Comments on: The Healthy Aesthetic?

By: Simone

Simone — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:37:34 +0000

The Obesity Myth is gold. Campos’ medical reporting is a little sketchy at times, and I wanted take him entirely at his word on the relationship between weight and health. But he does an amazing job of exposing the zillion layers of distortion between scientific facts and the popular understanding of obesity. His sociological analysis is brilliant, and he peppers his account with poignant personal anecdotes. Totally worth a read.

By: Simone

Simone — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:34:18 +0000

…wait, there are doctors who use the BMI for CHILDREN? I didn’t realize this. *Facepalm.*

By: Simone

Simone — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:33:22 +0000

I wish this were facebook, so I could “like” you comment! XD

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:20:46 +0000

I read two great books this past year that once and for all shattered my own personal media-fed conviction that working for a thinner body would make me healthier. “The Obesity Myth” by Paul Campos and “Rethinking Thin” by Gina Kolata changed my life. I recommend them to anyone who wants to explore the issue pointed out in the above blog in further detail. Its so much easier to pursue health when you don’t have to attatch that to a number on a scale anymore! Also, I hear “Health At Every Size” by Linda Bacon is great, but I haven’t read that one yet myself.

By: Meems

Meems — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:16:13 +0000

I haven’t read “The Obesity Myth” or “Rethinking Thin” (though both are on my “to read” list), but I have read “Health at Every Size.” It’s a fantastic book, and definitely changed how I think about health, food, and my own body. I passed it on to my parents, and it has made a huge difference in how my mom thinks about my weight and health.

By: attrice

attrice — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:19:05 +0000

I don’t know where I’m going with this, but one of the things that infuriates me is that women are constantly fed these images of ultra-thinness to the point where someone who’s a size six and has boobs is lauded as ‘curvy.’ At the same time, we’re told that the only good reason for wanting to lose weight is health and we’re shamed (by society, not this blog post) for being shallow if we admit that part of us wants to fit into the ideal that we’ve been given all our lives.

It’s the same way that in the media even a ‘natural’ look is heavily made up and airbrushed and yet women are told they’re high maintenance if it takes them more than 10 minutes to do their hair and makeup.

Anyway, the conflating of health with size allows that much more shame to go around. It makes me furious.

By: Carmel_m

Carmel_m — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:22:11 +0000

Unfortunately, the longer the myth perpetuates that fat automatically = unhealthy, the longer most of the population will believe that thin must therefore = healthy.

We can’t tackle one side of the equation without the other.

By: Bianca of The Zaftig Chicks

Bianca of The Zaftig Chicks — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:28:30 +0000

Yeah, I think it’s pretty well established that BMI is total BS.

By: Meems

Meems — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:43:19 +0000

There are so many problems with BMI that it’s been rendered totally useless, particularly with children. Any good pediatrician knows that BMI has essentially no health correlations in children because they are growing and constantly changing, so a child who is technically obese one month may not be 6 months later after going through a growth spurt.

Besides, blood pressure or glucose levels really aren’t that much more difficult to test at school, particularly blood pressure, which is a totally noninvasive test.

By: Annie

Annie — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:48:17 +0000

I think the BMI is an impractical test of how ‘healthy’ you are. My fellow volunteer firefighting was termed obese after having his BMI calculated by the doctor (a requirement for our 3 yearly re-accrediation in breathing apparatus), he happens to be a short man carrying lots of muscle, quite some eye candy actually, no extra fat on him anywhere- and he’s obese!!
Shouldn’t there be a measure that is actually practical and doesn’t have these sorts of results?