Lara Frater's Blog, page 30

Health care for all?

In the US, the House has passed a health care for all bill.  Now it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.  I have some problems with it, namely there is too much promotion of the idea that thin=health.  However, since fat people are particularly vulnerable to the arbitrary loss of health insurance, just due to their weight, I think that making sure everyone has some kind of health care is a good start.

So please let your senators know you want them to pass "Health care for all," but not at...

The Fat Studies Reader

The Fat Studies Reader (in which my essay "Fat Heroines in Chick-Lit: A Gateway of Acceptance in the Mainstream" appears) will be out on Wednesday.  Please buy this book.  Fat Studies will help legitimize fat people who often treated as second class citizens (in health, media, and workplace).

I was also kind enough to lend my voice to NYU Press blog in a post "Tricks, Treats and Shattering Stereotypes." 

Fat Studies, thankfully, has gotten some notice in the press.  A blog from conservative...

How many studies now?

I think we are now up to six studies that show those who have overweight BMI live the longest.  The latest study of German people show those with overweight BMI live the longest and obesity becomes less of an issue as you get older.

This goes back to my post from July about the flawed concept behind BMI.  We really do categorize people in a very narrow range of what is considered healthy without paying attention to history, genetics, or physical characteristics.  Considering that a study

Repost: Dealing with Doctors

Since it's going to be a little crazy in the next month and a half as I try to settle my house, I've decided that some weeks I will be posting my old Igigi columns.

 

The best of Igigi: Dealing with Doctors

 

We've all been to the doctor.  We've all had the weight talk.  We want to trust the doctor because they've been to medical school and we haven't.  And by and large, if something I can't understand is going on in my body, the doctor is the first person I want to ask about it. But the...

Fat Tax

For the next few weeks I will be mostly focusing on house repair and moving, so blog posts will become short and sweet, usually doing headlines.

And this week we have a dozy courtesy of the State of North Carolina who like Alabama is making you  pay extra in health insurance just because you are fat.   Even if there is nothing wrong with you.    

Plans like these who punish you for supposed bad behavior can be a dangerous slippery slope not just with health care coverage but your privacy.   I...

Worth repeating: HAES

So what's better for your body? Hating it, eating at near starvation, and over exercising to the point of injury is one possibility. Isn't it better to love it, eating normally of healthful whole foods (and occasional treats) your body agrees with and exercising your body to movement you enjoy?

The former choice is what most diets have to offer.  Most diets (yes even non-diet diets like weight watchers) encourage obsession with what you eat, hard-body exercise and fanatic devotion to the...

New blog post next Monday

Sorry for the delay.  I just bought a house!!

Toby apologizes, Jon Stewart makes a bad joke and Bill Maher isn't funny.

Dr. Toby Cosgrove of the Cleveland clinic has apologized for making remarks that he would fire or not hire fat people.  However even though Dr. Cosgrove might have realized he overstepped his bounds, this doesn't make him size friendly, nor will he stop pushing weight loss as the key to good health. 

Meanwhile Jon Stewart made an ass of himself wearing a fat suit on the Daily Show.  Apparently if you eat cheese steaks and shakes for three weeks you can double your body weight.  You also...

Health care reform without fat hatred?

As I mentioned before we need real health care reform in this country.  For fat people the public option is very important.  Why?  Because fat people who need to get private insurance on their own are often denied access due to their weight. 

Unfortunately some of the debate is heading toward the position of "If only fat people weren't so fat, we wouldn't need reform."  Former surgeon general Richard Camona and his organization STOP believe so and they are sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis (Creator...

Bad health care.

Please read this NYT article about a hospital hit by Katrina in New Orleans.  The article is disturbing but worth the read.  It is about how hospital staff, one doctor in particular may have euthanized patients rather than evacuating them.  In it you can see some of the callousness that fat people face in the medical field. Two of the patients who died were fat.  One was awake and aware but unfortunately paraplegic.  He was denied evacuation due to his size.  The worse part was this section...