Life In The Fat Lane
I feel like the internet has been extra-quiet today! So maybe I'll try one of these open thread things. I don't exactly understand them, but you're a smart bunch. You probably do. So share a link, an anecdote, a pet peeve, a happy thought. Let us know what's going on out there.
I'll start: I was shopping at Sephora this weekend and buying Bliss products (I love their face wash and pore-refining scrub so much) and noticed that they had an anti-cellulite cream called Fat Girl Slim. I probably should have boycotted Bliss on general principle, because that's such a horrifying product name, but I didn't. You may use this open thread to shame me.
Please note that "Fat Girl Slim" is caffeine you rub all over yourself, and is the "skin-slimming stuff of choice of supermodels, spokespeople, and other celebs." I guess that's the upside to spilling your morning latte in your lap: it'll save you twenty-five bucks.
I'll start: I was shopping at Sephora this weekend and buying Bliss products (I love their face wash and pore-refining scrub so much) and noticed that they had an anti-cellulite cream called Fat Girl Slim. I probably should have boycotted Bliss on general principle, because that's such a horrifying product name, but I didn't. You may use this open thread to shame me.
Please note that "Fat Girl Slim" is caffeine you rub all over yourself, and is the "skin-slimming stuff of choice of supermodels, spokespeople, and other celebs." I guess that's the upside to spilling your morning latte in your lap: it'll save you twenty-five bucks.
21 Comments:
"skin-slimming"?
Great, now my skin can be fat, not just my bum? I know it's a pun on Fatboy Slim, but still, it's an awful product name.
Um. Random open-thread comment: I just bought underpants without an "L" in the size marker! (they're medium) this feels as though it should have been accompanied by fanfares and stuff, but it wasn't. Not like the time I teared up in a Banana Republic dressing room because I finally fit "mall" sizes again (sometimes).
Of course if the stores routinely stocked size 18 or 20 I would never have felt it was such a landmark to fit into the size 16s.
Anybody else have a random milestone this week?
Oh! I forgot, I saw a news piece on how baby car seats need to be made bigger, because of all the "obese" babies.
I know there's a bunch of overweight small children around, but I also think carseats probably haven't been re-scaled for decades, and kids are BIG now, not just fat. Every 2 year old I've met recently looks more like 5 to me. This whole "fat baby" news freakout makes me worry that people are going to put their teeny children on low fat diets and screw up their mental development for life. Infants and small children need the happy fats and omega-3s for proper brain development.
Mo, this is what you get for making an open thread when I'm stuck late at work waiting for a timer to go off.
No, I'm happy you're here! I sadly did not even get the "Fatboy Slim" pun, and I enjoy hearing about "obese babies" because COME ON, PEOPLE. That's just crazy!
Here's a link to the car seat story:
I have to disagree with Rosemary, I do think this is an issue for concern. It would be one thing if children were simply getting bigger because of historical malnutrition, but that is not the case. It's true that children need to eat fat for proper development, but a diet that is too high in fat and calories can be just as harmful.
like rosemary grace, i too, just bought a package of underwear that had an M on it rather than an L, and bought a bunch of clothes that fit me and look good on me, and i realized that i am only about five pounds away from the promised land of size 10, and i write promised land of size 10, because everything i found that i liked that was out of my size 12 had a boatload of size 10 left.
and i read that obese baby thing, too, mo. we need a fat version of susan powter to scream "stop the madness!" at television cameras
I think it's mildly harmful to tell children what size they're "supposed" to be. Apart from anything else, pre-pubertal size doesn't always translate to adult size (this goes for build and height). I know plenty of people who were chubby as kids, but grew out of it - and the reverse. On the other side of the coin there's the self-fulfilling prophecy - those of us who thought we were fat as teenagers, even though we weren't. Yet.
As for me, I was a tall child (I had a predicted adult height of 5'10). But I was also an early developer, so my actual adult height is 5'5. Whereupon I've spent a long time with the insidious feeling that I ought to be taller than this, even though 5'5's not exactly short.
I'm rambling. But I think if I was the parent, I'd prefer to do my best to provide healthy food and opportunities to have a good time being active, rather than creating body anxiety where it might not have existed before.
Oh, Bliss, you cheeky monkey!
Have you also seen that new Loreal drugstore product "Sublime Slim Patches"
http://www.ulta.com/control/product/~product_id=2123891
Yeah. Slap a patch on your "trouble spots". Give me a huge break.
I don't see how these companies can push these topical products KNOWING that they DO NOT WORK. We can't rub something on us to make cellulite or loose skin go away -- even though I slather tummy butter on my shrinking tummy with the superstitious hope that since pregnant women use this it will help me to avoid that shar-pei look. I admit I'm a dork.
YAY for smaller panties! My problem is that while my panties are the same size, it's my bras that are loose, and not the cups, the back band. Luckily, I have a wardrobe of bras in all different sizes so I have a few I can go back down to.
RE: Fat kids/babies -- I know from those in my life with kids that they have to plop kids into car seats until they're 4 or something like that. I have seen some pretty chunky 4 year olds.
My theory is that kids don't play outside anymore. Parents are worried about molesters, child snatchers, killer bees, alien abduction, whatever threatening that's out there and beyond supervision. My Mom locked us out of the house when it was nice out saying, "Kids belong outside!" I attribute my youthful slenderness to the fact that I was very active as a kid. I didn't get fat until I found beer in college.
I saw an ad for "Honey we're killing the kids" on TLC last night:
http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/honey/honey.html?dcitc=w99-530-ah-0017
And I've set my Tivo to record it. First showing is April 10. "Using state-of-the-art computer imaging and certified assessments based on measurements and statistics, Dr. Hark first gives Mom and Dad a frightening look at the possible future faces of their children – and a dramatic reality check."
The commercial was amusing, I hope the show is too.
K, I agree with what you're saying, but in this case, we're talking about carseat-aged children, kids who are 2, 3, 4, 5 years old. Children this age generally are fed by their parents, they don't feed themselves, so if kids this age are getting heavier, I think it's a sign that some of these parents are not teaching their kids to eat healthfully and moderately. This is especially concerning because early childhood is a time when lifelong food preferences and eating habits are established. Of course, some kids are going to naturally tend to be heavier than others, but as a population, there's no good reason why American kids today should be heavier than they were a generation ago. And obviously, as with any habit you try to reinforce in a child, there are better and worse ways to go about it!
I realize that I didn't give any weight (har har) to the genuine concern that children are being over-fed and under-nourished. It's pretty clear that it is a real problem, there's a whole generation of parents who think that "good food" means stuff that's yummy, not neccesarily nutritious, and there is the astonishing new rates of type II diabetes developing in children and adolescents, when it used to be something that hit most sufferers in their 40s or later.
But.
The storm in a teacup reportage about fat babies and obese toddlers is, in my opinion, likely to make matters worse. Useful information on real nutritional needs of children (along with double checking that there are carseats available scaled to fit the kids that need 'em) is what's needed, not guilt trips and panic attacks that could lead to people switching from over-feeding to under-feeding their kids.
My problem with the carseat article was the one sided panicky message, and lack of practical suggestions of how to address the problem.
My contribution to the open thread: Christopher Walken Enjoys Pie
This is unrelated but I just saw it and it kind of terrified me a little bit... Has anyone seen the picture of Julia Roberts on CNN? (Under "entertainment") Maybe it's just because it's her first time on broadway and that can be extremely physically demanding, but it looks like she has lost an inordinate amount of weight. How does ones chin even GET that pointy? I've always thought she was pretty- not unbelievably gorgeous, but pretty. In that picture she just looks scary.
I went and looked at the Julia Roberts picture, and thought the same thing you did about the scary pointy chin. When you look closer though, her shirt/scarf (hard to tell which) is covering up part of her chin, so she's really not as scary as she initially looks.
As far as the obese children go, well, we have not altered our genetic structure that much in the last 30 years, guys. And all around you (or at least I) can see people taking their youngsters, even at ages where traditionally they'd just be being introduced to solid foods (well, almost), out for pizza and burgers. Its kinda scary. Especially at pizza buffets like Gattitown. [shudder]
Christopher Walken is awesome.
I see some really fat babies. I was in line to get some Diet Coke at McD's the other day (I love the crushed ice) and I saw a mother feeding a 1-year-old (so it seemed) Coke in the sippy cup and French fries. The baby was looking obese. But I also see a bunch of babies who are just way too tall and big for their age, and that are in no way fat. I just purchased an outfit for a friend's 3-year-old for his birthday. I had to buy the Age 6 size, cause the Age 4 wouldn't have fit, and this kid is so skinny the mother is constantly feeding him weight-gain bottles. I have another friend who has a 5-year-old who is 4'5". She looks like an 8-year-old. She is not fat in any way.
Rosemary, I've never bought underpants or pantyhose that weren't an "L". Not even when I weighed 115lb. It was 115lb of booty, I guess. Even though I could buy pants in a 6, and they say that "M" is "6 and 8", I could never fit the "M".
Jan, I am your opposite in the pants/knickers confusion. I still wear size 16 pants, but the most generously cut of my "L" knickers are too loose. Most of them are still fine though. This is extra strange because the majority of my weight is in the bum-thigh area.
Go figure.
Eeeeek @ fries and coke for a 1 year old. This is what I meant about people just plain having NO CLUE what is appropriate food for a baby.
The California health board has started airing commercials to get the message out to parents that kids shouldn't eat junk food, and to really think about how often "just this once" is happeneing. I would like to see the commercials go beyond "junk is a bad idea" and show the kids being handed fruit and baby carrot sticks, to enforce a positive message and give some ideas as to what can replace the junk.
Jan, my thought is that it may not so much be the fat in the food as it is the CRAP in the food that the body can't use. For more, read "Fast Food Nation".
I gave up Bliss when one of their operators tried to upsell me when I was on the massage table. Plus I found out that parabens are carcinogens. So now I use Aubrey Organics and Carol's Daughter, that are all natural and have lovely scents like rosa mosqueta and vanilla cinnamon, and all my friends say I look fabulous (although they could be fibbing -- that's what friends are supposed to say even if you haven't slept in months, right?).
Rosemary, I think in my case it must be the hips. It is always the side elastic that is too small in an M, not the back. That also explains why losing weight doesn't change my size need much, since it is bone.
I was horrified too, but I see this type of thing constantly. Tiny babies being fed crap. Heck if you don't have time/want to cook real food for the baby, at least buy a jar of baby food. Don't feed it fries, sheesh.
littlem, I've been saying this for years, and nobody believes me. It is not about the calories or fat, it is about not eating *processed food*. Besides all the frankenfood ingredients like "inverted sugar" etc. (Have you heard the Animaniacs "Watch What You Eat" song? They read all the artificial ingredients on a pot of ice cream and tell kids to watch what they eat. Awesome), there is also the fact that processed foods do not fill you up at all. If I make cookies at home, I eat 3 small ones and I feel full. If I bought a pack of cookies, I'd eat the whole damn pack and be hungry an hour later.
I used to count calories and live under a strict diet to maintain my weight, but once I just cut out all the crap and started eating only real foods, like homemade bread and not "low-calorie high-fiber bread", I can eat what I want and maintain weight.
Rosemary, I think in my case it must be the hips. It is always the side elastic that is too small in an M, not the back. That also explains why losing weight doesn't change my size need much, since it is bone.
I was horrified too, but I see this type of thing constantly. Tiny babies being fed crap. Heck if you don't have time/want to cook real food for the baby, at least buy a jar of baby food. Don't feed it fries, sheesh.
littlem, I've been saying this for years, and nobody believes me. It is not about the calories or fat, it is about not eating *processed food*. Besides all the frankenfood ingredients like "inverted sugar" etc. (Have you heard the Animaniacs "Watch What You Eat" song? They read all the artificial ingredients on a pot of ice cream and tell kids to watch what they eat. Awesome), there is also the fact that processed foods do not fill you up at all. If I make cookies at home, I eat 3 small ones and I feel full. If I bought a pack of cookies, I'd eat the whole damn pack and be hungry an hour later.
I used to count calories and live under a strict diet to maintain my weight, but once I just cut out all the crap and started eating only real foods, like homemade bread and not "low-calorie high-fiber bread", I can eat what I want and maintain weight.
first of all when you see a fat child and someone feeding them a so called junk food drink or food, you are assuming that is how the kid eats all the time, judging it as it were without knowing all the facts. just because the kid is fat, if the child was thin would the assumption be the same?
second junk food doesn't hurt you unless that is all you eat. second not all people who are fat eat alot of junk, and vice versa not all thin people don't eat alot of junk food (speaking from expereinces here).
children are not fat due to junk food or any other food, but they are in a society, and it affects parents too, that stigmatizes overweight, and this affects how they treat their kids, putting them on diets until the kid cries so much they get tired of it and give the child whatever it wants, and naturally a overhungry child is going to crave junk food (high caloires in easy to process form to minimize calorie usage to process it to have extra to store).
for example, a kid comes home from school, and it has been at least 3 hours since lunch, where the kid is not really given that much to eat, or maybe they are given alot of poor quality caloires all the time, and wants to eat, what does the parent usually due, don't eat you will spoil your dinner, and dinner is 2 hours a way.
a long time for a young developing body, that probably spent an hour at recess playing outside or whatnot. instead of giving the kid a glass of milk and banana or a bowl of cereal to hold him or her till dinner they tell the child to quit whinning,
so by the time the kid gets to eat, they are totally starved, and have already have make up to do, according to their bodies, and when the parents give them a certain portion of food that usually translates into not enough to do that make up eating and the child ends up wanting ice cream or junk food, and they cry and whin until they get it,
this is their bodies survival instincts in action. same principle as affects us adults who are dieting, knowingly or not restricting as it were whether conscious of it or not.
I think balance is needed, and instead of blaming certain foods or exercise or lack thereof, focuse needs to be on what is really the cultprit here, and it is more complex then just too much junk or not enough exercise or whatever.
I have seen people who put away alot of food both real foods and junk who are thin who do not do a lick of exercise, and those who barly eat, exercise and are all flabby fat!
so instead of commenting about how others are feeding themselves or their kids, (simply because you view them in a fast food joint where you only see them for a few seconds and never seen them again or know them personally).
focuse should be on the fact that fat itself is not a disease, but the cruelty over it and the hype and harm it causes is a disease, a disease of alarmism, which is not new, there was a time that people were convinced black people were demons, or animals that need strict controls and were incapable of being human in the sense that they understood it to mean.
there was a time jews were blamed for all the ills of the society in germany, people were absolutly convinved of it, but it was all hype and alarmism, finding blame outside of the elites, those in power who are afraid, of those who are differnt them they are.
after the fat scare dies down in the future they will focus on something else, in fact the scare on too much sun, people who get too much sun are costing americans millions of dollars in sun related diseases, so they want to divise ways to force people to stay out of the sun.
one person said why not build satillites that block the sun and those who need the sun like farmers can pay a premium to gain access to it or make people who want to expose themselves to it to pay a subscriptions or something.
sounds ridiciulous, but remember with the global warming thing they have already devised ideas of creating shawdows over the earth to help cool the earth.
so that naturally means blocking the sunlight, which to me is cruel, the sun is a wonderful thing, and everything thrives in it, and of couse they will cite statitistics to prove sun exposure kills, but they will cite that lack of it kills just as much.
RR
Roberta, I think it is appalling that a child is being fed fast food when it can't even walk - regardless of the child being overweight or skinny. It is simply not nutritious enough, and small kids can only eat small amounts, so yes, they need nutritious food. This is not anti-fat diet dogma, it is a fact.
I need around 2,500 calories a day to maintain my weight. If I eat 500 of it from junk, I can still get the nutrients I need from the other 2,000 calories, so yes, fast food would not have as terrible an effect as it would on a young child (never mind that I and everyone else on this example would feel much better if the calories came from REAL FOOD, like potatoes and steak, instead of hamburger on processed white bread).
I know for a fact that eating junk food does not a fat person make. I've always been a real food kind of person - I don't like Cheetos or popcorn or any other kind of snack, give me a plate of rice and beans or a bowl of homemade vegetable soup instead and I'm much happier. And I was morbidly obese anyway, so no, eating junk doesn't mean fatness and not eating it doesn't mean thinness. In fact I only got into processed crap junk foods when I was trying to lose weight, cause I was lured by the whole "low-fat" this, "low-cal" that.
I don't think kids should be put on diets as in restrictive calorie diets (unless of course the kid has Prader-Willis syndrome, or it will literally eat to death), but yes, they should be put on *healthy* diets. I don't mean healthy as in "excuse to only eat celery as a means to lose weight", but healthy as in feeding it nutritious foods regardless of calories. You know, the crazy old concept of baby food. Meat and vegetables and fruit and dairy and cereal. Like parents used to make or at least buy in a little jar.
I totally agree with you on feeding kids every 3 hours. That is another thing that was commonly done in the old days and now people forget about it. All these things that were common sense, like giving the kids cod liver oil "cause it makes you smart" and spinach "cause it makes you strong", and real foods every 3h, now are seen as some crazy alternative medicine thing, and they used to be the norm.
I completely agree with you on the alarmism, especially cause most people deemed as "fat" today are totally normal-sized, as in, are sizes that have always existed in society and are not a result of our "lack of exercise and modern junk foods". They lump in all the "overweight" and "obese" people in the same stats, but I doubt that most of the people even in the obese category are unhealthy. Heck, some in the morbidly obese category are probably healthy too. All they wanna do is say stuff like "48% are now fat" and other crazy stuff like that.
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