The Fat Acceptance Movement Exists For A Good Reason

May 6, 2008 | 7 Comments

I just want to point out a few things about fat…

1. An old BBC article began: “Male drivers who are involved in a car crash are more likely to die if they are obese, a US study suggests.” The picture shows a large belly with the comment “Male drivers with a BMI above 35 were more likely to die.” Further into the article, one learns:

“The team found that male drivers who had a body mass index that was either higher than 35 or lower than 22 had a ’significantly increased risk of death’ compared to those with an intermediate body mass index (BMI).”

The story lede was misleading. It reflects a social bias against fat.

2. The term “morbidly obese” exists yet there’s no thin equivalent term, even though it’s just as dangerous to be very skinny. When skinny people die because they’re skinny, it’s called malnutrition, starvation, or an eating disorder. They are often pitied. And their conditions are often perceived as being outside of their control. When fat people die because they’re fat, they’re not as often pitied and are often considered selfish, greedy, sloppy, dirty, gross, and lazy. Their condition is often perceived as being their fault. The terms we use, their definitions, and their connotations reflect an unfair social bias against fat.

3. There are different kinds of fat. BMI (body mass index) is not the only consideration when it comes to health. Many other factors influence health. For example, my BMI is higher than ideal for my height, which categorizes me in the “overweight” group. However, I’m healthier than many of my skinnier counterparts because of a few things:

my excess calories come from low risk, high nutrition foods like nuts, avocados, and bread because I’m vegan
I don’t smoke or do drugs
I exercise
I get regular doctor check-ups and I monitor my health
I’m relatively well educated and have a pretty high socio-economic status
I’m tall

I have never had high blood pressure in my life, despite my weight. I’ve never had high cholesterol in my life. I’ve never had many of the problems traditionally associated with higher than ideal BMI. That’s because BMI isn’t everything. (Google “waist circumference” for one example of why BMI isn’t perfect.)

4. Where you live matters. Fat is a stronger indicator of mortality in certain countries than in others due to the factors influencing fat, health, and death.

5. It’s called the “Obesity Epidemic” instead of the “Corporate Force Feeding Epidemic.” For example, when fast food companies are allowed to market heavily to children and those children grow up with severe health problems due to consumption of fast food, that’s not a fat issue, that’s a fast food issue. The responsibility lies with the fast food company, not on the individual consumer who was trained since childhood by fast food propaganda to eat fast food as though it’s really food.

6. Fat and size discrimination is real. For example, “Discrimination against fat women and men seeking to adopt is common in the Untied States, especially among private adoption agencies[...] Fat people are often turned down for adoption by private agencies or public child welfare departments primarily based on prejudice and assumptions about presumed future health problems and/or lower life expectancy.” (source)

That is the kind of stuff that the fat acceptance movement is fighting. They/we are not fighting for burgers and fries. Fat acceptance is about truth, responsible journalism, freedom from prejudice, appropriate physical accommodation, ending discrimination, ceasing ridicule, erasing the stigma, and creating a fair and just society for all. Here’s an example: Declaration of Health Rights of Fat People.

And yeah, what she said and what she said.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Food, Health, Fitness, & Beauty, Philosophy and Guidance
7 Comments to "The Fat Acceptance Movement Exists For A Good Reason"

Vegan Breast Milk

May 6, 2008 | 3 Comments

Jack just watched a movie called The Story of Stuff and wrote:

One fact that I’d never heard before and found particularly shocking: when talking about the countless toxic chemicals used in production and therefore brought into our homes and our bodies, Leonard says:

Do you know what is the food at the top of the food chain with the highest levels of many toxic contaminants? Human breast milk. That means that we’ve reached a point where the smallest members of our societies - our babies - are getting the highest lifetime dose of toxic chemicals from breast feeding from their mothers. Is that not an incredible violation?

I appreciated that Leonard called this a “violation,” because that’s precisely what it is. We have allowed corporations and complicit governments to violate our very bodies, as well as our environment and countless cultures and communities, simply in order to give us cheaper, more consumable products.* Leonard thankfully goes on to stress that “breast feeding is still best,” but as someone who plans to probably give birth and subsequently breast feed, that fact about the toxicity of breast milk is frightening and enraging. It really does feel like a violation - corporations and the government have allowed this shit to get into me.

FYI - vegetarian and vegan mothers have fewer toxic contaminants in their breast milk than omnivorous mothers.

More good news:

“There are relatively limited data on pregnancy outcomes for vegan vs. nonvegan women. A classic study from 1987 looked at the medical records of 775 vegan mothers living in a vegan community in Tennessee. The main observations were that the pregnancies were normal; the vegan diet did not affect birth weight; and those studied were health-conscious, received prenatal care, and took prenatal supplements. Furthermore, the researchers found that the rate of preeclampsia was significantly lower than that of the general population, with only one case among all 775 vegans.”

“Informal pregnancy outcome data (of 2,028 pregnancies) collected in the same community of vegans from 1970 to 2000 showed a lower-than-average C-section rate (1.4%), postpartum depression (1%), neonatal mortality (0.4%), maternal mortality (0%), and preeclampsia (0.4%), with no complications or negative outcomes higher than average.” reports Today’s Dietitian.

You might be wondering why I read stuff like this. Well, I do it for two reasons: One, I’m genuinely curious. I tend to read stuff about veganism and vegetarianism regularly just to know more. Two, I’d like to have babies sometime soon. And since I’m vegan, I need to know stuff like this.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Family, Kids, & Friends, Food, Health, Fitness, & Beauty, veganism
3 Comments to "Vegan Breast Milk"

Industrial Animal Agriculture Doesn’t Pay For Externalities

May 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

We already knew that industrial agriculture is unreasonably cheap because they don’t pay for externalities, but it’s nice to see a formal, well respected study say the same thing:

“Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America’s economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers, concludes an independent, 2 1/2 -year analysis that calls for major changes in the way corporate agriculture produces meat, milk and eggs.”

reports the Washington Post in “Report Targets Costs Of Factory Farming“.

The ALDF put it this way:

“The report, ‘Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Production in America,’ concludes that ‘concentrated animal feeding operations,’ or CAFOs, not only fail to provide the humane treatment of livestock, but also have an impact on human health and the environment, and undermine rural America’s economic stability.”

You can read the report yourself here >>

The industry is already responding that they’re willing to change. And programs are going to be implemented to change some portions of the industry to make factory farming less damaging to the environment, human health, workers, and animals. But those measures have problems. For starters, they will probably be phased in over a ten year period. That means we won’t see real change anytime soon. Another problem is that the kinds of changes the industry is willing to make likely aren’t nearly the level of change needed to make significant differences in the four areas of concern:

humane treatment of animals,
human health,
the environment,
rural America’s economic stability.

What’s the moral of the story? You guessed it: Go vegan! By going vegan you an avoid the worst types of factory farming without even trying. Your consumer choice can make a difference. By going vegan you refuse to support the system that abuses animals, the system that endangers human health through overuse of antibiotics (and pesticides), the system that contributes to climate change and harms the environment for all of us, or the system that undermines rural America’s economic stability.

—

The image shown above is from the report on page 18. I think it illustrates some of the problems with factory farming (called industrial farm animal production or IFAP). Those chickens are living their entire lives indoors. They aren’t in cages, but they’re locked inside a warehouse, crammed tightly next to each other. The worker is a person of color (people of color disproportionately bear the burden of factory farm work) who is exposed to that abnormal, dangerous situation regularly. The report says:

“Those engaged directly with livestock production, such as farmers, farm workers, and their families, typically have more frequent and more concentrated exposures to chemical or infectious agents.” [...]

“Fifty years ago, a US farmer who raised pigs or chickens might be exposed to several dozen animals for less than an hour a day. Today’s confinement facility worker is often exposed to thousands of pigs or tens of thousands of chickens for eight or more hours each day. And whereas sick or dying pigs might have been a relatively rare exposure event 50 years ago, today’s agricultural workers care for sick or dying animals daily in their routine care of much larger herds and flocks. This prolonged contact with livestock, both healthy and ill, increases agricultural workers’ risks of infection with zoonotic pathogens.” [...]

“ifap facilities generate toxic dust and gases that may cause temporary or chronic respiratory irritation among workers and operators.” [...]

“The growing importance of MRSA as a public health problem in the United States and elsewhere, as well as the growing body of evidence suggesting transmission between farm animals and humans and among humans, makes it particularly relevant to the discussion
of antimicrobial use in food animals”

I’ve emboldened the parts I felt most relevant. The report is long and they discussed e. coli and salmonella as well, indicating a strong relation between factory farming and damage to public health.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Environmentalism, Food, Health, Fitness, & Beauty, Politics, veganism
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Tyson Foods & Meat Propaganda

May 4, 2008 | 1 Comment

By the way,

“Poultry giant Tyson Foods has 14 days to dismantle a national multimillion dollar ad campaign centered on the claim that its chickens are raised without antibiotics, a federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday.” [...]

“The ruling is a setback for Tyson in its ongoing battle with two of its competitors Sanderson Farms, based in Laurel, Miss., and Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury, Md. The two companies jointly sought an injunction to stop Tyson’s ad campaign, arguing the ‘raised without antibiotics’ claim misleads consumers by making it appear Tyson’s chicken is safer or more healthful.”

“Sanderson and Perdue initially based their legal challenge on Tyson’s practice of feeding chickens ionophores, an antibiotic used only in animals raised for food. Sanderson and Perdue also use ionophores.

“Then during trial in federal court in Baltimore, Tyson officials acknowledged they also inject eggs several days before they hatch with antibiotics [...] it is a common industry practice.”

“[Tyson representative] Hogberg said injecting eggs with antibiotics did not undermine the ‘raised without antibiotic’ label because the term ‘raised’ is understood to cover the period that begins with hatching.”

Read the whole article here >>

Some people laugh when I use the term “meat propaganda,” but that’s what it is. When industrial animal agriculture industries LIE, LIE, and LIE through their marketing, they’re spreading propaganda.

More examples of meat propaganda:

Suicide Food - this website highlights the absurd signs, labels, and commercials that pretend animals like to be killed and eaten.
The Happy Ham photo pool - a collection of images similar to those at Suicide Food
Deconstructing Meat Propaganda - where I dissected a NY Times pro-meat editorial
The Current Lie - anti-vegans misrepresent history in order to perpetuate the false notion that veganism is an idea born of “the urban bubble”

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Animals, Food, Health, Fitness, & Beauty, veganism
1 Comment to "Tyson Foods & Meat Propaganda"

Vitamin D Is In Fortified Juices and Soy Milks

May 2, 2008 | 2 Comments

A Feministing reader asked:

“Can’t you also get vitamin D from drinking delicious milk? (assuming you’re not a vegan and from an ethnic group that has enzymes to digest milk?)”

I answered, but of course my comment won’t be published. So, here’s the deal:

Milk only has vitamin D because it’s been fortified with vitamin D. The government did this many years ago to prevent rickets. It worked. But sadly, lots of people are confused about vitamin D. They think milk is the only good source of it. Nope. Lots of other foods have been fortified with vitamin D, like soy milk, fruit juices, and breakfast cereals. Just look at the nutritional data on the package.

Vitamin D can also be obtained from exposure to the sun, though people of color cannot get as much vitamin D from sunlight as white people (and here I mean actual skin color, not racial identity):

“People with dark skin
Greater amounts of the pigment melanin result in darker skin and reduce the skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from exposure to sunlight. Some studies suggest that older adults, especially women, with darker skin are at high risk of developing vitamin D insufficiency. However, one group with dark skin, African Americans, generally has lower levels of 25(OH)D yet develops fewer osteoporotic fractures than Caucasians” (source)

Another group of people have some trouble obtaining vitamin D from sunlight:

“People who are obese
Individuals with a body mass index (BMI) ≥30 typically have a low plasma concentration of 25(OH)D; this level decreases as obesity and body fat increase. Obesity does not affect skin’s capacity to synthesize vitamin D, but greater amounts of subcutaneous fat sequester more of the vitamin and alter its release into the circulation. Even with orally administered vitamin D, BMI is inversely correlated with peak serum concentrations, probably because some vitamin D is sequestered in the larger pools of body fat.” (same source as above)

Older people, infants, and some other groups of people also have trouble getting vitamin D from the sun.

So the Feministing report that

“there is a huge vitamin D deficiency among so many women who are afraid of getting too much sun.”

and the resulting simplistic advice to just go out and get sunlight, is a bit misleading and, as usual, ignores the special needs of some Feministing readers. Furthermore, their decision to censor dissenting voices on the blog leads to further lack of information.

What’s the take-away?

Sunlight is good, but use common sense. Don’t trade skin cancer for increased vitamin D. Nutrition is important, as always. Vitamin D is often available in vegan and non-dairy diets through fortified foods like juices and soy milk. And supplements are available if you can’t/don’t get enough sunlight and nutritional vitamin D.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Food, Health, Fitness, & Beauty, veganism
2 Comments to "Vitamin D Is In Fortified Juices and Soy Milks"