French Women Do Get Fat???

Oh, NOOOESSSS! Apparently the French are human!!! According to THIS study, French women do get fat!

The article says:

According to a 2009 study published on Tuesday, 15.1 percent of France's women are classed as clinically obese, while a further 26 percent are overweight.

The survey, conducted by TNS Sofres Healthcare and Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche, also pointed to similar trends among the male population, with 13.9 percent of Frenchmen obese and 38.5 percent overweight.

The world has long marveled at the ability of the French population, and particularly its women, to remain thin in a country famed for its pastries, cheese and wine.

French author Mireille Guilano even published a diet manual in 2004 entitled "French Women Don't Get Fat," praising the eating habits of women who prefer to savour their food calmly and never snack between meals.

But the reality is that over the past 12 years, the average French person has put on 3.1 kg (6.83 lb) and added a further 4.7 cm (1.85 inches) around the waist, the survey showed.

Doctor Marie-Aline Charles, who helped conduct the research, said urban lifestyles were largely to blame.

"Obesity rates have really risen sharply in urban areas where there's a concentration of sedentary jobs, public transport, less need to walk and a much greater availability of food," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

However, other countries, especially the United States, were faring worse, she said.

"We're currently seeing in France the same levels of obesity as in the United States in the 1970s, so we're about 40 years behind," she said.

Wii: Your Shape

This could be interesting, its Wii Shape, an interactive Wii fitness game that serves as your workout coach, checks your form (via a camera that comes with the game) and allows you (unlike the other Wii Fit products) to have a continuous workout based on your preferences or target areas, so you could set it for 15 minutes of abs or a 40 minute overall workout. It doesn't seem to require that little white platform (which looks way too small to be a safe place to do exercise on in my opinion).

Here's what the reviewer over at FitSugar had to say:

the game tailors workouts to you in type, length, and difficulty level. The game includes 400 exercises, so your workouts are never the same, which keeps you on your toes and busts the boredom common to home workouts. You can select to focus on cardio, strength training, or toning exercises, and focus on a specific body part. I selected a 15-minute burn, aka cardio, focusing on my backside. After a five-minute warmup, I did many lunges and kicks peppered with some old-school aerobics moves. When my grapevine turned sloppy, Jenny chimed in, "Please follow me." When I corrected my footwork she gave a "Fantastic!" You can also have the game add in exercises with equipment you already own, like an exercise ball, hand weights, or an aerobic step. Unlike many Wii Fit games, Your Shape creates a continuous workout and you can sweat it out for 45 minutes nonstop.

You begin playing the game with a fitness test, and every nine workouts you take the test again to assess your improvement. You can compete with other users registered to your game — up to four. The game drops Nov. 24, and will be available at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other large retailers. If you're more of a mobile game player (or your kids hog the TV or the Wii), a PC version of the game, also $69, will be available for purchase in early December. This version comes with the camera as well so you can work out with Jenny anywhere.

So, how about it, Nintendo, send me a Wii and a copy of the game and I'll do a six-week challenge with it, documenting how it aids in weight-loss and fitness goals! Or, hey, send me a Wii and Lisa a Wii and we'll do a longer challenge to see who can lose the most weight while using the system.

Kelly Osbourne: I've Lost 20 Pounds on DWTS -- But I'm Still "Starving!"

The reality star, 25, has dropped 20 pounds as a result of her stint on Dancing With the Stars, but not without sacrifice, she says.

"I'm f------ starving right now!" Osbourne told Usmagazine.com backstage at Monday's performance show in Los Angeles, where Osbourne and her partner Louis van Amstel earned rave reviews for their '60s-inspired jive.

And though she's hungry, Osbourne's svelte new bod is turning heads. Van Amstel, who has helped the now size-2/4 Osbourne waltz her way into the final five, can definitely see the change in his partner's figure.

At least she is keeping it real. She says it is not just the dancing. It is also the not eating that is getting the weight off. Past contestants like Denise Richards said she was dancing and eating pizza and lost weight.

Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time

We at FFFB are often discussing Valerie Bertinelli. In order to be fair, I wanted to read more about her. So I read her book. Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time . She is so out of touch with reality. I felt that she spent the whole book talking about other peoples problems and not seeing her part in it. She talks about being on the "Cocaine Diet" but she did not believe that it was an eating disorder, disordered eating, or a drug problem. She talks about doing drugs with Mackenzie Phillips, but describes how she distances herself from her after the arrest. She kept saying she was such a good person and so thankful for her parents rules even though she constantally talks about breaking those rules.

The one thing I did learn from book that I always suspected, Jenny Craig recruits they celebrity spoke people and pays them a lot of money. She said she got with Jenny Craig threw her agent even though she knew Kirstie Alley from her kids school.

Vintage Ad-: Wate-On

I thought that this was interesting. Remember, the pressure to be skinny was not always ideal, even in Hollywood. This actress is endorsing Wate-On, a weight gain supplement to help her add pounds on to a figure deemed too skinny for the early 1960's aesthetic. Of course, we here at FFFB try not to pile on the body-snarking of any shape, skinny bitches included. As always, let's try for our healthiest, whatever your frame tends toward. If that means gaining a few pounds or losing a few pounds, that's up to you. If you currently weigh 250 lbs, aiming for 100lbs is probably not going to be the healthiest for you, but 160lbs might be great. Conversely, if you weight 100lbs, aiming for 135lbs might not be realistic for you either, so think about 120lbs.

Jeremy Piven: I Grew "Breasts" From Drinking Too Much Soy Milk

The Entourage actor has sworn off the healthful dairy milk substitute -- he chugged 12 cups a day -- because of an unflattering side effect, reports the Huffington Post.

"I was the guy that dabbled in soy milk, but now I've found out soy milk has enough estrogen for me to grow breasts," the Emmy winner explained. "I had to put the soy milk down. It was a very confusing time."

Well the estrogen may not have given him man boobs but the calories could have. Soy milk is a 100 calories a cup . So if he drank 12 cups a day that is 1200 calories on top of what other foods he ate during the day. 12 cups of anythings besides water does not equal moderation in healthy diet. So remember just because the food has health benefits it doesn't mean you can forget about portion control.

Dance Your Ass Off Returns!

Oxygen is bringing back its popular weight-loss show, Dance Your Ass Off, for a second season in 2010.

“We loved watching as contestants danced off nearly 500 pounds,” says Amy Introcaso-Davis, Senior Vice President of Original Programming and Development for Oxygen Media.
The show, which premiered earlier this year, paired a dozen professional dancers with overweight contestants, who competed to dance off the most weight.

Ruben Permel of Las Vegas ultimately won the competition when he shed 73 lbs. “On the show, we learned choreography, a routine. Now I can go social dancing. I can do the fox trot, I can do the salsa, I can do a swing dance with a complete stranger,” he told PEOPLE. “It’s kind of cliché to say, ‘Oh [the show] changed my life,’ but actually it did.”

The show’s second season will be produced by Magical Elves, the production company responsible for Bravo’s Top Chef. “We hope to inspire the entire country to eat healthy and get off the couch and dance!” says Introcaso-Davis.

No word on whether Marissa Jaret Winokur, who hosted the first season of the show, will be back for season 2. –Elaine Aradillas

Mariah Carey on Her Precious Make-Under: “I Felt Completely Rancid!”

Moviegoers may be taken aback by Mariah Carey’s decidedly glammed-down turn in the film Precious as a dowdy social worker, and the singer herself had an even stronger reaction the first time she looked in the mirror. “I felt completely rancid!” Carey told PEOPLE at the film’s premiere at the AFI Audi Film Festival. But because the novel that the movie is based on “changed my life,” she gave herself over to director Lee Daniels’ vision for the character’s un-made-up look.

I love me some Mariah Carey and I one day want to look like her glamours self. Yet, I feel sorry for her right now that she has such issues with becoming the part and looking regular. Every actress knows that the character doesn't have to be anything like you to play her. I just feel that her public self is so wrapped in the "glamour" that she can't pursue a Carey in acting.

Kate Winslet Wins $40,000 in Libel Suit about her Weight

Academy Award winner Kate Winslet said Tuesday she was "delighted" to win a payout of about $40,000 from a British newspaper that said she lied about her exercise regime.

"I strongly believe that women should be encouraged to accept themselves as they are, so to suggest that I was lying was an unacceptable accusation of hypocrisy," the 33-year-old mother of two said in a statement.

I am glad Kate Winslet stood up and told the truth. So many people try crazy celebrity diets to look like the stars based on what they read in the tabloids. Therefore, it is important to point out fact and fiction in these issues in order to protect people from themselves.

Tyra Banks: Kiss My Fit Behind

On The Tyra Banks Show this Wednesday, the host reveals her longtime struggle with chronic stomachaches. "I would get major attacks," Banks, 35, says. "I would be in bed for days, it was so painful."

Thanks to the help of nutritionist Heather Bauer, Banks re-evaluated her eating habits by keeping a food diary. "I switched up my unhealthy eating habits for healthier eating habits, and I haven't had a tummy attack since December '08," she says.

Banks is now revealing how she lost almost 30 lbs. since her famous "Kiss My Fat Ass" incident in early 2007.

I personally think all celebrities are pressured to lose weight to stay on TV. Yet, I think the best thing that a regular person can take from this article is that food journaling is a great place to start for diet and illness tracking.

Wynonna Judd: Coming Home to Myself

Wynonna Judd: Coming Home to Myself is an excellent book. It has really changed my perspective on my on life. She is very honest in the book. She talks about how in order for her life to change, she had to learn and change her "life script". She discusses her weight issues, but she does it from a point of physical and psychological healthy versus the bikini challenge train of thought.

I also like how she talks about how your dysfunction in food, spending, and relationships can all show up in other areas of your life such as weight.

She is a big advocate for life coaches, medication, and therapy to get her where she is today.

So even if you aren't into country music this book is still an excellent book if you are a woman seeking 'balance' in your life.

'America's Next Top Model' Creates Stir After 'Bi-Racial' Photo Shoot

During Wednesday night's "ANTM" episode on The CW, Tyra took the remaining six young women of Cycle 13 to Hawaii, where she took pictures of the models after they were transformed into different races.

Tyra told bleach blonde Erin Wagner she was going to be "Tibetan, like the Dali Lama, and Egyptian"; Southern belle Laura Kirkpatrick was put into makeup to look "Mexican and Greek"; Jennifer An, who is Korean, was told she was going to be "Botswanan and Polynesian"; African-American Sundai Love was made to look "Moroccan and Russian"; redheaded Nicole Fox was "Malagasy and Japanese," while blonde Brittany Markert was put into makeup to look "Native American and East Indian."

If we put the black face references aside. Here are my list of questions:

What does race have to do with fashion?
Why aren't we hiring more models of different races?
What is the point of transforming models?

I feel if we had real answers to the above question we would know why were are always trying to transform white models into the "exotic" instead of hiring a more diversified modeling pool.

Girls at "Weight Extremes" Less Likely to Practice Safer Sex

Oh, dear, although this does make sense considering our current cultural climate. Apparently, girls at "weight extremes" in other words overweight and underweight girls who are sexually active are LESS likely to engage in safer sex practices, specifically to demand condom usage, than "normal weight" sexually active girls.

The study (found HERE) finds that sexual risk taking is predictive by actual or perceived weight. Some of the findings include:

• Caucasian girls who believed that they were underweight, whether accurate or not, were more likely to have had sex and to have had four or more sexual partners. Overweight Caucasian girls were less likely to use condoms.
• Underweight African-American girls also were less likely to use condoms while overweight African-American girls reported four or more sexual partners.
• Latina girls of all weights were more likely to engage in a wide variety of sexual risk behaviors -- lack of condom or oral contraception use, sex before age 13, greater than four sexual partners and use of alcohol.

Dr. Akers, the lead researcher, noted: "This study will contribute to sexual health education prevention efforts, which can be tailored to address how cultural norms regarding body size may influence adolescent sexual decision making. Knowing how a girl perceives her weight may be just as important as knowing her actual weight."

Weight and self-esteem are linked, this we know. Self-esteem is crucial for women and girls to insist on safer sex practices and to advocate for their own reproductive health as well as pregnancy planning and prevention. Some might take this study and say "yet another fallout of the obesity crisis" but that's bunk. The answer isn't more pressure to conform to a perfect size (for both the skinnier than average girls and the over weight girls), but to stress self-esteem development, accurate and sensible comprehensive sex education that includes life-planning skills--nothing can destroy a girls educational or economic prospects like an unplanned pregnancy and teen motherhood (less than 3% go on to finish a 4 year college degree by age 30 and only around 33% graduate from High School--teen motherhood is a recipe for poverty).

Of course comprehensive sex education is crucial for both boys and girls, but it is important to remember that girls carry (literally and figurative) most of the burden of unplanned pregnancy and that often the fathers of teen girls children are adult males, men typically five years older than their teenage baby-mamma. So, yes, a very specific kind of sex education that relates to body image needs to be used with girls. I think that separating the sexes in High School for some portions of a sex ed curriculum could be useful when discussing these gender specific anxieties and problems. And after the gang rape of that poor 15 year old girl by 10 boys in Richmond, California (with up to ten more witnesses who did NOTHING), I think that a rape and domestic violence prevention program is necessary in our schools written specifically for males. I'm not saying that the teacher will call all of your precious, darling boy children rapists (which is often the outcry one hears from parents of boys when they hear "rape prevention education" but that rape culture and "boys will be boys" memes should be discussed with young males to help them call out the everyday misogyny their experience/participate in.

Any who--lets hope that this study will help comprehensive sex educators better teach their subjects and that science based sex ed becomes the norm once again. I feel so sorry for those kids today who will (are) facing greater teen pregnancy levels and STD/STI rates due to the ABSOLUTE failure of Abstinence Only Education that had factual errors and lies at its core. Of course I don't want kids to have sex before they are able to handle a healthy sexuality (that means mutual pleasure and respect) as well as STD/STI prevention and pregnancy prevention--and generally I think that is possible after age 18 or so, and Comprehensive Sex Education should cover that (it doesn't mean that Liberals think Kindgarteners should start having origies like some of the Abstinence only people have implied). But most of all, it needs to be accurate and health oriented.

Quit Makin' Things Up

So, the Obama for America Foundation has a pithy little internet spot up about Palin's lies regarding healthcare reform. Each lie they "call out" is marked by Palin's refrain from her resignation speech, "Quit Makin' Things Up." I agree, quit making things up, Ms. Palin.

October: Vegetarian Awarness Month, Who Knew?

So, apparently October is Vegetarian Awareness Month--who knew? Well, the month is almost over and I would have liked to have posted healthy and yummy vegetarian recipes each week in celebration. Instead, I elect November Flexitarian Month at FFFB and I'll post at least one Flexitarian recipe per week (Flexitarian simply means that you integrate meat/fish into your diet, but you try to limit the amount and you try to use non-meat based proteins in your general diet).

Healthy Food: What's That Again?

So, yesterday I had fast food for every meal--no joke. I've been incredibly busy and I just returned from a long road trip in which I took my eldest niece to visit the cutest college ever (good trip, bad eating). I don't even like fast food that much and I certainly don't feel nourished.

I'm back to faithful food blogging as soon as my camera cord (ordered off ebay) arrives. But in order to get back into the groove of healthy eating/exercise I'll do a written accounting of food/exercise until it comes.

This AM: oatmeal and water. Lunch will be an Amy's original and I'll go to the gym right after work. I need to drink lots of water today to rehydrate. I have hummus and laughing cow in the work fridge, but no veggies or apples to smear it on :( so I'll have to figure out a snack (maybe a granola bar from the campus bookstore? They have some healthy ones over there). Next week, I'll make my meals and bring salad mixings so that they are cut and prepared, but not already put into a finished salad (thus sogginess).

Chaos has abated since the fire, but I don't quite feel "back to normal" yet.

Peace

Taylor Lautner's Shirtless Pics: A Hollywood Double Standard?

So the commentary is Miley Cyrus backless in Vanity Fair versus Taylor Lautner shirtless facing forward in Twilight.

Remember the huge uproar in April 2008, when 15-year-old Miley Cyrus appeared in "Vanity Fair" wrapped in a sheet, with her right shoulder and the top of her back visible, implying that, under the sheet, she wasn't wearing a shirt?

Now, with the premiere of his movie, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," less than a month away, magazines, websites, and TV are blanketed with images of 17-year-old star Taylor Lautner, shirtless and showing off the body he trained for months to perfect for the role. And yet, none of the cultural critics who turned Miley's photos into a full-blown "scandal" have said a word about the sexualization of Taylor, who, at 17, is just two years older than Miley was during her "scandal" and is also a minor. So, does Hollywood have a double standard?

Well in my opinion all children need clothes on at all time and when need to stop over sexualizing children for "art", because every day neighborhood children are being exploited to full-fill the fantasies created by "art".

Also, teens don't need to be tempted to kill themselves with steriods and eating disorders to try to look like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Lautner. In real life you don't need to be underweight or 'cut' to go to Homecoming or to Chemistry class.

Tiana Arrives at Disney World

Princess Tiana from Disney's upcoming film The Princess and the Frog arrived via horse drawn carriage to the Magic Kingdom's Castle this weekend. The movie opens in December and features Disney's first Black Princess, a needed addition to the pantheon of Disney characters.

Now, I think that this princessification of young girls lives is a bit dodgy and fairly essentialist, but regardless I think that little girls of all races and ethnic groups should have media characters who are heroic, spunky, and smart to look up to in age-appropriate films and TV shows. Mulan saves a nation, Pocohontus bridges the divide between two peoples, Cinderella & the Little Mermaid take charge of their lives by disobeying authority (okay, I'm hard pressed to find anything redeeming in Sleeping Beauty or Snow White's stories), Belle sees beyond a monster's mask to glimpse a man striving for redemption. Tiana, it seems from the trailer, will go on an adventure and will be an active participant in the storyline, not a passive Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. So, dear reader, planning to see the movie?

Check out the trailer:

Octo-Mom: How I Lost 145 Pounds!

Nine months after giving birth to octuplets, single mom Nadya Suleman is back into her pre-baby jeans after losing a staggering 145 pounds -- without the help of a trainer or plastic surgery.

There, she fits in thrice-weekly midnight workouts (while a nanny watches over her sleeping children) with strength training but no cardio. "I get enough of that with the kids," Suleman, who gets by on three hours of sleep, tells Us.But don't think workouts alone got the 5-foot-7 mom down to 125 lbs. -- Suleman maintains a strict diet, too.

Five protein-packed meals or snacks a day normally consist of "anything the kids are eating." Food staples in the Suleman household? Oatmeal, sushi, turkey, and even homemade baby food. "As long as it's nutritious, it's good to eat," the busy mom explains.

Of all the people in Hollywood. She is the only person I think does enough daily activity to lose baby weight that fast. Durning most photos she is carrying 3 babies at a time.

Fat Girl: A True Story

Fat Girl: A True Story by Judith Moore is a book you can pass on by.

Here is the Amazon Review
Judith Moore's breathtakingly frank memoir, Fat Girl, is not for the faint of heart. It packs more emotional punch in its slight 196 pages than any doorstopper confessional. But the author warns us in her introduction of what's to come, and she consistently delivers. "Narrators of first-person claptrap like this often greet the reader at the door with moist hugs and complaisant kisses," Moore advises us bluntly. "I won't. I will not endear myself. I won't put on airs. I am not that pleasant. The older I get the less pleasant I am. I mistrust real-life stories that conclude on a triumphant note.... This is a story about an unhappy fat girl who became a fat woman who was happy and unhappy." With that, Moore unflinchingly leads us backward into a heartbreaking childhood marked by obesity, parental abuse, sexual assault, and the expected schoolyard bullying. What makes Fat Girl especially harrowing, though, is Moore's obvious self-loathing and her eagerness to share it with us. "I have been taking a hard look at myself in the dressing room's three-way mirror. Who am I kidding? My curly hair forms a corona around my round scarlet face, from the chin of which fat has begun to droop. My swollen feet in their black Mary Janes show from beneath the bottom hem of the ridiculous swaying skirt. The dressing room smells of my beefy stench. I should cry but I don't. I am used to this. I am inured." Moore's audaciousness in describing her apparently awful self ensures that her reader is never hardened to the horrors of food obsession and obesity. And while it is at times excruciatingly difficult bearing witness to Moore's merciless self-portraits, the reader cannot help but be floored by her candor. With Fat Girl, Moore has raised the stakes for autobiography while reminding us that our often thoughtless appraisals of others based on appearances can inflict genuine harm. It's a painful lesson well worth remembering.
--Kim Hughes

In my opinion the root of the author's problems is that she is crazy and not that she is fat. The author seems to never have gotten over the childish notion that "you are the center of the universe and every thing happens because of you". Even for the 196 pages that are the story, I would have had a better perspective on the thoughts of a fat person by reading Vogue Magazine.

As a fellow fat person, who is on a Weight Watchers to not be fat I can identify with fat discrimination. Yet this woman really wasn't experiencing fat discrimination most of the time. She was experience child abuse and that had nothing to do with fat and everything to do with the lack of parenting skills.

Being A Woman: I Am Not a Pre-Existing Condition Campaign

Check out the video above which is trying to call attention to the fact that simply by being a woman often means being charged up to 84% more for basic healthcare WITHOUT maternity coverage included. Healthcare reform is a woman's issue and it is a human rights issue. Check out the campaign and contact your representatives regarding the necessity of the Public Option.

Peace

House Fire: Remember to Check Your Fire Alarms!

So, readers might remember my brother who ran/walked the Mid Summer's Night Run with me in August? Well, his house burned down. They are alive and well and that's the important thing, but I want readers to check your fire alarm battery sometime this week--it might save your life!

Fat Talk Free Week

Fat Talk Free® Week (Oct 19 – 23, 2009) is an international, 5-day body activism campaign that draws attention to body image issues and the damaging impact of the thin ideal on women in society. This annual public awareness effort was borne from Tri Delta’s award-winning body image education and eating disorders prevention program, Reflections: Body Image Program™.

Check out a video on the topic Here.

What Healthy Habits Do You Enjoy?

An apple a day? Flossing after every meal? Taking the stairs at work? What healthy habits do you enjoy the most? Or, at least do the most regularly? Let us know in the comments!

Dr. Spaceman's Medical Advice--Don't Do Any of This At Home!!!