Great article at Pandagon about diet myths

Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon has an excellent, well-thought-out, and useful article up about the horrors of shaming and punishing -- and how these methods do not make people healthier.

In the real world, fat people are subject to so much social disapproval and punishment that it’s traumatizing for some. The high levels of punishment for fatness now haven’t done a damn thing to reverse the trend of growing waistlines for Americans. You can believe that obesity has no relationship to diet and exercise, or you can believe, as a scientist in this article states, that the law of conservation of matter is the relevant one when talking about weight gain and loss, but everyone in this discussion thinks Americans would do well to eat better and exercise more. And since we’ve seen that the punitive approach doesn’t work, then it’s time to shift gears, no matter where you stand on the science issues...

Read the whole thing -- and the comments are interesting as well.