Media and Research Roundup

PIc of the legs and feet of an Black child on a scale.

by Bill and Terri Weitze

January 31, 2020: Da'Shaun Harrison speaks from their own experience as a fat child to explain why dieting and forced exercise is child abuse in the form of punishing a child because of their (natural) body size.
https://wearyourvoicemag.com/forcing-children-to-lose-weight-is-child-abuse

September 17, 2020: Following an acute coronary event, researchers find that both central obesity (fat around the abdomen) and peripheral obesity (fat around the thighs and buttocks) correlate to lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-00679-0

December 2020: A study finds no increase in blood loss or immediate postoperative complications due to fatness ("obesity") during simultaneous total knee replacement surgery; and, in fact, transfusion needs may be lower due to higher basal blood volume.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2020.01.012

January 22, 2021: A recent study claims that, while increasing physical activity levels provides benefits across all BMI (body mass index) categories, such benefits do not completely offset the risk of cardiovascular events. The press took this in a predictable direction.
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa151
https://nypost.com/2021/01/22/being-fat-but-fit-isnt-really-possible-study-says

January 28, 2021: A recent study finds that metformin taken to treat type 2 diabetes lowers the risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (the most common type) but increases the risk of estrogen receptor-negative types of breast cancer.
https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20210201/metformin-could-help-prevent-some-breast-cancers
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/osu-sts020121.php
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.12.008
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.12.014

January 31, 2021: Because fat bodies appear more mature than they are, fat girls are often subjected to adultification. Marquisele Mercedes discusses how this affected her own life, and how it can be a common experience for black girls.
https://humanparts.medium.com/fat-girls-of-color-bear-the-weight-of-adultification-da8ef439fa41

February 2021: Researchers looking at obesity's association with improved survival for patients with coronary artery disease confirmed this protective effect in a class of patients during stress echocardiography testing.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-00655-8

February 1, 2021: After years of struggling with an eating disorder, Colleen Werner gave up on dance because of her naturally larger body. She is now a member of Black Sheep Ballet, a virtual dance company, founded by professional ballet dancer Brian Syms, trying to make ballet more inclusive and diverse.
https://www.today.com/tmrw/black-sheep-ballet-aims-make-ballet-more-inclusive-accessible-t207096

February 2, 2021: A study that looked at weight trends over two generations finds that those who start in the "normal" range of BMI and progress to overweight as they age have the longest life expectancy.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210202085451.htm
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.01.003

February 8, 2021: As they age, many people develop elevated glucose hemoglobin and/or impaired fasting glucose and are diagnosed as have "prediabetes". However, a recent study finds that progression to diabetes is relatively rare, suggesting that prediabetes need not be treated aggressively in older adults.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/diabetes/91099
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.8773

February 8, 2021: Lara Phillips-Alvarez argues that instead of a body positivity movement, there should be a body neutrality movement where a body is just a body and there is no value placed on one body over another.
https://dbknews.com/2021/02/08/body-neutrality-self-love-society

February 8, 2021: A woman's TikTok post calls out fitness instructors who make food something to fear and exercise something to counteract the food you eat.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-calls-fitness-instructor-damaging-151624392.html

[Pic is of Terri and Bill Weitze, a Caucasian couple, both wearing glasses]

Terri and Bill Weitze have been active within NAAFA for years, and they currently coauthor the Media and Research Roundup in the NAAFA Newsletter. They both live and work in San Jose, CA, and met through a fat-positive bulletin board system before the days of the World Wide Web.