Posts

Showing posts with the label Stigmas

"Obesity Problem": Results From a Casual Google Search Term

Image
Physiological Impact of Obesity Image from Drexel University College of Medicine _____________________ I couldn't open up a magazine, you couldn't read a newspaper, you couldn't turn on the TV without hearing about the obesity epidemic in America. --Morgan Spurlock, Supersize Me Obesity: Pandemic or Nonsense? Out of curiosity, I did a search on the term "Obesity Problem," just to see what is being said in the media and medical sites. Here is what I discovered : Obesity defined: An obese person has accumulated so much body fat that it might have a negative effect on their health. If a person's body weight is at least 20% higher than it should be, he or she is considered obese. If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is between 25 and 29.9 you are considered overweight. If your BMI is 30 or over you are considered obese. -- Medical News Today Are YOU obese? Use this handy CDC widget to find out: BMI For Adults Widget According to the Nati...

Thought for the Day--May 4, 2011: STOP Stigmatizing Overweight Children

Image
The above image has been manipulated from an April 21, 2011, ad, from the website www.stopchildhoodobesity.com (see original ad below). ________________________________________ The original ad : According to Katu.com , "This advertisement, part of a 'Stop Child Obesity' campaign in Georgia, won some enthusiastic praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But they also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel the result is more stigma for an already beleaguered group of children." ________________________________ Stigma is not an effective motivator. --Rebecca Puhl, psychologist and a leading expert on weight discrimination (Yale University) "Shaming" and bullying a child into losing weight rarely works. I know this from personal experience; as a chubby child (I wasn't quite "fat," whatever that means), my well-meaning grandmother (who raised me) would often embarrass me in front of relatives, including children, in the hope tha...

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment