Fat Prejuidice

Is it okay to be prejudiced against people because they’re fat?

Apparently it is.

In fact, overweight people are the majority in United States. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that 67% of adults are overweight or obese.  About half of that number would be people classified as obese.

Nevertheless, fat people are discriminated in dating, hiring practices and health care.

Writing in the New York Times, Harriet Brown details how fat people have become scapegoats.

• A Cleveland surgeon would love not to hire anyone who is fat.
• Author, Dr. Linda Bacon, challenges the fat myths in:  “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight”
• People lose jobs and promotions says Bill Fabrey, founder National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
• Medical professionals are blatant in fat discrimination (Dr. Rebecca Puhl, Director of Research and Weight Stigma Initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University)

Is this anyway to help 2/3’s of the population?

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Don’t Get Thin Thighs in Four Weeks

thin thighs aren’t so great.

I have spent years envying my cousin Cyndi’s thin thighs.

When we were kids, she’d poke me in my thigh and joke she’d lost her finger in the fat.

Well, it looks like the jokes on nasty Cyndi.

Turns out thin thighs aren’t so great.

The thinner your thighs, the greater your risk of heart disease.

A Danish study, published in the British Medical Journal, doubled the risk of heart disease for both men and women who had a thigh circumference of less than 55 centimetres (under 20 inches).

After years of people with large anything being criticized as unhealthy, isn’t it a novelty that too thin is a risk too?

Why are thin thighs dangerous?  One theory is that the large thigh muscle contains insulin receptors to remove glucose, or sugar, from the blood stream. Without enough insulin receptors there is a greater risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Heitmann suggests that doctors may include thigh measurements as part of a physical and even suggest exercise to bulk up ultra-thin thighs.

I guess that Cyndi can no longer be proud of her toothpick thighs. And it’s about time!