Two times the excitement! Two times the info!

NAAFA is pleased to announce the dates for both our 2011 and 2012 Conventions.

As a strategic goal, the NAAFA Board has set out to simplify and streamline all of NAAFA's activities.  Our annual convention is a key event and our major fund raising event of the year, and as such it has been a major focus of our streamlining efforts.  To help members budget their money and time, we have secured the Convention location contracts for the next two years.  These contracts lock in our cost at the same levels as our 2010 convention and in some cases gives a further discount.

This year we are returning to the Washington, DC area for our annual convention.

Thursday, August 4, 2011 - Monday, August 8, 2011!
The Westin Washington Dulles Airport
2520 Wasser Terrace
Herndon, VA 20171

In 2012 we will have our annual convention in the San Francisco area:

Thursday, August 2, 2012 - Monday, August 6, 2012!
The Westin San Francisco Airport
1 Old Bayshore Highway
Millbrae, CA  94030

More details will be available on our website. We look forward to seeing you at both of these exciting events!

Ordinarily, January is a time for New Year's resolutions, and more often than not, weight loss is at or near the top of the list. 

It's time for a change, according to Dr. Jon Robison, nutritionist and health educator at Michigan State University. 

"The research over the last 25 years is quite clear. There is no evidence that any of the popular approaches such as low fat, low calorie and low carbohydrate result in long-term weight loss for the vast majority of people who engage in them," says Robison.  "There are no exceptions, and none of the approaches works any better than any of the others."

Despite this complete lack of evidence, people are still being seduced into trying to lose weight with the latest incarnation of these approaches from a diet industry with $50 billion in annual revenues.  Furthermore, the relentless pressure, particularly on women and children, to lose weight increases the likelihood of eating disorders, disordered eating and body hatred.

To reduce anxiety about food and weight while at the same time promoting good health, Dr. Robison recommends that people discard the weight loss focus and embrace a scientifically supported Health-Centered Approach.

Dr. Robison recently summarized this approach in a special report, "10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Ease Concerns about Your Weight & Improve Your Health."  The report is currently available, free-of-charge, on his website at http://jonrobison.net/?page_id=217

Here is a sample of the 10 Things: (discussion of each suggestion follows in the report)

#1 - Save Your Time & Money! - Don't spend another dime on anything or anybody that even remotely suggests they will help you lose weight permanently.

#2 - Just Say No! - Do not use (or let anyone else use) your weight, BMI or any other measurement of body size or composition as an indicator of health!

"While this approach differs substantially from the traditional wisdom about weight and health, please keep in mind that the traditional wisdom in this case is clearly not working or helping and may, in fact, be causing considerable harm," Robison says.

Jonathan Robison holds a Doctorate in Health Education/Exercise Physiology and a Master of Science in Human Nutrition from Michigan State University where he is adjunct Assistant Professor. Jon currently serves on NAAFA's Advisory Board.  A former co-editor of the journal Health At Every Size, he has been helping people with weight and eating-related concerns for more than 20 years.  From Keynotes to Intensive Training Workshops, Dr. Robison is available to help both lay and professional groups understand and implement health-centered approaches for helping people with weight- and eating-related struggles. For more information visit his website, www.jonrobison.net

Six Sweet Steps to Your Best Year So Far
by Cinder Ernst ACC

Have you noticed that you make the same health resolutions each year? "This year I resolve to start walking, quit smoking, start meditating, take a vacation, begin an exercise program or eat healthier?"  Would you like to try something extraordinary this year? Try these six sweet steps to find more joy and forget about resolutions.

Step 1) Get Clear. You don't want to do what you've always done about New Year's resolutions.

Step 2) Get Willing. Say "I am willing to try a different approach, even if I have doubts or worries."

Step 3) Get Curious. Ask yourself "What does being physically fit and healthy look like for me? What might I be doing? With whom might I do it?"  Take a few minutes right now and answer these questions. Write down all your answers.

Step 4) Get Grounded. Read over your answers from Step 3. What about them is important to you? Is it to be a loving parent, grandparent or partner? Maybe you see that being physically fit and healthy will make it easier to be financially successful or well traveled, or to go back to school. Look for what connects Step 3 to your heart. Write it down.

Step 5) Get Going. "What would a person who is willing to be physically fit and healthy do today?" Ask this question every morning, answer it and promise to do what you said you would do. Keep your promise small and sweet so that you can guarantee it easily.  It's not whether you'll do it or not, it's "How can I get it done?"

Step 6) Get Grateful. Every night review Steps 1-4. Then write down three things you are grateful for on a post it and then post it, or write them in a journal.

Do these steps for thirty days and let me know what happens for you. I'd love to hear what you are excited about and what your next step is. Coach@cinderernst.com

Cinder Ernst lives in San Francisco and is a Certified Life Coach by the Academy for Coaching Excellence accredited by International Coach Federation, and a Medical Exercise Specialist. Cinder has been a frequent workshop presenter at NAAFA's annual conventions.  She works with people in person and on the phone to help them accomplish their goals and dreams. Go to www.cinderernst.com to see what classes and programs are available in 2011.

The 18th annual Healthy Weight Week is a time to celebrate healthy diet-free living habits that last a lifetime and prevent eating problems.  Our bodies cannot be shaped at will. But we can all be accepting, healthy and happy at our natural weights.

Respecting size diversity makes sound scientific sense. Research at the CDC shows the "healthiest" weight (the weight at which people live the longest) is in a broad range from a body mass index of 22 up to 40. 

The 18th annual celebration is January 16-22, 2011, and includes the following highlights:

Tuesday, January 18: Rid the world of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day (22nd annual)

Thursday, January 20: Women's Healthy Weight Day (18th annual)

Healthy Weight Week promotes a lasting, healthy, diet-free lifestyle for people of all sizes. Handouts are available on the educational website www.healthyweight.net

Healthy Weight Week is organized by Frances Berg, a licensed nutritionist and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, and a member of NAAFA's Advisory Board.

NAAFA believes that healthcare is a basic and fundamental human right for all citizens of the world.  Access to healthcare should not in any way be limited by race, gender, age, size, weight, economic status or any other dimension of diversity.

NAAFA ADVOCATES:

• That nations of the world should focus economic resources on delivering healthcare to every man, woman & child on the planet.
• That lawmakers in every nation introduce, pass, enact, and enforce a nationally controlled health plan offering coverage that does not disqualify people based on their body weight or people with pre-existing conditions.
• That lawmakers in every nation introduce, pass, enact and enforce legislation which protects consumers against discriminatory practices by health insurance and healthcare providers.
• That BMI or weight must not be used to determine the availability and/or cost of health insurance coverage.
• That healthcare policy must not include weight loss or BMI as a measure of success in wellness programs.
• That healthcare policy must not mandate a decrease in weight as a measure of community-based health prevention activities.

NAAFA RESOLVES TO:

• Support healthcare policies that will provide healthcare to everyone regardless of health status, weight or size.
• Educate the public and the media to the fact that people can be healthy at every size (HAES) and that good health, not a particular BMI, should be everyone's goal.
• Educate the public and the media to the fact that fat people are not the cause of the economic crisis in healthcare today and should not be the scapegoats for every cost cutting solution.
• Promote alternatives to weight-loss diets in a manner which is sensitive to the emotional and financial investment which many fat people have made in repeated weight-loss attempts.
• Support the civil and human rights of people of every size.

by Bill and Terri Weitze

[Editor's Note:  The NAAFA News RSS Feed at http://naafa.org has the latest news.]

 

Spring 2010:  Kaiser Permanente claims that their Weight Program (a liquid diet/starvation program) allows fat people to lose a great deal of weight and keep 60% of that weight off up to 18 months.  No follow-up beyond the 18 months is offered even though they've treated 30,000 patients since 1982. 

http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/issues/2010/spr/or/132-obesity-problem-solution-or-both.html

 

April 23, 2010:  A single case study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) indicates that gastric bypass surgery may not actually cure diabetes, even though the surgery is linked to lower fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C.  Continuous monitoring of the patient showed blood sugar spikes after meals. 

http://www.aace.com/meetings/ams/2010

http://www.aace.com/meetings/ams/2010/pdf/2010Abstracts.pdf (see p. 23 of PDF)

 

June 2010:  More evidence against weight loss surgery.  Adjustable gastric banding yields only modest weight loss, and patients tend to regain over time, according to a report presented at the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Las Vegas, NV in June.  In a study of 201 patients who received the surgery from 1995 to 2003, although 80% had kept the weight off after 3 years, that figure dropped to 64% after 5 years and 20% after 10 years.

http://www.eatingdisordersreview.com/nl/nl_edr_21_5_2.html

 

September 30, 2010:  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sues Resources for Human Development, Inc. (RHD), for firing an employee in 2007 for being fat.  Lisa Harrison had been a Prevention / Intervention Specialist for RHD since 1999, working with young children of mothers undergoing treatment for addiction.  According to the EEOC, she was protected under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) because she was perceived as disabled.  Could this set a precedent?

http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-30-10u.cfm

 

October 28, 2010:  Singer Katy Perry releases the video for "Firework", which features (among other positive images) a young fat woman getting the courage to jump in a pool (in a bikini no less) with other partygoers.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/katy-perrys-firework-video

 

November 18, 2010:  Since the withdrawal of benfluorex (a drug used for diabetes control and off-label used for weight loss and still available in the US) in France in 2009, the drug has been linked to a high relative risk of hospitalizations and death due to mitral valve problems.  The drug is a "chemical cousin" of fenfluramine, which was also linked to mitral valve damage, and is now banned in the US and other countries.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2853566

 

December 10, 2010:  Humans aren't the only ones getting fatter. Of 24 animal populations, 23 became fatter over the decades. The odds of that happening by chance are 8 million to 1.  Since we can't blame rats and wild animals for too much TV and not enough phys ed, then maybe we should look at other reasons why animals (and people) are getting bigger.  (thanks, JeanMarie!)

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/10/what-fat-animals-tell-us-about-human-obesity.html

 

December 13, 2010:  Although she is no longer fat, Valerie Ulene, MD remembers the problems she encountered as a fat child.  Writing for The Los Angeles Times, she points out the potential damage caused to fat people due to fat prejudice by healthcare professionals. 

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/13/health/la-he-the-md-weight-bias-20101213

 

December 15, 2010:  A TV ad showing a fat corpse clutching a half-eaten hamburger suggests that tonight you "Make it vegetarian".  Some stations refuse to run it because it specifically targets McDonald's.  Susan Levin, speaking for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, who funded the spot, claims that it is appropriate because fast food "literally" kills.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/consumer/101215-fast-food-attack-ad-not-airing-in-houston

 

December 17, 2010:  After reading Mary Sanchez's opinion piece about government intervention in the eating habits of a nation, it should be clear that there is no clear-cut explanation for why people become fat.  Even so, she jumps on the bandwagon to blame fast food and laziness for causing the so-called "obesity epidemic".

http://www.nvdaily.com/opinion/2010/12/mary-sanchez-first-they-came-for-my-twinkie.php

 

December 19, 2010:  Dr. Frank Hulyer does not want fat people to have WLS - great!  Because WLS doesn't fix the root causes of fatness: laziness and lack of willpower.  Huh?  Since he's a practicing emergency room physician in Albuquerque, exert your willpower and avoid this guy.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/12/19/2010-12-19_more_lapband_surgery_means_higher_health_costs_its_just_ the_latest_symptom_of_ou.html

 

December 20, 2010:  Good fat: A study from Harvard published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that fat found in dairy foods like milk, yogurt, cheese and butter substantially reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.  The human body cannot create this type of fatty acid so the only source is through eating foods that contain it.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/dairy-foods-diabetes-risk.html

http://www.annals.org/content/153/12/790.abstract

 

December 22, 2010:  In an annual list of the year's worst abuses against science, UK organization Sense About Science (SAS) debunks diet and exercise suggestions made by actors, pop stars and other public figures.  SAS also take on other medical fads and fallacies; their website is worth a look.

http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/index.php/site/about/562

 

December 24, 2010:  Related to the April 23 and June items above, a study links gastric bypass surgery to abnormal glucose tolerance.  Of the 36 bypass surgery patients in the study, a glucose tolerance test (GTT) showed 6 to be diabetic (they were also diabetic before surgery) and 26 had evidence of reactive hypoglycemia.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21184112

 

December 27, 2010:  Fat people have an increased risk of dying in a car accident according to a new study, which hypothesizes that the problem is with steering wheels and columns that do not provide sufficient room for the fat driver.  To reduce the risk, buy vehicles that allow the seat to be moved back so that the steering wheel does not touch the driver.  Auto makers should also design their cars with fat people in mind to a greater extent.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Obesity/24080

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S073567571000495X

 

December 28, 2010:  It turns out that weight is not an especially good indicator of one's chances of thriving after surgery, although recent weight loss may indicate a poorer chance.  A new study shows that the best indicator for a positive post-surgery response in the elderly is, not age or weight, but frailty as measured by recent unexpected weight loss, weaker grip, exhaustion and lack of physical activity, and a slower gait. 

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/who-thrives-after-surgery

http://www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515(10)00059-1/abstract

 

December 28, 2010:  Just in case you were thinking of investing in a laser light guaranteed to melt fat, you might want to first check out Healthy Weight Network and the National Counsel Against Health Fraud offer up their top 10 "Worst Weight Loss Products and Promotions of 2010". 

http://www.healthyweight.net/hww.htm

 

December 30, 2010:  With 1 in 3 Americans classified as "obese", you might think medical schools are training future doctors proper methods of examining fat bodies.  According to Drs. Ann Willman Silk and Kathleen M. McTigue, you'd be very wrong; and as a practical matter, they feel that this should change.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/early/2010/12/28/jama.2010.1950.extract

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-heb-doctors-exam-obese-patients-20101230,0,4066786.story

 

December 31, 2010:  A study out of Wayne State University finds that at 9 months, about 1/3 of infants are considered "overweight" or "obese", and at 2 years the same children tend to remain fat, suggesting that kids who start out heavier end up heavier.  Oddly, the study concludes that "Between age 9 months and age 2 years, US children consistently moved toward less desirable weight status" - even though those infants in the average range tended to remain in that range. 

http://www.ajhpcontents.org.pinnacle.allenpress.com/doi/abs/10. 4278/ajhp.090123-QUAN-29

 

January 1, 2011:  Instead of standing by watching friends and loved ones make New Year's Resolutions to diet and lose weight, NAAFA encourages its members to become part of the New Year's Revolution and celebrate your body.  Check out the website for great ideas and resources to make 2011 a truly revolutionary year.

http://2011revolutions.blogspot.com

 

January 3, 2011:  Most Canadians are fat to some degree, and most Canadians lead a somewhat healthy lifestyle, according to a Leger Marketing/CBC poll.  The idea that fat people can be fit doesn't surprise Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta, who told CBC News "There's a huge variability in how people can cope with extra calories."

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/01/03/con-sharma-obesity.html

 

January 5, 2011:  Fat activist Marilyn Wann congratulates Kellogg's for a new ad campaign that tells women not to "focus on numbers on the scale."  The cereal company even has their own version of Marilyn's Yay! Scale, which replaces the numbers with compliments.  But Kellogg's version presents life gains such as "confidence" and "sass" and links them to weight loss.  Ms. Wann says, "Lose Hate Not Weight!"

Marilyn's website: http://fatso.com

To purchase a Yay! Scale: http://voluptuart.com

 

January 7, 2011:  A man who once weighed 900 pounds blames Britain's National Health Service (NHS) for inadequate treatment.  Although there was evidence of an eating disorder as well as depression, he was first told to ride his bike more, then given gastric bypass surgery, and apparently was never treated for depression or eating disorders.  The view that the surgery is unhelpful for eating disorders is echoed by experts (see second link).

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/01/07/2011-01-07_paul_mason_once_the_worlds_fattest_man_suing_nhs_for_not_ helping_him_sufficientl.html

http://www.amazon.com/Treatment-Eating-Disorders-Clinical-Handbook/dp/1606234463

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