Size Matters Book Club Debuts November 8, 2005

Size Matters Book Club Debuts November 8, 2005

Size Matters, Too Radio Talk Show Host, Veronica Euell, is on a mission. Her mission is to take a look at issues regarding body size and weight through the lens of authors who have written about the same.

(PRWEB) November 3, 2005 -- Size Matters, Too Radio Talk Show Host, Veronica Euell, is on a mission. Her mission is to take a look at issues regarding body size and weight through the lens of authors who have written about the same.

The very first Book Club of its kind, Size Matters will debut November 8, 2005 at the Goodyear Branch Library 60 Goodyear Blvd. Akron, Ohio 44305 at 7:00 p.m. Bonus!! Dr. Pattie Thomas, Author of "Taking Up Space" will be on site for a book signing at 6:30 p.m. followed by a presentation during the inagural debut of the Size Matters Book Club at 7:00 p.m.

The purpose of the Size Matters Book Club is to give participants an opportunity, in a safe environment, to take a deeper look at size and body image, the politics surrounding those issues within society, and how they affect us. Members are encouraged to reflect upon their personal experiences and values around body image and size. This is not a weight loss group or diet club, rather, the Size Matters Book Club is dedicated to examining society's pathology and obesession with weight. We especially emphasize ways to remove the negative stigma placed upon persons of size within the workplace and within society in general.

A particular emphasis will be placed upon the philosophy of the Health at Every Size model of wellness--an approach to health and well being that focuses on healthy behaviors and natural diversity in body size rather than weight gain or weight loss issues.

The first book chosen for the Size Matters Book Club is "Taking Up Space" by Dr. Pattie Thomas (Pearlsong Press.) Dr. Thomas will be in town to kick off the first session with a book signing at 6:30 p.m. (a limited number of books will be available on site on a first come first serve basis) followed by a presentation at 7:00 p.m. at the Goodyear Branch Library 60 Goodyear Blvd Akron Ohio.

This initiative would be beneficial to those in the Health Care, Human Resources, Education, and Social Work fields as well as those with personal experiences within the area of size. For more information, please call The Euell Consulting Group LLC at (330) 668-9778. To listen to our free weekly On-Line Radio Show, please visit us at www.sizematterstoo.com. Size Matters, Too is recorded and produced weekly at WCRS Radio Akron, Ohio. ###

Declaration of Taking Up Space

I Take Up Space

October 19th - Love Your Body Day

Love Your Body Day 2005 is October 19

Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of fourth-grade girls have been on some form of fad diet?

Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can't use negative images to sell their products without our assistance.

Together, we can fight back.

Love Your Body: What You Can Do

Love Your Body: Get the Facts

Queen Latifah Encourages Others to Honor Confident, Courageous Women

Queen Latifah Encourages Others to Honor Confident, Courageous Women

Friday September 30, 3:54 pm ET
October 8th Deadline Nearing to Nominate Candidates for Confidence Awards Program

SECAUCUS, N.J., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Each day, inspiring women across the country help other women gain confidence and self-esteem through community education, fund-raising, self-empowerment and volunteer programs. Queen Latifah is reminding women that they have less than two weeks left to nominate these often unsung heroes for the CURVATION PROJECT CONFIDENCE AWARDS, a nationwide search to recognize women who personify and project the power of confidence. Entries for the awards must be postmarked by October 8, 2005.

"I encourage you to nominate a woman who has inspired you to feel more confident by being instrumental in creating or participating in programs that help women embrace the power of confidence," said Queen Latifah, CURVATION® spokesperson, inspiration and creative advisor. "These awards provide a wonderful opportunity to honor someone for their efforts and contribute to their individual program or cause. I'm looking forward to reading the entries about the amazing work women are doing across the country."

Five finalists will be chosen by Queen Latifah and a panel of experts. The finalists will receive a $2,000 grant towards the program or cause with which they are affiliated, so that they can continue their work in building women's confidence. The panel will choose one grand prize winner, who will be awarded an additional $10,000 grant to support her project or program. In addition, Wal*Mart has offered to donate an additional $5,000, adding another $1,000 to each finalist's prize. All finalists will be honored at a CURVATION PROJECT CONFIDENCE AWARDS ceremony, hosted by Queen Latifah, in early 2006.

"I credit much of who I am today to the confidence I was given as a child. Strong, independent women like my mother and grandmother showed me the power of believing in myself. Now I want to pass this message on. By helping women build their confidence, we help them live more fulfilling lives," added Queen Latifah.

To nominate a strong, confident woman, visit http://www.curvation.com or mail in a completed entry form, available by calling 1-800-505-2378.

The CURVATION PROJECT CONFIDENCE AWARDS is part of the multi-year, multi- part CURVATION PROJECT CONFIDENCE initiative, which in turn is part of the extended partnership agreement between the Curvation brand and Queen Latifah announced by VF Intimates in June. CURVATION NATION, another component of CURVATION PROJECT CONFIDENCE, is an online community where women who have embraced the power of confidence can inspire and share their ideas with an ever-widening community. Women who visit the CURVATION NATION website -- http://www.curvation.com -- can opt-in to receive CURVATION® product and event updates.

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Fat & Choice: A Personal Essay

Fat & Choice: A Personal Essay
by Marilyn Wann

Plenty of people think that I choose to be fat. Currently, it's popular to believe that everyone's weight is a choice, readily influenced by eating and exercise. This is a big, fat lie.

Why would anyone (the government, doctors, advertisers, the media) lie? To make money. Fat hatred -- and fear of fat -- sells. Every year, Americans waste $50 billion on products that promise (and fail to deliver) lasting weight loss. In fact, the ongoing existence of weight-loss methods (plural) is proof that all of them conform to the medically documented 90 percent to 98 percent failure rate; i.e., if any one of them "worked," the rest would be out of business. (Failure is necessary for their business model. Repeat customers, and all.)

With the billions that Americans invest each year in hating our thighs and our abs and our butts (and our fat sisters and brothers), we could feed all of the hungry and food-insecure people in the US, we could build numerous houses for each homeless person in the US, or we could put more than a third of high school graduates through college for free.

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Katrina Victims' 'Blessing': Clothes That Fit

Katrina Victims' 'Blessing': Clothes That Fit
Plus-Size Items Tough to Find Amid Donated Clothing
By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN

Sep. 20, 2005 - When Hurricane Katrina hit, many people evacuated with just the clothes they were wearing. But for many women who made it to safety, finding plus-size clothes that fit them among the garments donated to evacuees proved to be difficult or impossible.

"There was nothing," Anaice Floyd, an evacuee from New Orleans, told relief workers in Houston.

The call went out over the television airwaves from shelter volunteers, politicians and celebrities like singer Macy Gray, as well as the women themselves: Send clothing in large sizes.

Enter Charming Shoppes, parent company of Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug Plus and Catherine's Plus Sizes stores. The company is donating $2 million worth of clothing, undergarments and shoes to Katrina victims who have been washing and wearing the same clothes for weeks.

"Not every woman is a size 2, 4, 6 or 8," said Charming Shoppes spokeswoman Catherine Lippincott.

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A User's Guide to Affirmations

A User's Guide to Affirmations
by Beth Harper

How Affirmations Have Worked In My Life

Affirmations have been a Godsend for me over the past few years. I'd like to tell you a little about my life before I discovered how to use them, and a little of what it is like now. I'd also like to give you a few important principles on their creation and use, so you may adapt them in whatever ways best suit your lifestyle.

When I first found myself increasing in size and becoming the large woman that the other women in my family have all become, I was dismayed. All the messages from the media tell us "you really ought to lose some weight." Less-than-well-meaning people tell us we're "disgusting." Doctors give us a verbal poke in the stomach, telling us how much healthier we would be if we used some dietary discretion and got more exercise. All these things added together led me to believe that I was an ugly person who no one really wanted to be around or be seen with. This was despite having a husband who was telling me that the more weight I gained, the prettier I was! I simply did not believe him. To sum it up, my self esteem had to look up to see the floor.

Over and over, my attempts at weight-loss failed. Because of the metabolic changes and obsession with food that dieting causes, as soon as I stopped one diet, I'd find myself heavier than I had been before I started it, but still I'd start another diet only to repeat the cycle. After awhile it became blatantly obvious that I needed to work on accepting myself as I was. By this time, my marriage had ended, and I needed to believe that I could eventually find someone who could love me. I knew from my psychology classes and reading that in order to find someone else who could love me, I needed to start loving myself and believe I was lovable. I started with some affirmations on my own. I began by looking myself in the eye in the bathroom mirror after I brushed my teeth and saying, "I love you." Then I expanded that to "You're a worthwhile person, and I love you."

Later, I got to the point of "You're worthy of friendship and love." At this point, I made up some little handwritten signs, and posted them in areas of my home where I would see them. One said "You're beautiful." Another said "You're smart," and others had additional compliments on them. When I would see one of these signs, I would say aloud the message printed on it. If I was near a mirror, I would look myself in the eye in the mirror as I was saying the affirmation.

And my life now? I weigh around 210 pounds, have a husband who does not consider size to be a factor in a relationship, and as I continue to learn to ignore comments like "You'd be pretty if you just lost some of that weight" from people I have no interest in anyway, I'm very happy the weigh I am today. Using affirmations has worked for me.

Guidelines For Creating and Using Your Own Affirmations

There are some things to keep in mind when writing or using affirmations. One of the most important is that the part of the brain that is receiving the messages does not understand negatives; it blocks out words such as no, not, and without. Thus, if you use an affirmation such as "You're not ugly," the brain gets the message "You're ugly," and nothing positive happens. A better tactic would be to say, "You're beautiful." Sometimes it is difficult to state things without using negatives. Consider how it could be done, and do it--it is well worth the effort.

Another point concerns the use of pronouns. Some people, especially those who are really down on themselves, as I was initially, find that affirmations work better if they are written and used in the second person. If your self esteem is really low and you say, "I am beautiful as I am," the response from your own inner critic will be "B***S***!!!" It is easier to accept a compliment coming from another person than from yourself.

A third helpful strategy is to put the affirmations--whether created by you or adapted from another source--on signs in your own handwriting. This serves two purposes: it makes the affirmations seem more familiar; and the mind believes more readily in what is written when it sees affirmations in your own handwriting.

Of course, if you are going to use signs, you must find a place to post them so that casual guests won't see them. I was fortunate when I was doing this that I lived alone, so I could easily put them in my bedroom, sewing room, or on my bathroom mirror, where they were private. At times when I was married and using affirmations, I've been fortunate in that both the men I've been married to have understood and actively supported what I was doing. It is sometimes helpful to have a supportive spouse state the affirmations to you verbally as well. Those who have non-supportive spouses or housemates have an additional problem to work through.


Using Largesse Affirmations for Size Esteem

I have given copies of the Largesse Affirmations for Size Esteem to several of my large friends, in various life situations, all with positive results. One woman who is single and lives with her parents had to post the Affirmations in her bedroom. She put them on the mirror, and says them as she's applying her makeup. Another woman, who lives with her seven-year-old daughter, put them in various areas of her home. A married woman with three children could only post them in her laundry room, and use the wallet-size card. A man who lives with his parents posted them next to his computer, where he can see them and say them to himself while he is working on the computer. In each case, it has opened up a line of communication for them about size esteem issues.

Five Principles to Remember

Recapping the principles I have outlined here, to successfully use affirmations, you should:

1. Always express them positively

2. Consider whether the use of first or second person best suits your needs

3. Write (or rewrite) them on signs in your own handwriting

4. Post them in a place where your privacy will not be invaded

5. Say them aloud, preferably while looking yourself in the eye

Try it--I'm sure you'll be as pleased with the results as I've been!

Beth Harper is a feminist, fat activist and freelance writer who lives in Colorado with her husband and their cats.

This information is a public service of Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem [http://www.largesse.net/] and may be freely copied and distributed in its entirety for non-commercial use in promoting size diversity empowerment, provided this statement is included.

Largesse Affirmations for Size Esteem

Largesse Affirmations for Size Esteem

1. I am a person of size and substance, worthy of self-respect and the respect of others.

2. I am strong, healthy and beautiful just the weigh I am right now.

3. I am capable of earning approval, winning affection and achieving happiness whatever the size or shape of my body at any particular time.

4. I give myself permission to eat normally, and I recognize food obsessions and eating disorders as inevitable consequences of weight-loss dieting.

5. I deserve to be treated with dignity and respect at all times, and always strive to project a positive self-image.

6. I have the right to size-appropriate accommodations wherever I may go.

7. I deny any person, group, or institution permission to discriminate against me or in any way demean me because of my size.

8. I live my life to the fullest and refuse to be victimized by others' prejudices or fears.

9. I am learning to respond effectively to size bigots in ways that educate them and empower me.

10. I join with other people of size, our friends, families, and non-fat allies, as we work together to make the world a friendlier place for people of ALL sizes.

This information is a public service of Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem [http://www.eskimo.com/~largesse/] and may be freely copied and distributed in its entirety for non-commercial use in promoting size diversity empowerment, provided this statement is included.

Food Nannies Hawk the Hawkeye State

Food Nannies Hawk the Hawkeye State
By Sandy Szwarc
Published 03/16/2005
TCS

Like newspapers across the country, the Des Moines Register has published a special series addressing the "obesity crisis." The Register series, which began last Sunday, was entitled "The Losing Battle" -- appropriately named, just not in the way the newspaper believes.

The weight loss industry faces a losing battle selling their diets and bariatric surgeries among residents there. Iowans are known for their old-fashioned common sense and aren't getting on board with the panic over their body weights and the need to lose weight being marketed. The Register, however, has. And their series offers consumers across the nation an eye-opening illustration of obesity doublespeak at work.

Iowans don't know that obesity is a deadly medical condition, the Register tells readers. Writer Anne Carothers-Kay reports that 60% of Iowans are either "overweight" or "obese." This "bad news," she notes, makes Iowa the 15th-most obese state in the nation. According to reporter Jennifer Dukes Lee, this is a "crisis."

But is it?

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Do-It-Yourself Self-Esteem Repair

Healthy Weight Journal March/April 1999 Vol. 13 #2

Size Acceptance
Do-It-Yourself Self-Esteem Repair

by Carol A. Johnson, MA

1. Weight is not a measure of self-worth. Why should it be? Your self-worth is your view of yourself as a total person— how you treat others; how you treat yourself; the contributions you make to your family, your friends, your community, and society in general. Your weight is just your weight. Don't give it any more importance than that.

2. List your assets, talents, and accomplishments and review that list often. Add to your list daily.

3. Focus on the positive aspects of your life — a job you like, good friends, a nice home.

4. Stop criticizing yourself. The inner voice that's telling you you're no good is a liar. View the voice as an unwelcome intruder and show it the door!

5. Avoid "globalizing." Instead of saying "I'm such a failure," say: "I didn't do that one little thing quite right, but I do most things right."

6. Let go of perfectionism, particularly in terms of food. You probably eat pretty healthily a lot of the time. Stop rebuking yourself for the occasional indulgence. Quit thinking of foods as "good" and "bad." Instead, use such terms as "a good thing to eat frequently" or " a good thing to eat occasionally."

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Father Knows Best?

Father Knows Best?

By Sandy Szwarc
Published 02/28/2005
TCS

If ever there was reason to reconsider the wisdom of having our healthcare and insurance under employment or government mandate, the "war on obesity" is it.

The surge of employer-based health insurance, which didn't happen in other insurance markets such as automobile and life insurance, and the creation of federal-based Medicare and Medicaid insurance in 1965, has contributed to skyrocketing medical costs and insurance rates for everyone, according to a just-released analysis by Robert B. Helms, director of health policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Receiving health insurance through employers removed the competitive marketplace which would have encouraged providers and insurance companies to keep costs down. It's also resulted in a plethora of untaxed health benefits, which at first glance seemed a good thing for recipients, and employers didn't mind since they could deduct benefits as a business expense. But it's also mostly benefited higher-income people with employer-provided perks, according to Helms, while meaning greater costs to our wallets, freedoms and choices.

Lawmakers have also played a significant role in raising costs of healthcare. State legislatures have passed more than 1,800 mandated health insurance "benefits," with 295 new mandates introduced in January of last year alone, according to a new report by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance. "For almost every health care product or service, there is someone who wants insurance to cover it so that those who sell the products and services get more business," they explain. Lawmakers justify their support by asserting that mandates won't cost much or that they'll save money, but "we have overwhelming evidence mandates virtually always cost money rather than save it," CAHI says. They estimate mandated benefits increase the cost for basic health insurance for all consumers by 20% to more than 50%, depending on the state. Worse, a number of these cost-raising, mandated covered treatments are frivolous, fraudulent or alternative -- unsound, ineffective, unproven or potentially dangerous.

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French Women Do Too Get Fat

French Women Do Too Get Fat
What the best seller neglects to mention.
By Kate Taylor
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005, at 3:23 PM PT

Mireille Guiliano, the French-born CEO of Clicquot Inc., Veuve
Clicquot's American subsidiary, has many things to toast these days.
Besides being 58 and still weighing what she did in her 20s, she is
now a best-selling author, too. Her recently published memoir-cum-diet
book, French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure is
currently at No. 3 on the New York Times list for hardcover advice
books. Since the book's publication, she says, she has been inundated
with offers to write a sequel, host a cooking show, and wear various
designers' dresses to the Oscars. There has even been discussion of a
movie. While it's still too soon to tell, it is possible that Guiliano
has helped launch one of the periodic turnovers in American dietary
mythology. Out with carbophobia; in with Francomania.

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Fat phobia makes us sick

Fat phobia makes us sick

2005-02-23 / Knight Ridder / By Kathleen LeBesco

During National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 27 to March 5), we hear a lot about the devastation that anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating can wreak on the lives of our citizens. However, in the midst of our everyday media messages, what we often miss is a sense of how our hostile attitudes toward fatness and fat people fuel disordered eating.

Today's media, for instance, point to the values of our culture, and make examples out of those who conform and those who transgress. A host of programs centered around bodily transformations - from "The Biggest Loser" to "The Swan" to "Extreme Makeover" - remind us that fat folks, those icons of the obesity epidemic, should not exist as anything but the ghosts of "before" pictures.

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Fit for life: why fat is not the problem

Fit for life: why fat is not the problem
February 24, 2005

YOU can be fat and healthy. It sounds like heresy, but it's the message of a leading Sydney nutritionist and author, who says our medicos and politicians have created a moral panic about obesity that could be doing more harm than good.

Sydney University's Jenny O'Dea is outraged at claims this week by University of Queensland researcher Alan Lopez that obesity is the new tobacco.

And she has a message for those self-satisfied stick insects out there.

Fat, fit men have a much lower risk of heart attack than slim, couch potato men.

Yes, wait for it, fat is not the root of all evil. You can also be thin and unhealthy.

O'Dea, who has written a book, Positive Food for Kids, says the approach of blaming the victims for the nation's weight gain is backfiring badly.

Her research has found overweight patients are deterred from going to the doctor because they don't want to be lectured by a profession they believe is prejudiced against them.

The media hype over obesity has spawned an explosion of fad dieting, which research shows will only add to long-term weight gain.

And by focusing on weight loss as the goal, the obesity-is-bad juggernaut has diverted attention from what should be the real message – the promotion of a healthy, active lifestyle as the means to preventing medical problems.

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Meet the Women of "Big Dance"

Meet the Women of "Big Dance"

February 21, 2005

Are you ready to meet the women of "Big Dance"? Artistic director LYNDA RAINO teaches a modern dance class just for plus-sized people -- and she's revolutionizing the art form of movement in the process! ET has the story.

"The mandate of 'Big Dance' is 'You don't have to have a dancer's body; you only have to have a body that dances and dance with the body you have," Lynda tells ET.

Lynda says she began "Big Dance" in 1993 when a plus-sized woman came to the Victoria, B.C. resident and said she would love to take a dance class but would never, ever, walk into a studio with all those "skinny dancer bodies." Why not start a class for fat women? Lynda said to herself, "Why not?" and confides, "I was naive. I did not know I was going to enter a whirlwind ride of absolute revolution in dance. I thought we were just doing a class for fat women."

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Learn to love your body, says belly dancer Ruth

Learn to love your body, says belly dancer Ruth
nlnews@inuk.co.uk
16 February 2005

BELLY dancer Ruth Cowan wants to help women of all shapes and sizes to love their bodies.

The 47-year-old, of Alexandra Park Road, Muswell Hill, teaches the dance while delivering advice on body psychology.

She said: "I want to help people feel comfortable with their bodies and to celebrate themselves as they are. It's therapeutic. People who feel fat can enjoy belly dancing."

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Fat and Proud

Fat and proud
Activist Heather MacAllister brings message of fat liberation to Ann Arbor
By Jason Michael
Originally printed 2/10/2005

ANN ARBOR - OK, let's start here: What is "fat liberation?" Admit it, you read the subhead and wondered, right? Well, worry not. Heather MacAllister has an answer for you.

"It is the radical concept that people can be healthy, happy and sexually attractive at every size, large or small," she said. "That's not to say that everyone is healthy. There are people who have health issues. But that's thin or fat. It's not inherently unhealthy and - more importantly - no one deserves to be discriminated against and fat liberation is about ending discrimination."

Now before you size threes out there throw this story down and move on, consider this:

"Ultimately, fat liberation helps everyone with any kind of body because it flies in the face of the billion dollar industry that supports people being dissatisfied with their bodies - the weight loss industries, cosmetic surgeries and fashion," said MacAllister. "I love fashion, but the industry holds up an ideal that very few people can obtain so we spend our time focused on how we look rather than how we feel."

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Nonsense for the Diet Season

Nonsense for the Diet Season
By Sandy Szwarc
Published 01/26/2005
TCS

After ringing in the New Year, the party's over. The diet season has begun and so do our resolutions to diet and exercise, quit smoking and begin a new life. "Yup, it'll be All Bran all the time in 2005," said food writer Gwyneth Doland.

Just in time to accompany the weight loss advertisements that beset us every year at this time, a new report claims to provide the evidence that dieting and attaining a trim figure are imperative. Women must be "toned and trim," we're told, because no amount of exercise can offset the risks of dying prematurely when overweight. The bearers of those gloomy tidings are researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, in a report published in the New England Journal Medicine. They claim to have studied 116,564 women for 24 years and found that even exercising 3 1/2 hours a week, fat women have a 91% greater risk of premature death as compared to lean women.

This veritable death threat left women feeling angry and hopeless that their fat was going to kill them regardless of what they did. The latest comprehensive review of the nation's top ten diets by University of Pennsylvania researchers confirmed, yet again, that there is no diet that offers "more than glossy ads and dramatic testimonials when it comes to promising long-term results."

But despite this Harvard study's claim we must shed body fat or else, closer examination reveals that it deserves nothing more than a good belly laugh and to be tossed out with all the fad diets.

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Green Ribbon campaign

Eating Disorders Awareness Week begins
Green Ribbon campaign declares beauty comes in all colours, shapes and sizes
S T O R Y - By Stacey Bowman, Assistant News Editor

Never mind tipping the scale, some people are taunted about the length of their legs, according to Vivian Lee, ArtSci '06.

Lee decided to showcase her petite frame on posters promoting positive body image as part of the Green Ribbon Campaign, which kicked off on Monday.

"I'm really short and people make fun of that," Lee said. "I feel like everyone always concentrates on people who are overweight, but people get it on the other extreme too,some because they're too skinny or too short.

"It happens to every body type," she said.

The posters are a new addition to the annual campaign. They were born out of a desire to make the message of acceptance and celebration of diverse body shapes and weights more visible and immediate for students.

"We've run our Green Ribbon campaign for a number of years, and last year we thought about how do we make it more personal and visible," said Diane Nolting of health counseling and disability services, which runs their campaign during Eating Disorders Awareness Week, taking place this Monday through Friday.

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Lose Weight with these Products? Slim Chance!

The "Worst" of 2004 weight loss products cop 16th Annual Slim Chance Awards

Green tea continues to cast an aura of Oriental slimness. This year’s worst diet gimmick takes it one step farther – not only do you drink this tea, but you attach a green tea patch to the thigh, and miracles begin to happen. Or so the advertiser claims. The worst diet pills of 2004 take narrow aim at specific targets: people with abdominal fat, low-carb dieters, and women experiencing menopausal weight gain.

These are just a few of the weight loss schemes highlighted by Frances M. Berg, chair of the Weight Loss Abuse Task Force for the National Council on Health Fraud, in announcing the 16th annual Slim Chance Awards. "These products and countless others promise quick weight loss with no effort," she says. "They need to be exposed as foolish scams that lighten your wallet but not your body. Diets don’t work. Neither do pills or potions."

It’s not just adults who fall prey to these scams. "Children and adolescents, especially teenage girls, are buying all sorts of weight loss products," says Berg. "This is especially disturbing because many are harmful to their health."

Berg, whose new book Underage & Overweight includes a 7-point plan for raising healthy weight children, offers this advice to parents who fear their child may be trying to lose weight in dangerous ways. "The key to raising a healthy weight child is leading by example," she says. "What works is to model a sound, healthy lifestyle that allows excess weight to come off naturally, as a by-product. It’s the healthy and lasting way to lose weight."

Berg’s organization, the Healthy Weight Network, started the Slim Chance Awards 16 years ago as a reaction to the glut of unsafe products on the market. They are part of the lead-up to "Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day" during Healthy Weight Week, January 16 to 22.

"We want to shift our national focus to health and wellness, to acceptance, respect, and an appreciation of diversity," says Berg. "It’s time to move on from the war so many Americans are waging against their own bodies. The obsession with thinness is causing tragic problems for both children and adults."

Here are the Slim Chance Awards from the "worst" of the 2004 crop:

* Worst Gimmick: Green Tea300 patches. This scheme includes not just Green Tea Patches of "high potency extract" to attach to your skin, but also green tea drinking. In fact four patches come free when you buy $59.99 worth of tea. It’s a combination claimed to burn fat, suppress appetite, increase thermogenesis, and speed the metaboic rate, all without increasing hypertension or heart rate. Can you believe you’ll benefit from "Asian wisdom … lose 5-27 pounds … 30 times more potent than regular green tea"? Advertised online through email spam.

* Most Outrageous: EstrinD. Billed as the first and only diet pill for menopausal and pre-menopausal weight gain, EstrinD hits a market of baby boomers. Targeted are "a whole generation of women … [who are] redefining age, beauty and sexuality, proving that life doesn’t end at 40." Touted to increase metabolic rate, reduce calorie intake, stop binge eating, provide energy, control mood swings, and give a sense of well being, EstrinD costs $59.00 for 30-day supply (and "as demand continues to outpace supply, don’t be surprised if you see the price go up"). Promoted with nearly full-page ad in USA WEEKEND.

* Worst Product: CortiSlim. The gimmick here falsely claims that reducing cortisol, the stress hormone, with CortiSlim will reduce abdominal and other fat. Nationally aired infomercials that began in August 2003 state that continually elevated levels of cortisol are the underlying cause of weight gain, especially abdominal obesity, and that CortiSlim causes rapid weight loss of 10 to 50 pounds from the abdomen, stomach and thighs by reducing these levels. In October 2004 the Federal Trade Commission charged the marketers of CortiSllim with false claims, and with using deceptive format in their TV infomercials, which appear to be episodes of a talk show called Breakthroughs, with the two marketers posing as host and guest, and without required "paid advertising" disclaimers. Sold through widely aired infomercials and short TV commercials, radio and print ads and Internet web sites.

* Worst Claim: Carboburn. Keying in to the waning popularity of tiresome low-carb diets, Carboburn promoters assure dieters who are still believers that cutting carbs from the diet is no longer necessary. "It doesn’t matter if you eat pizza, pasta, baked potatoes, or potato chips. CarboBurn will neutralize the carbohydrates in those foods or most any other…guaranteeing you become thinner, leaner, and maintain a good-looking youthful shape." Furthermore, it will "block the storage of fat before it attaches to your stomach, waist, thighs, buns and other trouble areas … and it doesn’t matter if you hate exercise, or can’t exercise … CarboBurn will chisel your fat away and let lean muscle shine through." Just $39.00 for one bottle of pills or three for $79.99. Advertised online through email spam.


Hospitals, health centers and educational groups across the country observe Healthy Weight Week as a welcome antidote to the unhealthy dieting and bingeing that typically begin the New Year. They encourage active healthy lifestyles through mall displays, health fairs, seminars, recreational events, radio and TV shows, and internet chat lines, says Berg.

In addition to the Slim Chance Awards, co-sponsored by Healthy Weight Network and the National Council Against Health Fraud, the week features the Women’s Diversity Awards, which honor businesses that portray an appreciation of size diversity.

For more information or for handouts and posters visit www.healthyweight.net (click Healthy Weight Week).

Please Pass the Cake

Please Pass the Cake

By Sandy Szwarc
Published 01/18/2005
TCS

"You'll have to stop this now. It's getting altogether too silly." --- comedian Graham Chapman (1941-1989)

As incredible as it sounds, nutrition is no longer the priority for the government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The new guidelines put the entire nation on a diet and its key message is "eat less and exercise more to lose weight." This certainly isn't an unprecedented idea, but decades of following this advice has also shown it doesn't work. Tragically, the unsupportable and erroneous information about weight and nutrition in these new guidelines isn't just innocuous, but will likely have harmful consequences far beyond any good it might do, especially threatening our children and elderly.

When food guides were begun over 100 years ago, the government was tasked to make recommendations on the minimum number of servings of various food groups to ensure the general population could meet the recommended dietary allowances of nutrients. People were free to choose what additional foods they wanted to enjoy to make up their energy needs. That changed in 1977 when politicians got involved and its focus became outlining the goals for federal food programs, and hence what foods would receive government funding. From then on, as a glut of special interests sought to get their piece of the money pie, it has moved further from sound science. And not surprisingly, it's become increasingly questioned among nutrition scientists and health care professionals.

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines became untenable the instant they abandoned the long-term pledge to promote better health for all Americans and instead made everything about weight. "Weight" appears 150 times in the 84-page document. We're told that being thin is more important than being healthy and that good nutrition isn't just eating a healthful balance of nutritious foods. Our focus must become counting calories, restricting what we eat, eating low-fat or fat-free foods, and what size pants we wear.

While plenty rush to capitalize on these guidelines, others want to abolish our freedom to enjoy a variety of foods of our own choosing and are using these guidelines as their grounds. Already, there are calls for the government to take more aggressive action to enforce the guidelines. A press release by the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants vigorous governmental efforts made to publicize them, increased funding for programs that promote them, laws passed to require "calorie labeling on menus at chain restaurants," and regulatory agencies to require the food industry to implement them and eliminate the use of bad fats and lower the current limits on fat and salt.

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