The High Cost of Comfort in One's Skin

Caution: There is a naked woman on this page and I don't consider it porn. It is, however, somewhat annoying.

Don't get excited. The naked woman in question is a reasonably modestly posed 20 year old "plus size" model named Lizzi Miller, who posed for the photo which graces the pages of Glamour Magazine. The article attached to it is about body image and "feeling comfortable in your skin.

Online fans have been buzzing about it since it went up late last week.

"I am gasping with delight...I love the woman on p 194!"

That was offered by one commenter, and apparently almost every statement that followed.

Am I glad to see it? Yes and no. Yes, I'm glad for any woman, any person really, to feel comfortable in their skin.

Am I comfortable with this particular woman? No. And here's why.

That little pooch, as the magazine lovingly refers to it, isn't really healthy for a 20 year old woman. It just isn't. If that were a 40 year old woman, she'd have earned it righteously. Maybe a few kids and a few days (or years) of "too busy to take care of me" meat on her bones. But on a 20 year old? Oh, please no.

And while I'm glad not to see one more stick-thin anorexia-infected model, I wonder about articles such as this one and another one in the New York Times suggesting, no, saying outright that it's "hip to be round."

Uh, no it's not. It's actually unhealthy. In fact, it could be downright deadly in a few years.

We all know that Americans have a health problem and it's right around our middle. We're gaining weight at an alarming rate. And to suggest that it's now become stylish to be overweight is outright insanity.

I don't want to call anyone out for their weight issues. I'm not even suggesting Lizzi Miller has a weight issue, but the fact is that the average American puts on 10 pounds per decade after age 20 and that is unhealthy.

Certainly, I have my own weight issues. But to suggest to the younger set, the group coming up, that carrying extra weight around one's middle is stylish is simply cultural suicide.

We're suffering from an epidemic of obesity and overweight in this country. And it's bringing with it something even worse. Right next to our weight issues are the attached health issues. Diabetes will be THE health issue of this 21st century. It is already striking in shocking numbers.

And oh, by the way, if you think the current health care program proposed by President Barack Obama will cost a lot now, you give it ten years, at our current rate of weight gain, and then check back, my friends. We won't have the current administration to blame then. If we continue to gain weight at our current rates, death panels won't be necessary. We'll be dying in record numbers, as we sit in wheelchairs with diabetes-induced blindness and minus our fingers and feet.

Personally, I don't want to pass the later years of my life suffering from numb, or even worse, amputated fingers, toes or full limbs. I have no intention of going blind in my later years, if I can avoid it at any cost. And if that cost means I don't eat the current average of 22 teaspoons of sugar in my daily diet, so be it. That article just linked, by the way, contains your daily bit of news from this blog.

It's NOT hip to be round. It's sad. It's indicative of a culture that has surrendered to its desires and shows no impulse control. If a candy bar a day is going to make you blind in your 60's and possibly kill you, is there really no way to avoid it?

There is. Stop now. Rethink your diet and exercise. It's not just society that will suffer. It's you. Take it personally before it becomes personal. Yes, please feel good about your body, but work at making it something to be proud of.

I have to cut this short. (You know I could go on about this for a lot longer, right?) But it's time for the gym.

Besides, there's nothing ironic, funny or hip about being round.

Nature vs. Nurture?

Most of you know I'm fascinated by what people eat, right? I love to cook but more than that, I love to poke my nose into what people are eating that day. I love to ask "what're you eating?" And I've been known to randomly ask friends, "what's for dinner?"

So let's delve the subject just a little. I tend to be moderate in my views about food and nutrition. I don't go for vegetarianism, although I love vegetables. Outlawing steak just seems so wrong to me. And I actually think it's sorta rude to turn up at a dinner party and presume to rule the roost on menu selections.

I am always keenly interested in the raw experience because I had dinner at a raw restaurant in Atlanta about a dozen years back. As a result, the 3 hour drive back to Knoxville took approximately 5 and a half hours and I got a lovely Tour de Force (Trust me. This is the right expression) of restrooms in every gas station and fast food concessionaire between Atlanta and Knoxville. I always wonder when someone tells me they are into raw foods because I'm curious about their digestive tract. I know it's getting a better workout than mine!

But that's ok. I've always said I prefer to eat interestingly rather than well. I'd rather eat something new and different even if it's questionable over something traditional and known to be just "okay." I'd love to try the whole dining in the raw thing again sometime. And soon.

So here comes a new report about various aspects of our diets. It's actually a regimen proposed by the Weston A. Price Foundation, which espouses a diet of primitive origins. (I've been longing to use that word, espouses.) Devised by Mr. Price himself, a Cleveland Dentist who traveled the backroads in the early part of the last century to produce writings in 1939 that he titled, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration."

In it, Weston A. Price concludes that a diet high in the vitamins found in animal fats and untouched by "modern" innovations such as refined flour, sugar and chemically preserved foods was the key to preventing chronic disease and tooth decay.

Our dentist then takes things a few steps further than the popular high protein twin-set of the Atkins Diet Plan or the South Beach Diet. He suggests raw milk. And in a convenience store full of cookies, candy, chips, and soda pop, he would call for you to seek out the pork cracklings. You gotta like a man with the chutzpah to do that and call it "healthful." But he did.

If you saw a recent comparative study of three extremely popular nutritional plans: low fat, low carbohydrate, and Mediterranean diets, then you know what is what. Researchers found that the low fat diet could help a person lose weight. Those on the Mediterranean diet (comprised of healthy fats, fruits and vegetables) lost more. But those who followed the low carbohydrate, high protein diet plans out there lost the most and kept it off. Maybe Weston A. Price wasn't so looney after all. Maybe he was recommending pork crackling ahead of his time.

I'm still thinking about the raw milk. I'm not sure I want to keel over after consuming uncooked cow juice. But slather on the butter? You better believe I'm in!