Some Fat Facts
Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. Body Love Coach:
I’ve been fielding lots of comments of the “how can you be promoting fat?!” and “haven’t you heard of type II diabetes?!” variety. So I’ve decided to write this post. I’ve outlined 9 typical statements by commenters, together with an explanation of why each statement is wrong, wrong, wrong.
1) Fat is unhealthy. Fat is not inherently unhealthy. In fact, being underweight, in many ways, is more dangerous than being overweight, obese, or morbidly obese… [more]
2) Fat people all have eating disorders, eat poorly, and don’t exercise. No study has ever supported this conclusion. And let’s just get clear on something… [more]
3) If fat people would eat properly and exercise, they wouldn’t be fat. Contrary to popular opinion, people come in all shapes and sizes… [more]
4) Weight loss is a healthy goal, deserving of promotion. Not true at all. First of all, diets don’t work. They really don’t. The one or two people that you know that lost weight on a diet and kept it off for more than 5 years are statistical freaks… [more]
5) Promoting fat acceptance makes people fat. No studies have ever shown that approving and loving your body causes one to gain weight. In fact, Health At Every Size practices, which include body acceptance, actually make people healthier… [more]
6) There’s an obesity crisis going on and obesity is on the rise. Actually, it’s not… [more]
7) Childhood obesity is a serious problem. Actually, it’s not. Childhood life expectancy continues to rise —- The real danger for fat children is the threat of bullying… [more]
8) BMI is an appropriate and scientific way of determining health… [more]
9) But all of this goes against the conventional wisdom that fat is bad and deadly! Your “conventional wisdom” has been paid for by the diet industry and pharmaceutical companies for decades and decades… [more]
13 year old rejected from high school for being HIV+
Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania denied Tim (not his real name), a 13 year old boy, admission because he is HIV positive. From Change.org
Although discrimination against people living with HIV is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Milton Hersey School doesn’t deny its reasoning. The school said in a statement, “we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others” — even though science and society have known for decades that HIV is not highly contagious.
Lawrence Stallworth understands how tough it is to be a teen living with HIV — Lawrence is 20, and he found out he was HIV-positive when he was 17. Lawrence teamed up with the organization Advocates for Youth to start a petition on Change.org demanding that the Milton Hershey School admit Tim. Please sign Lawrence’s petition today.
The Milton Hershey School purports to serve “children from families of low income, limited resources, and social need.” Tim is an excellent candidate to benefit from all the school has to offer. The school’s refusal to admit him not only hurts Tim, but spreads dangerous and prejudicial misinformation about HIV.
“It shouldn’t be the responsibility of a 13-year-old boy to teach the Milton Hershey School about the science of HIV or the moral obligation educators have to meet the needs of all students,” Lawrence says. “But this young man is doing just that — and we all have a responsibility to have his back.”
The Milton Hershey School is already receiving bad publicity for its discriminatory actions, but additional public pressure is needed to show them that they can’t just wait for this problem to blow over. Please sign Lawrence’s petition demanding that the Milton Hershey School end its discrimination against a 13-year-old young man living with HIV.
This is terrible that this young kid would be discriminated against! We all have a right to education.
Society wrongly associates certain types of “bad” people and behavior with HIV/AIDS, even though the disease can be spread in several different ways and anyone could get it. The marginalization (and sometimes criminalization) of HIV+ status is so ridiculously backwards.
(via thechocolatebrigade)
