January 7, 2025 — It used to be that this was the time of year when popular culture turned its attention to weight loss season. The release of U.S. News rankings of “Best Diets” commanded media attention. Weight loss tips were everywhere. But no more is this true. No, idle talk about weight loss has not disappeared. But it […]
December 26, 2024 — This has been quite a year. We’ve seen endless death and destruction in Ukraine and the Middle East. People expressed discontent with the status quo in elections all over the world. But most notably for our readers – more than 100,000 of you this year – the progress on obesity and health has been nothing […]
December 24, 2024 — “Skinny ‘Treezempic’ Christmas trees are this year’s holiday trend,” says the Washington Post. Yes, it has finally happened. Ozempic has encroached on our favorite holiday. Tight budgets, design aesthetics, and tight living spaces are favoring extremely slender Christmas trees this year and social media has dubbed the look Treezempic. Melissa Mills, a senior vice president […]
October 15, 2024 — For several years, it looked like the fashion industry might be moving from promoting a “thin ideal” to making room for size diversity. In fact, France passed a law in 2017 to ban the use of models with unhealthy thinness in the industry. Vogue started producing an annual report in size inclusivity in 2023. But […]
August 11, 2024 — Narratives are powerful. One of the early dominant narratives of the rising demand for Ozempic and related drugs was all about Hollywood, appearances, and privilege. But Bloomberg has a counter-narrative for us. The center of gravity for Ozempic demand is not Hollywood. It’s really Bowling Green, Kentucky. The food environment here is more Waffle House […]
July 21, 2024 — Richard Simmons died last week at the age of 76 after a lifetime of making people smile and never letting the perfect be an enemy of the good. Fat Youth with Curly Hair Simmons had a distinctive body image from an early age. He was a heavy child at the age of four and knew […]
June 7, 2024 — Mandisa Lynn Hundley was an American gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist. Known simply as Mandisa, her death on April 18 this year at the age of 47 was due to complications of class 3 obesity. Though obesity is quite common and its complications are frequent causes of death, Mandisa is a rare example of […]
May 29, 2024 — Progress comes in surprising ways. Proving this point, we now have a crude cartoon – South Park – telling the world that fat jokes are too offensive and stupid to be funny. One of the primary characters, Kyle, delivers this new enlightenment in a speech to his school cafeteria: “I was wrong. I used to […]
February 28, 2024 — We are getting a bit fed up. This impatience comes with the presumption that people owe the world an explanation for their body. Is it fit enough? Is it fat enough? Are we wearing the right kind of body positive attitude? This comes from living in an excessively fat-conscious culture. But it also comes from […]
February 12, 2024 — Forget the Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift. Well before the game ever started, it was very clear who would win the Super Bowl – the snack industry. The snacking industrial complex has been locked into hyperdrive for weeks, if not months, in preparation for last night’s event. The enticements were everywhere. The clickbait was […]
