I am working hard on not being judgy

[flea]

but I have to get this one out:

Dear People Originally From or Who Used to Live In Brooklyn,

Just because you have a past in Brooklyn does not mean you are cooler than everyone else. You live in North Carolina now just like the rest of us.

Also, that goes double for you if your three year old son has orange pants with a built-in three-foot stuffed tail that he wears everywhere. And if he tells people he is a fruitarian (which I hope he is not, because I don't that think would be a healthy diet for a growing child.)

Thx,
flea

In book news, book club discussed
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2006). Story of a climbing bum who spent several weeks recuperating from a failed K2 summit attempt in a tiny village in Pakistan and promised to build them a school, and did, and is now the director of the Central Asia Institute which builds schools (www.ikat.org). I didn't like the way the book was written, and I think I would be seriously annoyed at Mortenson if I had to deal with him in person, but it's a good story and they're doing good work.

Also read:
Gina Kolata, Rethinking Thin (2007). I could have done without the framing device of the dieters in the study - their stories didn't humanize the science for me as they were so generic as to be indistinguishable. I loved the history of obesity studies - early scientific studies in general fascinate me. The really recent research is a little harder to interpret - it seems like some areas of study are still definitely in progress. One area I wish she'd addressed in more detail is the public health issue. She discussed mortality rates associated with weight - if you are not morbidly obese, it's actually a little better to be slightly overweight - but sort of brushed off diabetes (which seems to be a pretty big issue to me) and didn't address quality of life issues - what if being overweight means chronic joint pain or lessened mobility, even if it doesn't make you die? And even if reducing the amount of soda and junk food in school lunches doesn't reduce obesity rates, isn't it worth doing anyway, for the sake of overall decent nutrition?

Comments

[stephl.livejournal.com]

Gina Kolata, Rethinking Thin (2007). I could have done without the framing device of the dieters in the study - their stories didn't humanize the science for me as they were so generic as to be indistinguishable.

Yeah, I felt the same way. I know they were meant to provide a current example of people who try and try to lose weight but end up regaining, to parallel the historical studies. But I think the historical studies were strong enough on their own in making that point.

She discussed mortality rates associated with weight - if you are not morbidly obese, it's actually a little better to be slightly overweight - but sort of brushed off diabetes (which seems to be a pretty big issue to me) and didn't address quality of life issues - what if being overweight means chronic joint pain or lessened mobility, even if it doesn't make you die?

I can't say this for sure, because I don't know her thoughts behind not addressing those issues, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was because she wanted to keep as clear of a line as possible between weight and health. As in, thin does not always equal health, and fat does not always equal unhealth.

And even if reducing the amount of soda and junk food in school lunches doesn't reduce obesity rates, isn't it worth doing anyway, for the sake of overall decent nutrition?

That, of course, is an excellent point, but not quite in line with Kolata's premise. Again, I'd guess she wanted to keep the focus on why diets don't work, irrespective of nutritional quality.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I thought more could be done about *in what cases* weight is associated with health - diabetes being the big one that still seems pretty clear (high weight=diabetes, clearly a serious disease), now that simple correlations between weight and cholesterol/heart disease seem to be mostly disproven. Clearly thin=/healthy, and fat=/unhealthy, but are there specific weight-related health risks? For example, health risks for thinness might be greater risk of osteoporosis, greater risk of frailty in old age, for example. (Maybe not really germane to her topic, but interesting to me.)

Other things she didn't address (or fully address) that I was thinking about: weight as correlated to socioeconomic status, ethnic group (this is a huge deal with diabetes, for example - diabetes is strongly correlated to some groups).

Also, the whole concept of the "genetics of behavior" that she barely touches on is fascinating.

In sum, lots of thinky things in there.