What If Obesity Is the Symptom Not the Disease? [The Research Answer to the Question of Whether You Can Be “Healthy Obese”]

Dr. Peter Attia, like many new doctors, thought he had this whole healthy living thing figured out. So much so that when a woman came into his ER one night in 2006 with uncontrolled type II diabetes and needed a foot amputation, he had nothing but “bitter contempt” for her, for allowing herself to get …

The AMA Now Officially Recognizes Obesity as a “Disease” – So is This a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

 Boom! Science in action. (P.S. I have sooooo totally done this. And the group crouch. I don’t know why. ) Ever felt that there’s got to be more to gaining and losing weight than just calories in/calories out? Well, it turns out the American Medical Association agrees with you. In a surprising and controversial decision – …

Being Fat Won’t Kill You: What We Can Learn From The Latest Obesity Research… And What We Can’t (But I Wish We Could)

In 1912, a 24-year-old co-ed named Elsie Scheel was proclaimed “the world’s most perfect woman” and “without physical flaw.” (Which on the surface seems like the best compliment ever but on second thought might have been a lot of pressure to put on a young girl who said she would return to her parents’ farm instead of …

The Sad Sad Case of Taylor Townsend: Why Everything You Know is Wrong About The Effects of Nutrition, Exercise and Weight on Longevity

All I see is beauty and strength. Also, how bad do I want this tennis dress?! Travesty: Taylor Townsend, the number one ranked junior girls’ tennis player in the world, the reigning Australian Open singles champion and the junior Wimbledon doubles champion, and last Thursday she won two matches at the U.S. Open’s junior tournament, was recently forced …

How Do You Define Healthy? [Plus: 22 “Men’s” Exercises Women Should Do]

This is how Gym Buddy Megan defines healthy. And also, this is hands-down my absolute fave picture of her ever. Six scrambled eggs cooked in butter, a half pound of bacon, four potatoes worth of hash browns, six pieces of buttered toast, and a 32 oz. milkshake. And that’s just for breakfast. As the world watches …

How to Help A Child Lose Weight [Help a reader out!]

Courtesy of the State of Georgia’s new childhood obesity campaign Three hours of hysterical sobbing, a whole box of kleenex thrown and self-inflicted eye poking (yes, really) is what my third grader did when I assigned him a second sheet of math problems after he lied to me about having homework so he could go …

Karl Lagerfield Wants to Sell You Ice Cream [And then mock you for getting fat]

Skinny Girl Eating Ice Cream: A study in social morés. Eclipsed only by the Fat Child Eating Ice Cream tableau vivant, nothing brings out more opinions than a thin girl with a cone. Some people are jealous: “Lucky genetic freak gets to eat ice cream and still look like that?!” Others are sad: “I’ll never be …

Selling Weight Loss to Children [Are kids the next casualties in the diet wars?]

“Tell me I’m not angry for no reason!!!” was the subject line on an e-mail from Gym Buddy Lindsey. I tried to imagine what would be so upsetting as to require the use of a double negative and extraneous punctuation.  That it continued with “I’m so pissed!!!!!!!!!!” only made me more intrigued. (And more entertained …

Do You Need to Look Healthy to Work in a Health Store? [Experimenting on Humans]

Four years of Psychology has made me a huge fan of social experiments. Yes, my undergrad is in psych and yes, I’ll wait for you to stop giggling. While it didn’t make me a good counselor – as evidenced by my choosing Computer Information Systems for my graduate degree – it did give me a …

Which is Worse: Being Called "Fat" or "Whore"?

Source Interview anyone these days about food and no matter what their gastronomic predilections, chances are they will speak of them with a fervor bordering on religiosity. The vegan preaches her diet – nay, lifestyle in the truest sense of the word: it is not just food but an overarching style of life – with …