Fat, Fit, and Healthy!

Who says people cannot be fat, fit, and healthy? Newsweek has such a wonderful slide show of happy healthy people here.

Why we exercise for health -- not weight loss

John Cloud has an astounding article in Time about the new science proving that exercise may not actually make you thin.

If evolution didn't program us to lose weight through exercise, what did it program us to do? Doesn't exercise do anything?

Sure. It does plenty. In addition to enhancing heart health and helping prevent disease, exercise improves your mental health and cognitive ability. A study published in June in the journal Neurology found that older people who exercise at least once a week are 30% more likely to maintain cognitive function than those who exercise less. Another study, released by the University of Alberta a few weeks ago, found that people with chronic back pain who exercise four days a week have 36% less disability than those who exercise only two or three days a week.

Don't break your heart and make yourself sick trying to lose weight -- exercise for fun, strength, and health.

Your inspiration for the day

Watch this fantastic video to get inspired! You are better than you know -- and never forget it.

The Obesity Myth

Please, please read Paul Campos's book: The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health. It explains that dieting does not work and is unhealthy. You need to read this book today! Buy a copy for your mom!

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.

Medical and health information resources

Sloan Kettering has the best information about herbal, botanical, and alternative supplements and treatments here. A must for everyone who takes supplements or is concerned about their own or their loved ones' health.

While many herbs, supplements, and treatments may be of some benefit, or at least not actively harmful, many are both dangerous and toxic. Please look up your vitamins, supplement, or alternative treatments and medicines here before you do anything that may injure you. For a direct search, click here.

One of our other favorite resources is the Mayo Clinic's wonderful online resource here where you can check symptoms.

The Politics of Thinking Thin

Marc Ambinder, in The Atlantic, has a interesting look at the whole "won't someone think of the children" aspect of body size, self-segregation, and fat issues. Read the whole thing here. A simple way of looking at this, also, is that of course stigmatized people tend to self-segregate: being in a group that hates you is at best exhausting and dispiriting.