A Review: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat
Published 2.4.2025: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon is not a new book, but I finally decided to read it (before finishing Exercised… which I will finish… ) The book is VERY repetitive. It could have been ½ the size. I don’t disbelieve her arguments and examples, and yet, I do think she over-exaggerates a lot.
Part of the problem, for me, is that I used to read her articles she published under the pseudonym, Yrfatfriend at Medium. A lot of the book seems to be reworked posts that she’s written and published previously. But the fact is that she also says the same thing over and over, in slightly different ways. Gordon’s thesis is that fat doesn’t matter for health, period.
And even, she says if it does matter (because in actuality it does) it still shouldn’t matter. The fattest people (and she is one of them at roughly 350 pounds) should still get all of the same societal perks that smaller bodies do. Things she suggests include chairs that don’t collapse (Up to what weight? She suggests 500 lbs, but there are people larger than that), and no fat jokes of any kind, ever. There is other “rainbows and unicorns” suggestions, each as unlikely as re-purchasing chairs that are rated for 500 lbs. Never, ever, discussed by fat activists (certainly not by Gordon) is how much these changes would cost, and who pays.
She does mention that she lost a bit of weight— which I remember from the Medium posts. Later she says that the weight loss was unintentional, though that is not what I remember from the Medium posts. What I remember is that she became uncomfortable and lost a bit of weight to alleviate it. She was still fat, just not as fat. Apparently, even that is not allowed in her current framing. She never does fully flesh it out in the book, just mentions it twice.
She cohosts a podcast known as, Maintenance Phase. The conceit of the podcast is that they debunk health claims of influencers and authors. I do listen to the podcast, and several of the books and people they cover I am familiar with. I haven’t fact checked them, but nothing I’ve heard has been too egregiously wrong. Others would disagree— others who have fact checked them.
I didn’t enjoy the book because it was too repetitive, and it felt like I’d read most of it before. However, in researching for this piece, I came across a YouTuber who has addressed Gordon critically— and had opinions I'd never seen before. Graphically Alex is a YouTuber with a channel with that same name, and he has very strong reactions to Aubrey Gordon.
Alex is a formerly super morbidly obese man with thyroid issues caused by the huge weight gain, and his take is one that I haven’t seen before. He, more than anyone else, has caused me to rethink my weight loss stance. The way I lost weight would likely not work for a super morbidly obese person, because they have issues far beyond the obesity.
Basically, what I say is to begin as you mean to go on, which means eating the number of calories to support the weight you want to be. For a super morbidly obese person, this is not possible per Alex— in part because to maintain that size you have to eat over 3000 calories. And I have no reason to not believe him. He’s been morbidly obese, I have not. Cutting from over 3000 calories to a maintenance level would represent an extreme change, one that no one is liable to maintain for long.
Graphically Alex has a number of videos about Aubrey Gordon, but this one sums it up pretty well.
1. Alex thinks Aubrey is still 11 years old in her mind. She hasn’t gotten over her childhood yet.
2. Alex does NOT like Aubrey Gordon.
3. Alex has also been to Weight Watchers, and his memories doesn’t match Gordon's. Bascially, he thinks she's lying.
4. He thinks a lot of her logic is ED (eating disorder) think. I do agree with Alex that she must suffer from BED (binge eating disorder). He admits that he did. He’s channel is based on how he recovered.
5. He thinks that all morbidly obese people have ED logic (if not an actual ED).
Essentially, Graphically Alex makes me think in a way that most YouTube content does not. I think I will revisit his channel in a later piece.
Bottom line: What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat is not for someone who has ever read an article by Aubrey Gordon. There is little new in the book. The most interesting bit would have been about her weight loss, and she doesn’t cover that. I would not recommend this book. It didn’t take long to read because it’s very repetitive.
Part of the problem, for me, is that I used to read her articles she published under the pseudonym, Yrfatfriend at Medium. A lot of the book seems to be reworked posts that she’s written and published previously. But the fact is that she also says the same thing over and over, in slightly different ways. Gordon’s thesis is that fat doesn’t matter for health, period.
And even, she says if it does matter (because in actuality it does) it still shouldn’t matter. The fattest people (and she is one of them at roughly 350 pounds) should still get all of the same societal perks that smaller bodies do. Things she suggests include chairs that don’t collapse (Up to what weight? She suggests 500 lbs, but there are people larger than that), and no fat jokes of any kind, ever. There is other “rainbows and unicorns” suggestions, each as unlikely as re-purchasing chairs that are rated for 500 lbs. Never, ever, discussed by fat activists (certainly not by Gordon) is how much these changes would cost, and who pays.
She does mention that she lost a bit of weight— which I remember from the Medium posts. Later she says that the weight loss was unintentional, though that is not what I remember from the Medium posts. What I remember is that she became uncomfortable and lost a bit of weight to alleviate it. She was still fat, just not as fat. Apparently, even that is not allowed in her current framing. She never does fully flesh it out in the book, just mentions it twice.
She cohosts a podcast known as, Maintenance Phase. The conceit of the podcast is that they debunk health claims of influencers and authors. I do listen to the podcast, and several of the books and people they cover I am familiar with. I haven’t fact checked them, but nothing I’ve heard has been too egregiously wrong. Others would disagree— others who have fact checked them.
I didn’t enjoy the book because it was too repetitive, and it felt like I’d read most of it before. However, in researching for this piece, I came across a YouTuber who has addressed Gordon critically— and had opinions I'd never seen before. Graphically Alex is a YouTuber with a channel with that same name, and he has very strong reactions to Aubrey Gordon.
Alex is a formerly super morbidly obese man with thyroid issues caused by the huge weight gain, and his take is one that I haven’t seen before. He, more than anyone else, has caused me to rethink my weight loss stance. The way I lost weight would likely not work for a super morbidly obese person, because they have issues far beyond the obesity.
Basically, what I say is to begin as you mean to go on, which means eating the number of calories to support the weight you want to be. For a super morbidly obese person, this is not possible per Alex— in part because to maintain that size you have to eat over 3000 calories. And I have no reason to not believe him. He’s been morbidly obese, I have not. Cutting from over 3000 calories to a maintenance level would represent an extreme change, one that no one is liable to maintain for long.
Graphically Alex has a number of videos about Aubrey Gordon, but this one sums it up pretty well.
1. Alex thinks Aubrey is still 11 years old in her mind. She hasn’t gotten over her childhood yet.
2. Alex does NOT like Aubrey Gordon.
3. Alex has also been to Weight Watchers, and his memories doesn’t match Gordon's. Bascially, he thinks she's lying.
4. He thinks a lot of her logic is ED (eating disorder) think. I do agree with Alex that she must suffer from BED (binge eating disorder). He admits that he did. He’s channel is based on how he recovered.
5. He thinks that all morbidly obese people have ED logic (if not an actual ED).
Essentially, Graphically Alex makes me think in a way that most YouTube content does not. I think I will revisit his channel in a later piece.
Bottom line: What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat is not for someone who has ever read an article by Aubrey Gordon. There is little new in the book. The most interesting bit would have been about her weight loss, and she doesn’t cover that. I would not recommend this book. It didn’t take long to read because it’s very repetitive.
Around the Fatosphere
Published 1.28.2025: Been awhile since I checked in on the “fat-o-sphere.” So long, that I’m pretty sure that’s not the current term for it. Certainly it has changed over the years. Many blogs are now moribund, and links to them dead. Were I to go back through the archival pieces here I might remove all the dead links, but that’s not likely to happen soon.
Anyway, I’m highlighting this link because I noticed that the average size for women is now considered 18, rather than 12. A few years ago the number was 12. Pretty sure that vanity sizing still occurs, so I guess that’s an indication that Americans are still getting fatter every year? Or maybe it suggests that the 12 number was too small. In any event, it caught my attention.
Otherwise the blather about diet culture is exactly as it used to be. To whit: it’s evil, it’s pervasive, and it controls us all. Even if you think it doesn’t control you, it does. You just aren’t aware enough to notice. My own definition of diet culture is more narrow. Basically if you’re following a fad diet (low carb, keto, Whole 30, Nutritarian, WW (formerly Weight Watchers), etc.) then you are waist deep in diet culture.
The word diet can be used to define any type of eating. Elephants have a typical diet, as do pandas. Humans are different because humans can basically eat almost anything to survive, as opposed to say, cats. which have to have meat or they die. (Sorry vegans).
Read the rest.
Anyway, I’m highlighting this link because I noticed that the average size for women is now considered 18, rather than 12. A few years ago the number was 12. Pretty sure that vanity sizing still occurs, so I guess that’s an indication that Americans are still getting fatter every year? Or maybe it suggests that the 12 number was too small. In any event, it caught my attention.
Otherwise the blather about diet culture is exactly as it used to be. To whit: it’s evil, it’s pervasive, and it controls us all. Even if you think it doesn’t control you, it does. You just aren’t aware enough to notice. My own definition of diet culture is more narrow. Basically if you’re following a fad diet (low carb, keto, Whole 30, Nutritarian, WW (formerly Weight Watchers), etc.) then you are waist deep in diet culture.
The word diet can be used to define any type of eating. Elephants have a typical diet, as do pandas. Humans are different because humans can basically eat almost anything to survive, as opposed to say, cats. which have to have meat or they die. (Sorry vegans).
Read the rest.
Pandemic Conflation
Published 1.21.2025: (based on pandemic era notes, and nothing here is particularly new) Notice the sleight of hand here. Diets do work, as long as you follow them. The problem is that too many try following a diet that is not sustainable for them— it might be sustainable for others. So maybe… just maybe… people trying different diets are simply looking for the one that will suit them.
As the pandemic winds down in the US at least, people are getting up off their couches and realizing that the Covid “19” or more pounds gained is a real thing. And of course, many people will want to lose those pounds before presenting themselves to the world. I think these notes were taken before the GLP-1 shots became a common thing.
Exercise and diet ads are on the upswing, and good lord, it seems like every other person decided to become part of a multi-level-marketing scam— I mean scheme— as a side gig during the pandemic. So what? If you don’t want to diet then don’t. Not sure why the entire culture has to validate your personal choices.
In the end, this article said mostly nothing. It had a weird, abrupt ending too.
Read the rest.
As the pandemic winds down in the US at least, people are getting up off their couches and realizing that the Covid “19” or more pounds gained is a real thing. And of course, many people will want to lose those pounds before presenting themselves to the world. I think these notes were taken before the GLP-1 shots became a common thing.
Exercise and diet ads are on the upswing, and good lord, it seems like every other person decided to become part of a multi-level-marketing scam— I mean scheme— as a side gig during the pandemic. So what? If you don’t want to diet then don’t. Not sure why the entire culture has to validate your personal choices.
In the end, this article said mostly nothing. It had a weird, abrupt ending too.
Read the rest.
It's not really bodily positive.
Published on 1.14.2024: Gabriella Lascano is back. In 2023, she told the truth about being obese, and health issues. In 2024, she gave a TED talk about the whole issue. The Body Positivity folks turned on her massively. I didn’t know that she’d lost a friend to health issues related to obesity, and that’s what occasioned the rant (which I watched at Megan Anne’s YouTube channel.) Megan was completely on board with the messaging. Note that Megan has actively tried to change her weight with weight loss surgery and now weight loss drugs.
This New York Times article more or less misses the point, I can see why Lascano was disappointed with it. It says not much about anything, but only briefly mentions Lascano.
Obese to Beast includes a Gabriella Lascano not-TED talk, because for copyright reasons he couldn’t react to the TED talk. In the talk, Lascano is backing away from her original statement, because she was shunned in the Body Positivity movement, and it like affected her income level. It’s too bad that she feels she needs to back away from her statements, which again, I totally agree with. But I don’t make my money as a plus size influencer.
Note: the links in this piece are to YouTube/video channels, all of which were still live at the time of publication. Apparently, people don’t like to read anymore, so blogs/websites don’t get updated. yet another way I am out of sync with the culture, as I still prefer to read.
So much of what passes for commentary is on TikTok, which I refuse to use. I have it on my phone for when my daughter sends me things to view, but in general I avoid it.
Read the rest.
This New York Times article more or less misses the point, I can see why Lascano was disappointed with it. It says not much about anything, but only briefly mentions Lascano.
Obese to Beast includes a Gabriella Lascano not-TED talk, because for copyright reasons he couldn’t react to the TED talk. In the talk, Lascano is backing away from her original statement, because she was shunned in the Body Positivity movement, and it like affected her income level. It’s too bad that she feels she needs to back away from her statements, which again, I totally agree with. But I don’t make my money as a plus size influencer.
Note: the links in this piece are to YouTube/video channels, all of which were still live at the time of publication. Apparently, people don’t like to read anymore, so blogs/websites don’t get updated. yet another way I am out of sync with the culture, as I still prefer to read.
So much of what passes for commentary is on TikTok, which I refuse to use. I have it on my phone for when my daughter sends me things to view, but in general I avoid it.
Read the rest.
Eat Play Diet (A movie review)
Published 1.7.2025: I watched this Eat Play Diet on YouTube a while ago. This movie presents a range of diets introduced and talked about by a variety of so-called experts with a variety of education levels and biases, which are not formally revealed until the end of the show. The biases in several cases are very apparent, particularly in the case of the keto diet. The movie introduces and at least in the case of veganism trashes the diet. No sources are cited or listed, it’s a bunch of people giving their opinions. This movie in the end tells nothing new and breaks no new ground. I don’t know how far it was distributed, but the fact that it’s on Youtube for free might say something.
The movie starts with the standard American diet (SAD) which no one likes. The SAD is easy to diss, and diss it they do. I’m not going to try and defend the version they presented, as I don’t eat that way myself.
2. Mediterranean Diet (most people have nothing bad to say about it, except the keto wench, because, ya know, whole grains are teh ebil carbz.
3. Then they do the keto diet and the keto shill gets her time in the spotlight. She does allow that keto was intended for pediatric epilepsy patients, but tries to claim that there’s been a lot of recent data in favor of the diet. Fortunately, the dietician who liked the Med diet is there to point out that there is NO LONG TERM DATA on keto, and some of the short term data is not positive (Kevin Hall, anyone?)
Keto shill wench claims that glucose and ketones are the two sources of fuel for the body, but ignores the fact that the body prefers (by a LOT) glucose. So much so that if you maintain a keto diet for long enough, the body will eat its own protein to create glucose. (That’s what Hall’s work showed)
Read the rest.
The movie starts with the standard American diet (SAD) which no one likes. The SAD is easy to diss, and diss it they do. I’m not going to try and defend the version they presented, as I don’t eat that way myself.
2. Mediterranean Diet (most people have nothing bad to say about it, except the keto wench, because, ya know, whole grains are teh ebil carbz.
3. Then they do the keto diet and the keto shill gets her time in the spotlight. She does allow that keto was intended for pediatric epilepsy patients, but tries to claim that there’s been a lot of recent data in favor of the diet. Fortunately, the dietician who liked the Med diet is there to point out that there is NO LONG TERM DATA on keto, and some of the short term data is not positive (Kevin Hall, anyone?)
Keto shill wench claims that glucose and ketones are the two sources of fuel for the body, but ignores the fact that the body prefers (by a LOT) glucose. So much so that if you maintain a keto diet for long enough, the body will eat its own protein to create glucose. (That’s what Hall’s work showed)
Read the rest.
Southpark and Ozempic
12.31.2024: I watched the episode (first South Park I’ve watched in years. Apparently it’s no longer on Comedy Central (which is a cable television network here in the US)? I watched it as part of my Amazon Prime membership. I watched it because it was discussed on a podcast I listen to, and I wanted to see it before listening.
Lizzo is mentioned as the alternative drug to Ozempic, where you learn not to give a fuck about your weight (swearing is used in the show. I don’t remember is Comedy Central allowed them to swear). However, NONE of the people who are using ANY of the drugs in this show are obese. In fact, the conceit is that Cartman (who is clinically obese) can’t get access to the drug because his insurance won’t pay for it and his mother can’t afford it.
They give a very accurate portrayal of dealing with the US insurance system.
The issue here is the conflation between being overweight and being morbidly obese. MOST fat activists are morbidly obese, ore at least clinically obese. (the so-called Death Fat and all that). People who are just overweight do not need to be on these drugs, and probably could not give a fuck as the Lizzo drug would have it.
Read the rest.
Lizzo is mentioned as the alternative drug to Ozempic, where you learn not to give a fuck about your weight (swearing is used in the show. I don’t remember is Comedy Central allowed them to swear). However, NONE of the people who are using ANY of the drugs in this show are obese. In fact, the conceit is that Cartman (who is clinically obese) can’t get access to the drug because his insurance won’t pay for it and his mother can’t afford it.
They give a very accurate portrayal of dealing with the US insurance system.
The issue here is the conflation between being overweight and being morbidly obese. MOST fat activists are morbidly obese, ore at least clinically obese. (the so-called Death Fat and all that). People who are just overweight do not need to be on these drugs, and probably could not give a fuck as the Lizzo drug would have it.
Read the rest.
A Review: A Magic Pill
Published 12.24.2024: Again, I didn't finish Exercised, but instead I read the book. Magic Pill by Johann Hari. The following is my “review”, more accurately my thoughts while reading it. I heard a podcast interview with him, which is why I chose to read the book. The podcast (which I watched on YouTube) is called, Diary of a CEO. Overall, it’s not the podcast for me, but this interview was interesting, and it was months old.
The book goes through the science of Glucagon Like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs, but also weaves into the tale of his experiences of being fat and of having fat friends and family, some of whom died from the complications of being obese.
Shelley Bovey is a name I didn’t know, but she was a big Fat Pride person in the UK, and Hari talked to her. This is after she decided to lose a bit of weight (she’s still fat, just not as fat) and she ran into the HAES (Health At Every Size) people who believe that losing weight “eradicating” yourself is never justified, weight can only increase. Well, she slowly lost 7 stone, which is almost 100 lbs. She is 5’2” tall.
This is her website, on which she has collected a number of articles. The site doesn’t allow for deep linking. Basically, she came to realize that it’s not against the body to want to be healthy and active. She actually went to a slimming club “Slimming World” — which I think is the UK version of weight watchers. She goes through how she lost her weight (in a calorie deficit) all the while noting that “diets don’t work” and that you can’t follow them for the longterm. Which is just bunk. She IS following a diet, and still pays attention to what she eats so as not to regain the weight.
Read the rest.
The book goes through the science of Glucagon Like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs, but also weaves into the tale of his experiences of being fat and of having fat friends and family, some of whom died from the complications of being obese.
Shelley Bovey is a name I didn’t know, but she was a big Fat Pride person in the UK, and Hari talked to her. This is after she decided to lose a bit of weight (she’s still fat, just not as fat) and she ran into the HAES (Health At Every Size) people who believe that losing weight “eradicating” yourself is never justified, weight can only increase. Well, she slowly lost 7 stone, which is almost 100 lbs. She is 5’2” tall.
This is her website, on which she has collected a number of articles. The site doesn’t allow for deep linking. Basically, she came to realize that it’s not against the body to want to be healthy and active. She actually went to a slimming club “Slimming World” — which I think is the UK version of weight watchers. She goes through how she lost her weight (in a calorie deficit) all the while noting that “diets don’t work” and that you can’t follow them for the longterm. Which is just bunk. She IS following a diet, and still pays attention to what she eats so as not to regain the weight.
Read the rest.
Fiber Fueled… The book reviewed
Published 11.19.2024: The next book I intended to read was Excercised by Daniel Lieberman. However, I finished the book, Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz MD first. And by finished, I mean the parts before his diet/recipes started.
The conceit of the book is that people need to eat more fiber to heal their gut. I was interested in reading his view, because I am thinking about altering my eating plan. As is evident from the writings here, I've been following the 5:2 Eating Plan as designed by Michael Moseley (RIP) since about July of this year. The 5:2 Eating Plan has been a success and I've lost a bit of weight (which was the point of adopting the plan in the first place).
However, I have also developed a bit gastrointestinal issues related to the eating plan, specifically related to the fasting I'd been doing 2 days a week. Basically I skipped breakfast and lunch and ate a regular dinner. It was not difficult to follow, and, to repeat myself, I lost weight doing it. But getting adequate fiber on fasting days proved difficult (due to my particular circumstances) and the lack of fiber began to have unpleasant consequences. Yes, I know that's vague, but I really don't think I want to put all of my medical issues online. Suffice it to say, changes must be made.
That said, I still need to lose a bit more weight. If the 5:2 isn't possible, then I need to figure out a different way to cut the amount of calories I eat, and I'd very much like to solve the gut issues. Mostly I think that I need to eat more fiber, hence the reading of Fiber Fueled. And with that, anyone with a passing knowledge of the human body will likely know what the gastrointestinal issue is… and why I need to change what I'm doing.
Read the rest.
The conceit of the book is that people need to eat more fiber to heal their gut. I was interested in reading his view, because I am thinking about altering my eating plan. As is evident from the writings here, I've been following the 5:2 Eating Plan as designed by Michael Moseley (RIP) since about July of this year. The 5:2 Eating Plan has been a success and I've lost a bit of weight (which was the point of adopting the plan in the first place).
However, I have also developed a bit gastrointestinal issues related to the eating plan, specifically related to the fasting I'd been doing 2 days a week. Basically I skipped breakfast and lunch and ate a regular dinner. It was not difficult to follow, and, to repeat myself, I lost weight doing it. But getting adequate fiber on fasting days proved difficult (due to my particular circumstances) and the lack of fiber began to have unpleasant consequences. Yes, I know that's vague, but I really don't think I want to put all of my medical issues online. Suffice it to say, changes must be made.
That said, I still need to lose a bit more weight. If the 5:2 isn't possible, then I need to figure out a different way to cut the amount of calories I eat, and I'd very much like to solve the gut issues. Mostly I think that I need to eat more fiber, hence the reading of Fiber Fueled. And with that, anyone with a passing knowledge of the human body will likely know what the gastrointestinal issue is… and why I need to change what I'm doing.
Read the rest.
Burning up CICO
Published 11.7.2024: I finally read Herman Pontzer’s book, Burn. And after doing so listened to a few podcasts where he discussed his work. This article I found pinned to his Twitter (or whatever it’s called when you read this).
This is the company he set up to do doubly labelled water (DLW) for the general population. In Burn, He goes over what DLW is and how they measure the calories that are burned. He goes all the way back to the inventor of DLW, who was working in mice, so the amounts were small. DLW is (still) pretty expensive, and humans need a lot more of it than mice. I think that’s (in part) the purpose behind the company, bring the costs down.
I still think his ideas are a little too clever by half… I think it IS possible to get the body to burn more calories, but I will agree that the average person does not. That was my attitude as I started the book, but I have to admit, I found his arguments hard to refute in total.
For the average person, the body seems to strive to stay at the same calorie burn. So if you exercise, the body will compensate by turning down the burn elsewhere. That’s the gist of the constrained energy model.
The model resulted from his studies of the Hazda, a tribe in Africa that (mostly) follows a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (interactions with other cultures has begun to change the tribe). They did normalize the smaller Hadza results by only considering lean body mass. Apparently fat mass is less metabolically significant. Hadza are much smaller and leaner than western humans.
Read the rest.
This is the company he set up to do doubly labelled water (DLW) for the general population. In Burn, He goes over what DLW is and how they measure the calories that are burned. He goes all the way back to the inventor of DLW, who was working in mice, so the amounts were small. DLW is (still) pretty expensive, and humans need a lot more of it than mice. I think that’s (in part) the purpose behind the company, bring the costs down.
I still think his ideas are a little too clever by half… I think it IS possible to get the body to burn more calories, but I will agree that the average person does not. That was my attitude as I started the book, but I have to admit, I found his arguments hard to refute in total.
For the average person, the body seems to strive to stay at the same calorie burn. So if you exercise, the body will compensate by turning down the burn elsewhere. That’s the gist of the constrained energy model.
The model resulted from his studies of the Hazda, a tribe in Africa that (mostly) follows a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (interactions with other cultures has begun to change the tribe). They did normalize the smaller Hadza results by only considering lean body mass. Apparently fat mass is less metabolically significant. Hadza are much smaller and leaner than western humans.
Read the rest.
Blue Zones Turn Out to be BS
Published 9.17.2024: Sadly, the Blue Zones (areas of the globe where people were thought to be longer-lived) turns out to have been a "just-so" story, or more precisely, a major long term pension fraud.
Turns out that the best way to live to 110 is to not report your death at 86 and allow your family to continue to collect government money. It helps if you don't have a birth certificate (or if the second world war destroyed all the records). I had heard this before, but with the 2024 awarding of the Ig Noble Awards (the researcher that discovered the truth of the Blue Zones won one) the lack of evidence behind the Blue Zones is being disseminated far and wide.
Netflix recently had a (I think it's the second) special about the Blue Zones, and Dan Buettener starred in it. He's the author who "discovered" the Blue Zones for National Geographic, and has been living off that discovery for years, writing books, giving talks and starring in documentaries. And it's all (apparently) bull feces.
I admit I was taken in by the just-so story, and I bought the Blue Zones book. I've also watched a number of specials and videos about the Blue Zones. So I guess you could say that I was "all in." This is the first time I've heard that the Blue Zone data didn't add up, but this is the first time that the results are being touted widely.
Read the rest.
Turns out that the best way to live to 110 is to not report your death at 86 and allow your family to continue to collect government money. It helps if you don't have a birth certificate (or if the second world war destroyed all the records). I had heard this before, but with the 2024 awarding of the Ig Noble Awards (the researcher that discovered the truth of the Blue Zones won one) the lack of evidence behind the Blue Zones is being disseminated far and wide.
Netflix recently had a (I think it's the second) special about the Blue Zones, and Dan Buettener starred in it. He's the author who "discovered" the Blue Zones for National Geographic, and has been living off that discovery for years, writing books, giving talks and starring in documentaries. And it's all (apparently) bull feces.
I admit I was taken in by the just-so story, and I bought the Blue Zones book. I've also watched a number of specials and videos about the Blue Zones. So I guess you could say that I was "all in." This is the first time I've heard that the Blue Zone data didn't add up, but this is the first time that the results are being touted widely.
Read the rest.
HAES is (finally) dying
9.2.2024: Health at Every Size (HAES, often pronounced hays) is dying. I have never thought it was a good concept or worthy of respect… but the entire concept has run up against the reality of obesity drugs— whether Wegovy™ or Monjauro™— the reality is that people taking these drugs feel better, are healthier and the only thing that's changed about them is that they have lost weight. Which according to HAES was not supposed to matter one bit.
This piece (really an exultation, because I was right all along) was prompted by this piece. The author is not anti-HAES, not really, but he does acknowledge that the "fat is healthy" argument of HAES really doesn't work. It's too obvious that weight loss (even by drugs) improves the health condition of those who are overweight or obese. His suggestion is that HAES people alter their arguments, I don't know that they can.
HAES was never based on reality, and suffered greatly when Lindo Bacon was forced to renounce her leadership of the movement. They have never found an expert to replace Bacon, Ragen Chastain wanted to be that replacement, but her academic background is not as stellar as Lindo Bacon's… and that kind of thing matters. I've written about the Lindo thing before, so I won't do it again here. Suffice it to say that once she stepped back (as demanded by the audience) the death of HAES was, if not assured, more likely.
The success of obesity drugs is what really sealed it for the HAES supporters though. Apparently a new paper on HAES has been published (because it is an academic specialty at this point) and the news is not good. HAES can help with hunger, but on no other score was it a net positive (this is interpreting the piece linked above, I have not read the paper. Nor will I. I have read HAES papers in the past, I find them tedious and more or lee bereft of the data supporting their points. They see what they want to see and disregard the rest (apologies to Paul Simon).
This piece (really an exultation, because I was right all along) was prompted by this piece. The author is not anti-HAES, not really, but he does acknowledge that the "fat is healthy" argument of HAES really doesn't work. It's too obvious that weight loss (even by drugs) improves the health condition of those who are overweight or obese. His suggestion is that HAES people alter their arguments, I don't know that they can.
HAES was never based on reality, and suffered greatly when Lindo Bacon was forced to renounce her leadership of the movement. They have never found an expert to replace Bacon, Ragen Chastain wanted to be that replacement, but her academic background is not as stellar as Lindo Bacon's… and that kind of thing matters. I've written about the Lindo thing before, so I won't do it again here. Suffice it to say that once she stepped back (as demanded by the audience) the death of HAES was, if not assured, more likely.
The success of obesity drugs is what really sealed it for the HAES supporters though. Apparently a new paper on HAES has been published (because it is an academic specialty at this point) and the news is not good. HAES can help with hunger, but on no other score was it a net positive (this is interpreting the piece linked above, I have not read the paper. Nor will I. I have read HAES papers in the past, I find them tedious and more or lee bereft of the data supporting their points. They see what they want to see and disregard the rest (apologies to Paul Simon).