wasn't on the menu in a life for where I was told I had to be perfect. Where I was not prepared for life, where I was told that what one "achieved" was far more important then just being a human being. When I was young, I did manage to get a college degree and nearly another and even a few semi-professional jobs, but as my health slide down the crevasse realized that the cries of "loser" were gathering around me. As I said love was in short supply and compassion and mercy were as well. One female relative would tell me even in recent years when I took ill at her house, that "You have nothing to show for your life!". I suppose she considered my thrift shop furnished apartment as a poor reflection on her or something.

I understand people wanting to set goals and thinking that going forward in life is a good thing, I think these are positives as well rather then just sleeping on the couch for the rest of your life. Some of my goals is to get a graphic novel done, complete a physical therapy program and stay alive. But sometimes I get worried about all the standards that human beings are expected to meet and the messages they get if they do not do meet them. I told a group I belong to which is a self help group, "I am tired of goals and all these standards, all they do is make us unhappy, a lot of it is about making us ever consuming consumers via our overlords!" By "overlords" I mean those who set the standards, corporate pundits and all. Those who profit off telling you what to care about and working you into the ground.  You know the people who write the women's magazines, and tell you that you must have everything from a perfectly flat stomach...WHY? to totally smooth feet to a house where every counter top is gleaming 24/7. Here is another point, has anyone on their deathbed ever said, "I wish I spent more time at the office?"

 I tell people jump off the hamster wheel! Even Europeans and those from other countries are saying Americans have forgotten how to be happy and I think its true. We are in a growing narcissistic society where personal achievement is everything and happiness and love are in short supply, along with this is one reason disabled people are facing some hardships.I avoid all the political nonsense on TV where they want to tell someone like me, I am the reason the budget is collapsing, while they paper over multi-billion dollar bail-outs and call for even more wars that will cost trillions of dollars. Being superfat in a society, remember I do not wear a sign that says "GLANDULAR CASE" HERE, where people see you as a sign of everything evil in society posting a picture of a 600lb hapless man on a scooter, is not easy either. Yes, I have had "Loser" ring through my head long enough. What entitled me to survive? To see God's standards and to realize our society has gone nuts, and psycho dissolved in a spasm of self-pride, where love of others is suppressed behind impossible standards. Well who determined these standards? Very few question where they come from. Even in some psychology magazines they tell people set goals and it will seemingly make your life perfect. Sometimes I think people would be happier if they were told they could go have a little bit of fun and rest instead.Note to the babyboomer generation, [sorry in advance to the good babyboomers I know] people age die and get sick, bad things happen, not everything on this earth is fixable. Life is short, I do not want to chase a carrot on a stick for the rest of my life.

One trap fat people fall into is, the life deferred for when they will be thin. Supposedly they tell me I will become a thin person if I set enough goals or even get the diet just right. Trust me thin people are in shock at what I cannot eat.  I know people mean well and have the best intentions, but this week I am just trying to keep from throwing up and having bowel pain, pears and bland food are winning.  I woke up long ago and thought, I will never be what THEY want me to be. I have not met any of the standards. I am not thin. So what now?

I jumped off the hamster wheel. 

and I measure my "achievements" by other standards.

NOT THEIRS.

Losing a Friend

This week a close friend of mine died, and I have to admit, I've been taking it hard. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and 3 weeks later was gone. Just a month ago as she was selling her house, we thought everything was alright. So it hit me like a ton of bricks, another friend gone, an empty place where a loved one once stood. I am still crying from time to time. My grief feels intense, and her death seems intermingled with the grief I had of leaving our shared community. Two other friends have died there recently as well. Everything on this earth is so fleeting.

Such issues definitely bring up one's mortality. Three good friends of mine have died in the last three-four years. I have my pictures and memories left. Religiously I do believe in heaven and the afterlife, but one will still have the pain of missing someone, and realizing they are gone. Most people when they hit their 40s do lose people and some of my friends who died were older then me.
I suppose this is something no one ever gets used to.

For me, losing friends can hit harder as I do not have a close family that is really part of my daily life. In many ways friends like this one were my family. Even when you lose someone, such issues come up as realizing the nonsense this world has you so busy with, everything about looks, appearances  and realizing life is so short. This friend stuck by many convictions, and cared about things. She stood up bravely for a number of causes including protesting the false wars that have bankrupted our nation. while we did not agree with everything politically she cared about the future, young people and people having a better life.  She was fun to talk to, she was idealistic about life and cared about the deeper things in the world and about other people. I will miss her so very much. I am thankful to the friends who have been supportive during this time.

Shopping in the grocery store getting worse

I avoid Wal-mart like the plague but I have noticed the grocery stores are getting harder to deal with prices like $8.99 for a pound of turkey lunch meat?You got to be kidding me. Sure I want higher quality stuff rather then what they make from mechanically separated stuff, but that is insane. I have noticed this certain grocery store is stripping down all the organic brands, all the "off brands" for the mega-corporate favorites that are all full of MSG and other bad things. I am wondering if my normal weekly shopping will have to be more transferred to the health food store 15 miles away. Since husband does majority of shopping, I am not sure if he wants to go on that long of a haul but he is noticing more of my needs are met there such as being able to buy almond yogurt and health food things in bulk. It being fall I have had more access to good produce and pears from veggie and fruit stands which will take me into mid-November. A good friend also has brought me tomatoes, pears and fruit from her family's farm which has made eating a more enjoyable experience. It is strange to go to a grocery store and know that most of the food contained within will make one sick, finding the good stuff can get harder and harder, though this grocery store still has a good produce section and that is where 60% of the food is now being brought supplemented with meat and other items. I even try to get a hold of some seaweed for idoine, the health food store sells some smoked seaweed snacks which a couple people asked me "How can you eat that? but I want to get some more because I swear when I ate that stuff I felt far better. It seems to me the grocery stores are stripping down a bit, at least locally, I hope this is not a nation-wide trend but when you see preservative free independent brands being taken off the shelves everywhere you look that is not a good trend.

Always Censored

The Burning Platform I wondered why they did not post what I had to say? The website Washington's Blog did post my comment. So I will give them that. It is interesting how many simply want to silence the 500lb woman? What do they find so disturbing about what I have to say and these are websites that dive deep into political and other controversial issues so that makes me ponder. I basically attempted to post on there what I had posted on Washington's blog.

This is a blog that has some good information so I would like to ask you PLEASE PLEASE study the issue of obesity in America far beyond the hyper-personal responsibility, "you lazy fat Americans". You are right that something MORE is going on. We are being fattened up by plan, beyond those like myself who watch their endocrine systems collapse bombarded by a toxic, dysfunctional system. I found out that rats are fattened up PURPOSEFULLY and KNOWINGLY by lab technicians and researchers using MSG, so ask yourself why is it being poured into just about all our food?

http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2011/10/msg-is-used-to-make-lab-rats-fat-how.html http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/search/label/Obesity%20Conspiracy

Add to that the GMOs--a recent study proved that they cause obesity, and the fact that ANIMALS and BABIES [who are 6 months old and unable to go buy hamburgers by the sack] are getting FATTER too. [see articles above] Americans are being fattened up by plan. The megacorporations profit off this suffering. The pharmaceutical companies will as well. People will not live as long--population control. They profit off the adulterated food and the chemicals poured into it to make it addictive. No one, absolutely NO ONE who is severely obese, CHOOSES IT, it is one of the most stigmatized positions to be in. The suffering of the results of severe obesity are beyond the pale. I have suffered them all. [by the way the size acceptance movement is no help either while they are right about treating fat people with respect as human beings, they just say accept the fat, as it piles on and is the outcome of disturbed metabolisms] 

The fat people on the scooters are the canaries in the coal mine, for the garbage food, endless acute stress, and environmental toxins of a destructive culture. 

  You wrote this: "But when you consider that 160 million out of 232 million adults in this country are either overweight or obese, along with 11 million adolescents, there must be something more sinister behind the phenomenon. " 

YES THERE IS SOMETHING SINISTER. I am fat and something is going on......

FOOD BRAND CHART that says it all!

Hmmm, I know that 5 major corporations run just about all the news, which is why there is so many lies in the news. How much of our food traces back to a small number of megacorporations? Click to make picture larger. 

Adiposopathy

Adiposopathy 

That's a new word to me...

"metabolic syndrome is something I've heard doctors toss out, it goes with insulin resistance and PCOS.

Adiposopathy {"sick fat"} and it's relationship to metabolic disease.



Is adiposopathy (sick fat) an endocrine disease?

Pressure Sores and Kidney Stones?

It seems everyday, there is a new health problem. I found it interesting kidney stones can go along with Chrohn's so wondering about the source of the digestive disorders.  My diet has been VERY LOW fat and free of MSG, and other foods to keep a handle on things. Having the worse short term what feel like the UTIs in the world and then seeing these little yellow balls, is really weird. I had the back pain too. Fears of my kidneys failing are with me. I have been a controlled diabetic, except for two months, in the last 10 years with an A1cs under 7.0 the majority of the time but sadly perhaps damage is done anyhow. These still need to be diagnosed but it's something and recurring often. I do not think it is normal either to pee orange "sand" that is far larger then average sand crystals.  I am seeing a nurse now, and guess I will be explaining more when she comes. One new hideous development has been developing pressure sores, I always was limited in time in sitting up on the computer an hour or so at a time due to bloating but now I have to watch out for these. I asked the doctors why this is a problem now, but they told me being this overweight and aging it can come on.  One thing that worries me is I am not sitting for hours and hours, the longest is maybe a movie, I have to get up enough to do things intermittently, even your average movie time, I need the bathroom at least once.  I am sitting on a Lazy Boy that gives me more time, but having to type from the side with the keyboard on a chair. Good ergnomics are long gone!

Pressure Ulcers, CMS Changes, and Patients of Size: What Are the Issues?

My sugars have been better, and I have found I can walk better, and faster and further on the walker not having to worry so much about tottering from my bad balance, but I am still staying so obese with now much lower interest in food.  I do feel UNWELL, it is like feeling of malaise, exhaustion and have for some time this has gone in tandem with the digestive disorder of abominal pain, and roller coasters of diarrhea and constipation. I am even wondering if something more is going on with thyroid or parathyroid. I have prayed to God for healing and comfort. What is odd is just the other day I was on a size acceptance related board, and it was a discussion regarding HAES and I wrote "Fat causes suffering" and a lady who admitted she was 300lbs said "No it does not!" This is my reality whatever hers for today.

They have told me too I am having MULTIPLE vitamin defiencies, I take B12, have needed B3 and take Vit D. I am very low on vit D. Some of this stuff is getting complicated even for me. I wondered about gallstones of course, but all pain is LOWER abdominal and of course having back pain and seeing where the stones have come out, it's more obvious it's kidney related but then I do not know how gall stones are all passed.

South Park and Super Fat People on Scooters

I saw part of this show the other day when channel surfing but did not watch the whole thing. I consider South Park a raunchy show but catching a glance of this show mocking fat people on scooters was troubling. I often have thought about how superfat people are viewed in our culture and the blame and more is always there, as if someone would chose to be in a scooter and fat.

Who would choose not being able to walk? I found this article too commenting on the superfat in scooters:

 DECLINE, DECAY, DENIAL, DELUSION & DESPAIR

"If I wanted to be politically correct, I’d call the fat asses cruising on their “free” rascal scooters, the weight challenged disabled on their powered mobility enhancement vehicles. You know a trend has become a massive scam, when South Park dedicates an entire show to the shame of obesity and the scooter brigade. The majority of the scooter squad jamming up the boardwalk was less than 50 years old. They weren’t disabled. They were just too obese and lazy to wobble down the boardwalk to the next junk food joint. They were certainly in the right place. The Wildwood boardwalk is home to pizza topped with cheese fries, chocolate covered bacon, fried Oreos, funnel cake topped with powdered sugar, and 64 ounce sugar laced lemonade. The place would make Nanny Bloomberg’s head explode." 

This author is right about many aspects of our declining society, but sadly he goes along with the "lazy" fat people meme eating everything in sight. You know the one the diet industrial complex shoves down our throats every minute? Aren't the thin people too eating while on vacation at the board walk? At least he admits given America's obesity rates that something SINISTER is going on, and I left a comment and agreed I know using a scooter myself, only in large grocery stores in my case which provide them since both husband and I are too weak to lift a over 100lb scooter into the back of our van now and cannot afford a lift, that having shows like this only make my life more difficult where judgments abound. If only that "lazy" fat person would walk, people think. When I was even heavier and used my scooter, the scooter meant MORE ACTIVITY then sitting at home but such a thing is lost on most. I also got off my scooter using it to go from POINT A and B, to walk around shorter distances. If I tried to walk in a store the size of Wal-mart, I'd collapse, I could not buy things. At least now I know I could walk slowly from the back and not die, if the scooter broke down which has happened before. I use a walker, in my case making up for vertigo and balance issues that are Meniere's related. It looks like this but wider.  

The sad thing even with this mobility device, one where I still have to walk and burn up all the calories these people think I should be burning, I can see some of these guardians of what is proper snarkily wondering why someone my age is using a device usually used by the advanced geriactric set.

The world already makes fun of those who have to use scooters. Check this site out "Fat People Riding Scooters" Here they especially focus on fat people getting fast food in drive-throughs. Don't they realize most of these people aren't driving and the scooter is serving as their "car"? I would say stay as far as possible from the poison called fast food but why is it a crime for fat person to eat lunch? What about all the thin people eating there?

What do these shows say about fat people? Fat people are presented as lazy blobs who eat everything in sight. To be frank with my readership, there is nothing more frightening then losing the ability to walk. One's heavy body then is source of untold suffering. When I hurt my leg some months ago, my immobility frightened me, after being fat this long, I've learned to take pain dragging myself along. Who would choose being chained to a scooter just to make it across a store? Most places too, are NOT scooter accessible either. The fat people stuck on the scooters, most wish they could walk like the thin people. I walked for fun for miles before my weight gain. I miss it.

Anyhow sad to say TV land just added to the burden of us all.

Corporate Food Masters Busy Trying To Fatten Up The Rest of the World

I guess our American corporate food masters are trying to fatten up the rest of the world. So in Middle Eastern cultures where they have parsley, tomato, onion and cucumber salads and baked chicken and hummus, they want you to wipe that away for an orgy of cream cheese in fried dough hooked onto a pizza filled with more cheese. You got to be kidding me.

A Fat Hating Commercial

I see tons of thin people putting garbage into their carts. Actually I wish I could take pictures but then that would treating people in an undignified matter they have the right to eat what they want, but I hate this commercial because it just helps advance the stereotypes that fat people are fat because they eat nothing but garbage and IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT. I feel frustration at the grocery store for all the non-food I have to dig through to find the real stuff. I agree that one should eat better then the mother and daughter shown in this commercial but did we really need more fat hatred advanced at the same time?

It’s Hard Enough to Be a Fat Kid Without the Government Telling You You’re an Epidemic

STRONG Language warning on this one. I do think there IS an obesity epidemic, so do not agree with the author with everything but I have even asked myself "What is this doing to the fat kids out there?" and of course in 40 years nothing has changed but more of the same shame and blame and NON-ANSWERS.

 "Look. I don't want people to die. I don't want the next generation of kids to have lower life-expectancies than their parents. I want people to be healthy! But first of all, though weight loss can certainly improve some people's health, "fat" does not universally equal "unhealthy." Health itself is a much more effective and specific goal. And campaigns like this—which target fat people instead of the system that makes them fat—do nothing but hurt that supposed cause. An anti-fat-people campaign is still an ANTI-PEOPLE CAMPAIGN. And I'm pretty sure that treating people (fat people are people!) like animals, cartoonish ice cream addicts, and disease vectors is decidedly bad for people's health. The times in my life when I've been healthiest align directly with the times I've been happiest. This is not a loose correlation. 

Here's a thought, America: If you really want people to be healthier (I'm not entirely convinced that you do, but that's another article altogether), why don't we treat the concept of getting healthy the way that getting healthy actually works? There is nothing that anyone is going to do or say that's going to make fat people skinny tomorrow. Sorry. There is no magic commercial that's going to shame people into becoming thin overnight—just like there's no housewife who discovered one weird trick to burning off belly fat. It's just not going to happen. The real problem is much bigger, much harder to solve, and much less fun for people who get off on hating fat people."

This part I definitely agree with. Course I have the belief that people and children ARE getting fatter from the stress, and "unhappiness" in America, so ponder that one a bit.

Hail To Thee Fat Person!

LOL this one is kind of funny, if only we had something like this on TV today...

A Sociological Critique of HAES

a picture I don't agree with, certainly past a certain line:

A Sociological Critique of HAES

Lots of good points in this one.  I have put up what I think of HAES multiple times on this blog

 "Bacon notes that ‘We all have internal systems designed to keep us healthy – and at a healthy weight. Support your body in naturally finding its appropriate weight by honouring its signals of hunger, fullness and appetite’. In a YouTube video she claims that as long as ‘you stop fighting yourself, achieving and maintaining the weight that is right for you is effortless – your body does the job for you’."

This is simply not true. My body doesn't do the job for me, nor does it for many fat people. I read the above and it seems to be a magical mystery land of make-believe. So I am relieved that the author brings up these points with I agree with. I share her same suspicion when it comes to words like "natural, instinctive or internal cues" as well.

" Yet I would argue that there are elements of the HAES discourse that should be held up to critical examination. It is time to challenge its assumptions and to identify the inconsistencies and the brand of rigid thinking that underpin HAES, just as critics have done in relation to scientific anti-obesity discourse. In her writings on HAES, Bacon constantly refers to the body’s natural ‘set-point’ which ensures that too much weight is not gained if one makes sure to follow one’s body’s cues. References to ‘turning over control to your body’ assumes that the body is a natural entity that has its own wisdom independent of where it is sited or what experiences it has gone through. While I agree with and support the major principles of accepting a range of body sizes and shapes and that everyone, regardless of their size and shape should seek a lifestyle that is both pleasurable and healthy, as a sociologist, I tend to approach the words ‘natural’, ‘instinctive’ or ‘internal cues’ with suspicion."

[snip]

The sociologist even notes what I have pointed out about the size acceptance movement too as a whole, where the body is focused as the end all and be all. This goes against the reality that most fat people to survive mentally, emotionally and intellectual often have to concentrate more then an average person on the life of the mind and other things that will bring joy.

 "This discourse reproduces the classic Cartesian duality of the mind/self as separate from the body/flesh and turns it on its head. Instead of the rational mind positioned as superior to the fleshly body, here the body is represented as ‘wise’ and all-knowing, to which the mind/self should relinquish control. Yet as theorists such as Merleau-Ponty have argued, we cannot separate ‘self’ from ‘body’: we always and inevitably experience the world as embodied selves. Take the concept of ‘internal cues’ for example. The HAES literature suggests that such cues are natural, instinctive, biologically determined and therefore appropriate to follow. But if nothing else, the sociology of the body and indeed, the sociology of food and eating (Lupton, 1996) have shown us motivations can never be fully or purely ‘internal’. They are experienced via social and cultural lens, including our own life experiences and our siting within the particular cultural context into which we were born and grew up. "

[snip]

And here she hits some of the nails, right on the head, where hyper-personal responsibility rules and where the demands to love yourself hold a sway that can be shame inducing as well. I've spoken of it as the sort of healthism that tells a fat person especially in my category, to somehow suspend reality when it comes to my own physical problems. She is right if the external remains unchanged, we can hear "love yourself" til the cows come home, and how going back to the previous point is one to do that if everything is based on the body that has betrayed you in the FIRST PLACE? HAES tells us our own bodies will fix "themselves" if we listen, but it's a false construct. 

 "Another important aspect of HAES that requires more critical examination is the concept that we should accept our bodies whatever our size and the assumption that this will lead to better self-esteem, a goal in itself. But such attempts to improve self-esteem from within fail to recognise the continuing fat prejudice and loathing that continues to exist within our society. Bacon argues that HAES will ‘give you the tools … to live in a body you love’ (2010: 5). But this is similar to asserting that prejudice, discrimination and stigma based on such features as a person’s ethnicity or race, or their age, can be dealt with by ‘loving yourself’. Such an approach attempts to change individuals’ behaviours rather than wider societal attitudes, and the problem therefore remains personal (Murray, 2008). Whatever one’s own attitude about one’s body, the external societal meanings will remain unchanged, and prejudice, discrimination and stigmatisation will continue to exist. Fat people themselves, however, hard they try, may struggle to accept their body size in such a punitive social environment. Their inability to ‘love themselves’ may well become yet another source of shame and guilt."

See: Health At Every Size? And Healthism in the Size Acceptance Movement

An Elephant in the Room?

Many of us fat people will relate to this cartoon...it was done by a blogger calling herself "fat chick on stage"

The feelings of insecurity were worse for me when young, I've been superfat so many years. For me, the only option was to adapt. I have my times of feeling like the "giant" among "regular people". One thing pertaining to the blogger, I openly call myself FAT out in public. Once you stop hiding or trying to deny reality life is far easier.

Chapter #2 There's an Elephant in the Room