Published on Nov 21, 2012 by vice
After years of getting paid to scarf down tacos and pizza on “fat fetish” cam sites, Donna Simpson reached an astonishing 600 lbs. She’s now desperately trying to lose weight in order to lead a normal life for the sake of herself and her children.
Published on Oct 2, 2012 by wkbttv
WKBT News 8 This Morning Anchor Jennifer Livingston responds to email from a man bullying her about her weight.
LA CROSSE, Wis. -
Jennifer Livingston, WKBT News 8 This Morning Anchor, was so shocked by the cruelty of a letter she received from a viewer, Kenneth W. Krause, about her weight that she took to the air to respond.
Jennifer says she tried to laugh off a viewer’s letter, which read in part, “Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain.”
But after her husband, Mike Thompson, WKBT 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Anchor, posted the letter on his Facebook page and received an overwhelming response supporting Jennifer, she addressed the issue on the air.
In a frank editorial, she acknowledged that she is overweight, but she knows that from looking in the mirror, not because she received a letter to bringing it to her attention — and pointed out her character is made up of a lot more than the numbers she sees on the scale. She also encouraged the community to rise above people who bully others and teach their children “to be kind, not critical, and we need to do that by example.”
I spotted this food section in a gourmet grocery store in Alexanderplatz, Berlin and thought it was too good to be true! Whoever curated this section has America down, for better or for worse.
Baffled by his dad’s reluctance to change his traditional soul food diet in the face of a health crisis, filmmaker Byron Hurt sets out to learn more about this rich culinary tradition and it’s relevance to black cultural identity. He discovers that the love affair that his dad and his community have with soul food is deep-rooted, complex, and in some tragic cases, deadly. Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians and scholars, as well as doctors, family members, and everyday people, Soul Food Junkies puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its benefits and consequences. Hurt looks at the socioeconomics of predominantly black neighborhoods, where it can be difficult to find healthy options, and
Obesity is not just an American problem anymore. Nearly one third of the world’s population is overweight, according to a recent international survey by the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research institute in Washington DC. Researchers there say the trend is being driven, ironically, by rising personal income, and that is leading people to eat fattier foods and to exercise less. Producer Zulima Palacio has the story.
The World Health Organization estimates that 346 million people globally suffer from diabetes. Most of them live in low- and middle-income countries. The WHO projects that if current trends continue, deaths from the disease could double by 2030, and health experts warn it could become a global epidemic, with significant health and economic consequences.
New research shows India is experiencing a sharp rise in two major medical conditions typically associated with wealthier nations. Changing lifestyles and economic prosperity are seen as fueling the trend. The study, “Screening India’s Twin Epidemic,” surveyed a nationwide sample of nearly 16,000 participants, nearly half of whom had hypertension, or high blood pressure. More than a third had diabetes, and about a fifth had both conditions.
As the debate over cutting government spending rages on, billions of dollars of taxpayer money are wasted each year on junk food. Between 1995 and 2010, over 250 billion dollars was spent on subsidizing foods that are making Americans fat. The health effects are devastating. 75 percent of Americans are now considered overweight. One in five kids in the U.S. are obese. RT’s Liz Wahl takes a look at why some politicians feed into the Obesity Industrial Complex.
A new study indicates that over half of the adult dogs and cats kept as pets in America are overweight or obese, and that the problem has gotten worse over the past year. This is, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, partly due to the fact that owners are not aware that their pets are overweight.
A new medical report cautions women that obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, overexposure to medical X-rays and hormone treatments during menopause can raise their risk of developing breast cancer. But critics say the report fails to emphasize the cancer-causing impact of many industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants – factors they believe could pose greater breast-cancer risks to women than their lifestyle choices.
