No, Our Office's RD Is Not a "Skinny Bitch"

Judging people on their appearances is not ok.

Over the years our office has hired a whole slew of RDs of various shapes, sizes, and sexes.

There's been one commonality though.

When the RD in question is young, female, and thin, some patients will brand her (we hear them in the waiting room) as the "skinny bitch".

That it doesn't happen with our young male dietitian (whose body fat at last check here was an almost impossibly low 7%) is sexist.

That it happens at all, and from people who themselves know what it's like to be judged on their appearances and more specifically on their size, is sad.

Wouldn't it be great if people's bodies were their own business?

Wouldn't it be great if otherwise awesome artwork designed to address weight bias didn't do so by disparaging thin women as "gross and boney"?

(IMPORTANT EDIT - didn't notice the next frame where the artist addresses this directly. Sorry! Artwork wholly awesome.)

Wouldn't it be great if friends and relatives didn't tell people with weight that they're worried about them and that they should lose - as if they didn't already know about their weight and in most cases, and as if there were an easy, sustainable, way for them to do it?

Wouldn't it be great if fat acceptance champions didn't tell people who wanted to lose weight that they were wrong for wanting and wasting their time if trying?

Wouldn't it be great if we just treated everyone the same regardless of what they looked like?

High School Phys-Ed Horror Story Demonstrates Risk of "Energy Balance"

Thanks to Jonathan Clow for sharing this story with me.

So last year a PE teacher at Huron Park Secondary School in Woodstock, Ontario had their Grade 10 co-ed class use scales and measuring tapes in front of one another to calculate their body mass indices. Why? Because his gym class for the semester was to include once weekly circuit training that consisted of ten 90 second stations of burpees, weighted squats and other squat variations, mountain climbers, with no breaks, then a water break then 2 more circuits at 60 seconds and 30 seconds each without a break in between. At the end of the semester the kids were to once again publicly re-weigh and measure themselves in order to see how much weight their once weekly circuit training helped them to lose.

Oh, and he also allegedly informed the kids whose BMIs were elevated to begin with that they would likely develop diabetes.

No doubt the PE teacher was well-intentioned and felt that both public shame and just a bit of moving around would help his students because as far as he was concerned weight is an "energy balance" issue between in and out and that if he just had the kids up their "out", the problem would be solved. I've no doubt too, that his sentiments represent the societal norm rather than an exception.

I'm told the kids mounted a boycott and letter writing campaign to the school but am unsure on how it all shook out. Fingers crossed for the kids.

I'd imagine there are many more such PE based horror stories out there, and if the teacher or school is reading this, perhaps he might have a peek at this meta-analysis of school PE programs which demonstrated yet again (and yes I know I'm a broken record), that kids aren't going to outrun their forks, or this study that suggests negative experiences in high school PE may well discourage the adoption of a commitment to lifelong exercise.

Bottom line for all of us - exercise should be cultivated and promoted on the basis of health and fun, and fat shaming has no place (or utility) in society let alone in a high school's curriculum.

Guest Post: How a 7 Year Old Boy Came to Ask, "Do I Look Fat?"

One of my Facebook readers sent me a message telling me about the experience she had after allowing her son to watch a few episodes of this season's The Biggest Loser. I asked her if I could repost it as a guest blog.

Meet Tara Newman.  She is a mom, fitness enthusiast, and an advocate for healthy living. She has a Master's Degree in Organizational Psychology and works full time as a Human Resources Manager. She spends most of her time trying to keep up with her active family.

How a 7 Year Old Boy Came to Ask, "Do I Look Fat?"

My son recently told me he wants to be 100 pounds so he can be on TV. You’re probably thinking “What an odd comment,” or “Where did that come from?” Well, you see, I allowed my seven-year-old child to watch The Biggest Loser this season – the first to feature kid participants.

I am not writing to critique the show, give advice, pass judgment or claim to have any answers. I am not a doctor, nutritionist, registered dietitian, exercise physiologist or even a personal trainer. I am simply sharing my experience as a mother, fitness enthusiast, and health-conscious individual.

I know some of you started judging me the second you realized I allowed my son to watch The Biggest Loser. That’s okay, I have thick skin. However, I think you will see that I am a fairly rational being who meant no harm. I might even be a bit like you.

I am a working mom with two kids. Like many of you, my life gives new meaning to the word busy. Aside from my own activities, my husband competes in triathlons, and my kids have their fair share of athletics. Family fun day is always an active experience.

We are conscious eaters. Our diet consists of loads of plants and limited prepackaged items. We steer clear of preservatives as much as possible. And absolutely NO high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils. We participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program, which allows us to show the kids where our food comes from. If they’re at a birthday party, they eat the cake. We strive for balance without instilling any body image issues or phobias.

When I let my seven-year-old watch The Biggest Loser, my goal was to expand his worldview by observing people who live differently, have him hear what it’s like to be an overweight child, and (hopefully!) help him understand why Mommy and Daddy work hard to ensure we live the healthiest lifestyle for us. I am not an over-analyzer and have a pretty positive personality; it didn’t even cross my mind that allowing my son to watch the show might have any negative outcomes.

Having kids on the show made it seem more appropriate. Otherwise I would have deemed it adult content. I don't usually watch the show. It’s not representative of our lifestyle or beliefs. It seems strange now that we watched this season at all, let alone as a family.

As my son watched these episodes, he did what I expected. He expressed empathy for the contestants as they shared their life stories. He cheered them on as they faced their challenges and weigh-ins. He was angry when these children spoke about being bullied. He spoke about how he felt lucky to grow up in a house where everyone was “healthy” and had active lifestyles.

What I didn't expect were the random “Do I look fat?” or “Am I getting fat?” or “Can I step on the scale?” questions that started creeping into our daily dialogue. I was blown away the day he said he wanted to be 100 pounds or more so he could go on TV. (For reference, my son is about 58 pounds, medium height with a muscular build.)

I didn't dwell on his desire to gain weight so he can be on TV. Not that I didn't take it seriously, I just didn't think it was something I wanted to “play up.” As a mother, my wish to do right by my children trumps all. I do believe when you pay too much attention to something, it begins to grow into something greater than it might really be – kind of like the boyfriend you kept around too long because your parents despised him.

I like to focus my kids on what they CAN do instead of what they can’t do. As the situations above came up, I continued to redirect him (and my daughter) to our family’s healthy habits: we get plenty of sleep, we drink water, we eat lots of fruits and veggies, we try new things (especially foods), and we get our hearts pumping.

Before writing this post, I spoke to my son about his experience watching The Biggest Loser. Did he really want to gain weight just to be on TV?

My son talked about healthy habits but admitted he didn't learn them from the show, he learned them from Mom and Dad. He also admitted that while he knows he shouldn't want to be over 100 pounds, being on TV would be “really cool.” Alas… the mind of a seven-year-old.

I don’t regret my decision. I take full accountability for my actions. I was able to reinforce the importance of positive body image and discuss healthy weight loss with my son. Building healthy, fit, well rounded, and emotionally well adjusted kids starts in the home and has nothing to do with mass marketed ‘reality’ TV.

Be confident in the life you lead, be present in the decisions you make, and be cautious of how you go about trying to expand your child’s worldview.

Nonshocker! Preschool kids think thinner is better.

I'm not surprised, are you?

A study out of the journal Sex Roles took a look at preschoolers' attitudes towards obesity by means of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. They took 55 girls aged 3-5 and had them choose which character they wanted to be. 69% chose the thinnest, 20% the average and 11% the largest. Moreover when asked to swap thinnest for largest, 63% refused.

One of the study's authors apparently was surprised by the findings and she was quoted in the Montreal Gazette stating,

"I was surprised that kids as young as 3 were so emotionally invested in their game piece that they would say to a complete stranger, 'No, I don't want to switch with you. No, I hate that one'. It was completely shocking to me"

Really?

You were surprised that 3-5 year olds didn't want to switch from the character they initially chose by themselves? I'm guessing you don't have kids or you've forgotten what 3-5 year olds are like.

I'm also not shocked by the bias.

Why?

Because kids' movies quite regularly point out that fat is either bad, clumsy, funny or stupid, and unlike thin villains and foils, obese characters' weights are almost always central to the jokes and situations they find themselves in so even when not an outright villain like Ursula, they are shown to succeed despite their weights (Kung Fu Panda and Shrek leap to mind).

Oh, and lots of parents say awful things about weight. Whether it's comments like, "Do these jeans make me look fat" or disparaging remarks about others, it's not as if weight isn't the last socially acceptable form of stereotype and it's not as if kids don't pick up on the things their parents say.

So colour me unsurprisingly sad by this study. It's too bad that the authors didn't take their sound bite opportunities to drive home how sadly unshocking these results were.

Harriger, J., Calogero, R., Witherington, D., & Smith, J. (2010). Body Size Stereotyping and Internalization of the Thin Ideal in Preschool Girls Sex Roles, 63 (9-10), 609-620 DOI: 10.1007/s11199-010-9868-1

Spain aiming to ban anorexia inducing ads

Want to know the number one predictor for the development of an eating disorder? Poor body image. And in an attempt to minimize the effect of the media on body image there's a bill proposed in Spain that will ban television commercials for plastic surgery and "slimming products" before 10pm.

Interestingly in the early stages of the bill there was also a provision regarding banning promotions for low-fat foods. I guess lawmakers figured that the ads therein would also be busily promoting what they're calling, "the cult of the body".

Now I'm all for banning these types of advertisements which in turn may indeed be contributing to eating disorders such as anorexia among Spanish youth. But where's the ban that might help with obesity?

According to a recent article in European Psychiatry, the incidence of eating disorders among Spanish adolescent girls is in the neighbourhood of 5% where roughly 75% will recover and 25% will face difficult long term courses.

Now let's peek at Spanish overweight and obesity rates. Roughly 45% of Spanish adults are overweight and 13% are obese. Among Spanish children the rates back in 1995 were 15% obese and 35% overweight.

Sure makes you wonder about priorities.

The thing is, it's easy politically to look at banning "slimming product" and plastic surgery advertisements - they don't have a tremendous lobby. Food on the other hand does which is likely why the provision to extend the ban to advertisements for low-fat foods was quickly stripped from the bill.

At the end of the day Big Food is a force to be reckoned with and even though banning advertisements for junk foods almost certainly would have an impact on rates of childhood and adult obesity (more on this tomorrow), rates orders of magnitude higher than those of eating disorders, you can bet your bottom euro that the Spanish parliament isn't going to be entertaining a ban on them any time soon.

PETA: Eating animals - OUT! Objectifying women - IN!

My sister received this invitation from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) last week. It invited her to a veggie dog lunch hosted by two Playboy "playmates" clad in lettuce bikinis.

Sadly PETA has a long tradition of objectifying women to promote their message and I feel that PETA's campaigns do more to contribute to body image issues among women and normalizing their objectification for the population and other advertisers, than actually promoting such things as vegetarianism.

I think the message PETA's trying to convey is that vegetarianism is sexy, and if you feel that nearly nude playmates and porn stars epitomize both sex and health then maybe they are doing a good job. Judge for yourselves. Head over to their youtube channel and you can watch plenty of videos with scantily clad young women in their "sexy celebrity videos" section which also include endorsements from porn stars and another with women in bikinis making out. Interestingly, of the 25 "sexy celebrity videos" only three involved men and of those, only one was scantily clad (Dennis Rodman).

PETA, I'm not buying it and frankly I can't imagine that the best way to promote the ethical treatment of animals is to objectify women.

I decided to write to Ashley Byrne from PETA to hear what they had to say for themselves.

Perhaps not surprisingly I have yet to hear back from her.

Here's my letter and right below it is a video from the event my sister was invited to. Watch the video and let me know if you think that those women in lettuce bikinis did anything for the promotion of PETA's cause.

Dear Ashley,

My name is Yoni Freedhoff and I’m a physician in Canada with a special interest in nutrition and obesity. I’m also a blogger and currently I’m writing a piece about your recent event held at the Rayburn House Office Building and the advertisement featuring a lettuce clad Playboy Playmate and of course a meet and greet with Playboy’s Playmate of the Year.

My concern of course is how events and advertisements like these serve to objectify women and in turn contribute to disordered body image in the population. Did you know that studies in the United States have shown that almost half of girls aged 6-8 want to be thinner (1), that stigmatization based on weight and looks can begin as early as the age of 3 (2) and that body image distress is one of the strongest predictors of developing an eating disorder (3)?

Frankly I find PETA’s use of objectified women in their campaigns to be surprising given your mandate and I’m wondering if you might have a comment regarding why the ethical treatment of women is seemingly not of consequence to you?

Sincerely,

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, MD CCFP Dip ABBM
Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute
575 West Hunt Club, Suite 100
Ottawa ON K2G5W5

1. Dohnt, H., Tiggerman M. (2006) Body image concerns in young girls: The role of peers and media prior to adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 35(2):141-151
2. Cramer, P., Steinwert, T. (1998) Thin is good, fat is bad: How early does it begin? J App Dev Psychol. 19: 429–451
3. Striegel-Moore RH., Bulik CM. (2007) Risk Factors for Eating Disorders. Am Psychol. Apr;62(3):181-98.

Bulging Brides trainer Nadeen Boman claims her show "encourages a guilt free attitude"

Readers of my blog may remember my post detailing the press release where the headline sounded alarm bells about Canadian women battling with body image and then proceeded to call on the Canadian women reading the press release to explore their own, "problem areas" and specifically look for,

"muffin tops to thunder thighs, from junk in the trunk to flabby arms"

I also referred to Nadeen Boman, she's the trainer quoted in the press release and the trainer on the Slice TV shows, "Bulging Brides" and, "The Last 10lbs Bootcamp".

Nadeen read my piece and left a thoughtful comment (scroll down through the linked post (it'll open in a new window) to get to the comment).

Now I've got nothing against Nadeen and she's certainly entitled to her opinion and her approach.

Me, I think Bulging Brides and The Last 10lbs Bootcamp encapsulate everything that's wrong about society and its approach to weight management, nutrition and healthy living.

I also think Nadeen's got a serious case of cognitive dissonance if she can in the same sentence no less, describe the existence of the show's "Aisle of Shame" as part of a process that "encourages a guilt-free attitude".

So now you know what Nadeen and I think - what do you think? Have you watched the show? Do you think it fosters a healthy attitude towards health and life in general? Leave us your comments, I'm sure we'll both be reading.

How Real are Reality Weight Loss Shows?

Well if Bulging Brides is any indication, not so much.

Bulging Brides is a Canadian "reality" TV show that you guessed it, tries to help brides lose some weight pre-wedding.

According to this piece not only did the show misrepresent itself to a former participant, it also fabricated drama for the sake of the show.

Cathy Snow was originally recruited to be on a show she was told was entitled, "Buff Brides" and apparently was horrified when she learned that she was to be featured on a show that was actually called, "Bulging Brides",

"They portrayed me as an overindulgent pig, like all I do is eat my face out. They send you down the ‘aisle of shame’. They basically doubled what I ate and drank. They planted things in my cupboards. You know the whole time what’s happening. I’m a normal-sized person who eats a normal diet, but they need to make it good TV watching."

So what does the show have to say for itself?

Mea culpa according to one of the show's producers,

"The food diary, the ones [days] we choose to illustrate could be a worst-case scenario.…To be honest, we always pick the day where she’s like, ‘Oh my God! Did I eat that?’ If the audience thinks that’s what she eats for every meal, well...."

Snow reports that once everything was said and done she didn't regret her experience on Bulging Brides. She also reports gaining back the weight she'd lost. No shocker there given that the show's hosts and "experts" (note the sarcastic quotes), Tommy Europe and Nadeen Boman rely on the classically useless exercise-like-stink and eat-far-too-little short term diet.

Improve your Body Image with Insults and Meal Replacement Bars?

Writing this blog has led to my inclusion in the press release launches of diet, weight and for some reason beauty related products.

Mostly they're ridiculous and honestly I question the wisdom of the folks who include me in their diet-centric mailings - did they ever bother to actually read my blog?

Anyhow, last week I received this press release. The headline read,

"Yikes! 1 of 3 Canadian Women Battling Body Image"

and I admit it did what a good headline ought to - it had me reading the next line.

I assumed of course it would be somehow related to a means to cultivate a healthier body image, or perhaps pointing me to a commentary on fat-ism.

Nope.

Instead I got this line,

"The mirror doesn’t lie. From muffin tops to thunder thighs, from junk in the trunk to flabby arms, Canadian women say they don’t like what they see."

So Canadian women - to improve your body image look for "problem areas" in the mirror, eat meal replacement bars and take nutritional and workout advice from Nadeen Boman - someone whose career has been built on berating womens' bodies and providing them with ridiculous, non-sustainable, workouts and diets.

Gee, I wonder why Canadian women battle body image issues? Could it be that press releases like this one and grotesque TV shows such as Nadeen Boman's Slice Networked Bulging Brides and The Last Ten Pounds Bootcamp contribute to the development of unhealthy body images in Canadian women?

The Birth of Body Image

Body image genesis is incredibly complicated.

It has roots in comments from our friends and family, strangers, the media and ourselves.

Dove, the soap company has recently been putting out a series of ads that certainly help to illustrate some of the potential media influence on our body images.

They are beautifully designed ads that have been winning awards and have been showing up on blogs everywhere.

I first saw this advertisement on Parke Wilde's great US Food Policy blog. While it's messaging is clear, as I noted in a comment on Parke's blog, it's also the height of hypocrisy.

Dove's campaign is clearly meant to demonize the messaging that the beauty industry thrusts upon us at every turn. The ads messaging is clear,

"Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does"

and

"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted"

An odd thing for a company whose parent company Unilever owns Slimfast, Axe body spray and other products clearly contributing to this phenomenon.

But the ads sure are jawdroppers.

What are your thoughts?

(For email subscribers, to see the ads, you'll have to actually visit the blog.)