"No Longer Defensible" Post from Fat and Not Afraid Blog

This blog gets better each time I read it! Be sure to read the comments, too.

“No Longer Defensible”

June 25, 2013

 

 I don’t think there is a person who is connected to the wider world somehow (e.g., internet, evening news, newspapers) who doesn’t know that the AMA declared obesity a disease this week.  Many Fat Acceptance bloggers have written about it.
In the same week that this is happening, Time Magazine posted an online article about, well, about a sort of Fat Acceptance.  Oh, they didn’t call it that, but that’s what it was.

Declining Life Span In Women Confuses Scientists - Not Me

I just saw this news report this morning and just shook my head in disbelief:

Study shows declining life span for some US women
Mar 4, 4:07 PM (ET)
By MIKE STOBBE

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study offers more compelling evidence that life expectancy for some  U.S. women is actually falling, a disturbing trend that experts can't explain.

The latest research found that women age 75 and younger are dying at higher rates than previous years in nearly half of the nation's counties - many of them rural and in the South and West. Curiously, for men, life expectancy has held steady or improved in nearly all counties.

The study is the latest to spot this pattern, especially among disadvantaged white women. Some leading theories blame higher smoking rates, obesity and less education, but several experts said they simply don't know why.

I know why, and so does any fat woman in America today. There's a whole blog out there describing the treatment we get when we go to doctors with our medical complaints.  Everything is blamed on our fat. If we are above the "normal" BMI we're not taken seriously, and the treatment for our complaints is always "lose weight," whether we present with a broken arm or chest pains. 

Read the blog First, Do No Harm if you don't believe me. "Normies" will be aghast at the treatment those people received at the hands of their doctors while fat people will nod their heads and say, "Yep, that happened to me, many times." I can add a few stories of my own if I wanted to, most notably the cardiologist who told me I had a heart attack when I didn't because, he admitted, he thought hearing that would scare me into losing weight. Nice, especially when the cardiac problem I DID have was the result of the extreme stress I had in my life at the time. He didn't think the fat lady would have copies of all the tests he ran that showed what I did or didn't have so he couldn't bullshit me. He got mad at me when I refused to see his friend, the head of the bariatric surgery department of the hospital, for a consultation. And even though I had the lab work in my hands that proved it, he didn't believe I was following a very low fat, whole foods, plant based food plan prior to my hospitalization, because "vegans aren't fat."

These people in the study didn't die of obesity but of neglect and malpractice. There are thousands of doctors out there like that cardiologist.

People like those doctors make women afraid to see a doctor when something really is wrong. Women have died of heart attacks and ruptured aneurysms, ruptured appendices, various cancers, etc., because they were afraid to see their doctor when they had pain, because they knew it would be blamed on their weight and not given any diagnosis or treatment, so they lived with the symptoms. Until they didn't.

And what about the fat people who believe what their doctors tell them, that their fat is the cause of their ills, and go through desperate measures to get rid of the fat and die as the result? Women who take unsafe over-the-counter stimulants to "boost their metabolism." Women who over exercise and undereat and overstress their bodies which may lead to sudden death from heart attacks or electrolyte imbalances. Women who ingest tapeworm tablets. Women who have their healthy intestines and stomachs amputated in hopes that less digestion leads to weight loss. You know, weight loss surgeries. These procedures rob the body of needed nutrients, which lead to all sorts of medical problems, and for many, early death, earlier than if they just stayed fat in the first place. And don't forget those who die on the operating table or within the first 48 hours. Those are the only deaths counted as caused by the surgery itself. Statistics aren't kept on those who die months or a few years later from all the complications even if they're from the surgical procedure, such as ruptured suture lines, infections at the suture site that never healed because the body doesn't have the nutrition to defend itself, leaking of gastric material into the abdominal cavity from internal sutures or staples that weren't done right or ripped, etc. Those deaths are attributed to the person's fat, not the surgery.

On the opposite end of the weight spectrum are the anorexics and other women with eating disorders. The treatment failure rate is high, and many times leads to unnecessary deaths, all because they feared getting fat.

And let's not forget the young Type 1 diabetics who skip their insulin, not because they're tired of injecting themselves or have a death wish, but because they know insulin improves the metabolism of the food they eat, which leads to weight gain, so if they don't take their insulin they'll lose weight. 

Some women will do anything to lose a few pounds, even risk death. And scientists wonder why the death rate is going up in "certain" women, especially obese ones! Just look at how society treats us and they'll know why!

The Fantasy of Being Thin

Google it, the "Fantasy of Being Thin" - you'll find hundreds of sites telling you that you don't have to be thin(ner) to get what you want out of life or even be healthy. I believed it for a number of years, getting heavily involved in Fat Acceptance, the Health at Every/Any Size Movement, all the fat and "intuitive eating" blogs and forums and mailing lists, including Overcoming Overeating. I really, really want to believe in it all.

But I've been having a heck of a hard time.

Yes, for a lot of people, and for me for many years when younger, it IS possible to be perfectly healthy with an abundance of pounds on the body, including being double or more of what the height/weight charts say you should weigh for optimal health.

Then I got older. My previously perfect lab numbers started changing for the worse, no matter how I changed my daily diet (no-added fat, plant strong, the diet President Clinton and Rosie O'Donnell *said* they were doing then slid off of). Unlike them, I don't add oil or eat fish - I follow the food plan 100% about 99% of the time and HAVE been for a number of years, long before Forks Over Knives. While other people started dropping their weight like sweat off a fat lady in August (Yeah, like ME on even a warm day in winter), I'm still fat, and even gained a few pounds over the years, and although my lab numbers got a bit better they didn't get that much better. Every nutritional expert I consulted with told me I have to lose weight before those numbers will improve any more, and not the "5 pounds make a big difference" weight loss, but at least half my body size type weight loss.

It's not like I haven't tried, but what more do they expect me to do? Eat less, move more. Yeah, yeah. I've been hearing that since infancy, when my formula was watered down because I gained 3 pounds overnight in the newborn nursery. I was on calorie restricted diets as a baby, toddler, child, pre-teen, teen, young adult, and middle-aged adult. I'm now approaching my senior years and still hear the same tired spiel.

I want it to stop. I want to be left alone.

What? The Doctor Doesn't Like the Results?

Ah, the "childhood obesity" and "obese baby" epidemic. The parents are probably following the advice given to them by the mass media to prevent OGGABOOGA DEATHFATZ!! in their baby and some sane person in the doctor's office finally pointed out that the baby is looking a bit too thin and he figured be better cover his ass and say he told them to feed her more.

I feel for the parents. They're damned, and probably threatened by CPS with child abuse, if they feed her normally and she gains a lot, damned - and arrested - when they don't and she remains thin.

Appleton couple charged with neglect
11:19 PM, Nov. 12, 201

APPLETON — An Appleton couple have been charged with felony child neglect for withholding food from their 14-month-old daughter against the repeated advice of doctors.

A criminal complaint alleges that Christopher and Mary Sultze of Appleton failed to heed advice from several medical professionals that their daughter needed to be fed more food due to concerns with her low weight and failure to thrive during regular well baby visits and special checkups.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday before Outagamie County Judge Dee Dyer for Mary Sultze, who remains in jail under a $10,000 cash bond.

Christopher Sultze was released from jail Thursday after posting $10,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing has yet to be scheduled in his case.

Both parents resisted doctors' advice to give the child more than they were providing to her and became irritated at times and upset with recommendations to provide her with more calories, the complaint said.

An Outagamie County child protective services intake investigator was contacted Sept. 9 when the girl, who had been born at 8 pounds, 2.8 ounces, on July 9, 2010, had gained less than 3 pounds at age 14 months when she weighed 10 pounds, 14 ounces.

Christopher Sultze said the family follows a very low cholesterol diet and told a doctor that he "doesn't want to have obese children."

On Aug. 24, 2011, he told staff at Children's Hospital of the Fox Valley, Neenah, that doctors were forcing his daughter to drink more milk and eat more food "just trying to stretch her stomach." She had gained 10 ounces during a 20-hour stay in the hospital where she was fed about 1,000 calories as recommended by a dietician for her age.

Dr. Mary Bartel told police that she believes the child was not gaining weight because she was not getting enough calories at home. She said both parents kept insisting that the child was going to "get fat" while she was in the hospital and Christopher Sultze was upset over what he considered overfeeding of his daughter.

Bartel described the child as being cachetic, which she said means her muscle mass was being consumed by her body. The doctor added that the child was "essentially starving" and had "no subcutaneous fat on her."

~~~
I particularly love this part:
"she was fed about 1,000 calories as recommended by a dietician for her age."

So, a newborn to 14 month old baby is supposed to have 1000 calories? So why is that also the number my doctor tells me *I* should be eating at age 58? Under 1000 is starving the child, causing harm. Hmmm.

Another article about this has this paragraph:

"What we believe we'll be able to show in trial is evidence that Ms. Sultze and her husband intentionally withheld food from their young child starting, really shortly after she was born," said Outagamie County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Maier."

Gee, too bad the doctor who delivered me is no longer alive. Those were his exact orders to the nurses at the hospital and to my parents when I was born. They were ordered to dilute my formula in half because I was too fat as a newborn. I was born at 7 pounds, weighed 10 the next morning, so he immediately gave the order to starve me. Didn't do anything but slow my metabolic rate down to a crawl before I was even a week old, dooming me to a life of being fat and unable to lose weight at even the lowest starvation level of calories. Thanks, Doc.

Stop the Madness!!

Or: "Oh, NO! Not AGAIN? Not ANOTHER Generation's Metabolism Ruined?!?"

Nearly one third of American babies are too chubby: study

BY Rosemary Black
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Monday, January 3rd 2011, 1:43 PM
Updated: Monday, January 3rd 2011, 4:11 PM

Chubby grownups aren’t the only ones tipping the scales at an unhealthy weight.

Nearly a third of American babies are too fat, according to a new study reported on Msnbc.com. Some 32% of 9 month olds in the study were deemed overweight, and by the age of 2, the number had grown to 34%.

“It definitely raised eyebrows when we saw how early it was showing up,” Wayne State University adjunct professor Brian Moss, author of new research in the American Journal of Health Promotion, told Msnbc.com.

In babies under age 2, overweight is typically defined as a weight in the 85th to 95th percentile, explains Sessions. Babies who are above the 95th percentile are considered obese.
While a 9-month-old chub may not face imminent health problems, if he carries the extra weight into adulthood, he faces a higher risk of diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, Sessions explains.

Overweight children also tend to snore more than kids of average weight, she notes, and may have sleep apnea, which can contribute to poor performance in school. "They may also face teasing from their peers," Sessions says.

Parents of chubby babies should look at their own diets, advises Dr. Jessica Sessions, director of pediatrics at the William F. Ryan Community Health Center. “We tend to give our kids what’s on our table,” she says. If the parents have a weight problem, that doesn’t bode well for the baby, she notes. “When both parents or even one is obese, that chubby baby probably is not going to thin out,” she says.

Interestingly, a high birth weight did not predict with accuracy whether a baby would grow up to be overweight or obese, according to the study, which focused on children born in 2001. Some very large babies thin out, but tiny newborns can become overweight, in some cases because parents offer them too much or the wrong kind of food.

Fruit juice is often implicated in the development of overweight babies, experts say. “If your baby is chubby and is drinking 18 ounces of fruit juice a day, it’s time to stay away from the fruit juice,” says Dr. Stephen Turner, chairman of pediatrics at Long Island College Hospital.

White flour and French fries are also to blame for the high rate of obesity in kids, says pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene, author of “Feeding Baby Green.”

“The third most common vegetable that a 9 month old gets is French fries,” Greene says. “By 18 months old, French fries are the number one vegetable for kids. “

And, he adds, “Babies get more calories from white flour than from any other solid food.” White flour, Greene says, is linked both to obesity and diabetes. “The body handles it like a spoonful of sugar,” he explains. “Switching to whole grains doesn’t cost any more, and if you do so when your baby is young, it’s a really easy switch.”

Parents should keep their baby’s weight in perspective, too. “”Don’t take their weight out of context with their length,” advises Dr. Henry Bernstein, chief of general pediatrics at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York. If your baby’s weight is in the 95th percentile and the height is in the 25th percentile, “Look at the quality of what he is eating,” Bernstein advises.

And keep in mind that many kids will slim down naturally. “Between 9 months and 2 years, a lot of babies thin out as they start to walk and are less interested in eating,” Turner says. “If you’re feeding your child healthy foods, I wouldn’t worry. But they should not be eating high fat fast food.”

* * * * *
Back in the early 1950's when I was born they went through this foolishness, too. My doctor had the hospital's newborn nursery staff water down my formula because I was too chubby at the ripe old age of 24 hours. I was kept on 1000 calorie diets all through my toddlerhood, young childhood, teen years, and young adulthood. Even now my doc keeps advising I go on 1000 calories. Guess what? I'm still fat! Most of my family of origin are fat - both sides.

My brothers and cousins are scattered all around the world, brought up on different foods, in different economic groups, different weight loss diets. Some of us are fat, have been since childhood, and of the fat group, most of us (not all) had been on restricted calories since early childhood. Some are thin and were since childhood, put on extra calorie food plans by their doctors. Some of the fat ones are the most active and healthy, including eating the healthiest diets (such as low fat vegan, whole grain, or the rich cousin who dines on gourmet foods); some of the thin ones never get off the couch and live on fast food hamburgers and shakes.

It's genetics, docs!!!!!

PLEASE don't recommend parents start starving their 9 month old babies in the name of "health"! Look at all the dead babies the past 5 years, starved to death by parents who were afraid their baby was getting too fat. This number will only increase if society keeps this hatred of fat people up. It's going to be Hitler and eugenics all over again.