April's CR Diary

I posted on this last week. Don't you think it has some potential for CR banning there. To some people doesn't CR "encourage prolonged nutritional deprivation"? I am sure that in a trial it would become clear that CR is intended to make people healthy, not the reverse. But the way the law is worded makes CR vulnerable. Don't you wish they would ban things that "encouraged prolonged nutritional excess!"

I still want to go. We could fix you up with excessive padding.

This banning thin is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. There was story in the Toronto Globe and Mail on Saturday about the problem of "thin" body image in fashion. But, oddly enough, the illustration showed where the real problem lies: 2% of Canadians are supposedly "underweight" (that is below a BMI of 18), and 59.1% are overweight or obese. My husband is a medical doctor, and he's constantly dealing with obese patients and their serious health problems. Go figure!

The other Yvonne, BMI of 18.4 (barely legal)

In my opinion, I don't think it's crazy at all. Of course, it is easy to be insulted as a thin person. Why should a government be able to dictate what is beautiful or what is healthy? I understand perfectly because I have had parents and other family members constantly berating me for being too thin for a quite some time. However, I think we are a bit quick to get our feathers ruffled here. This "ban" is more for the benefit of young girls and models (I'm sure everyone can comprehend the pressures of the modeling life) succeptible to this sort of media-glorification than for adults capable of maintaining calorie restriction with proper nutrition. It is a battle against anorexia. Any CR proponent worth his or her salt should recognize that calorie restriction WITH OPTIMAL NUTRITION is different from anorexia. Young girls, however, are too immature to understand this concept. All they see are heroin-chic models being the standard for beauty and so they starve themselves with diet soda and lettuce for weeks on end. Furthermore, let's be perfectly honest: how many of these super-skinny models are practicing CR... probably few to none. They are simply starving themselves. And that is the material point. If there is actually a distinction between CR and anorexia, then this shouldn't be insulting. It a gross exaggeration to suggest that the governement might "ban thin people." I mean think about it... they would be forced to end world hunger in order to accomplish such a thing! This ban may be a rather shallow, short-sighted remedy for a vastly complicated problem, but it's not completely out of left field.

Here's something from the BBC about the death of an anorexic professor. The comments by some of the readers are pertinent to some of your previous discussions about anorexia and obesity.
Also some of the readers responses were interesting too.
Here 'tis:

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Dorset | Professor, 49, died from anorexia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/7360470.stm

April, I honestly don't think the issue is about banning either images of thin people or thin people themselves. The news coverage we have had in Canada indicates that the proposed legislation is intended to put the brakes on the glorification of extreme skinniness by websites, etc. that and teach vulnerable young girls about anorexia and bulimia. In all seriousness, do you honestly believe that a BMI of 15 for a female could possibly be healthy? As an example, that would mean I would have to weigh a mere 87 lbs and you'd have to stay just under 82 lbs. IMO, regardless of how perfect you were with your CR practice, you could not possibly be getting proper nutrition at the miniscule number of calories you'd have to ingest to get and keep yourself at that weight. Even MR's BMI is not that low and he is close to perfect in his CR practice. He is also male. As your commenter Jackie mentioned, most of these silly girls are basically starving themselves, without regard to nutrition whatsoever. Perhaps using legislation in this way is the wrong way to approach the problem but sometimes the ends justify the means. Certainly, obesity is a far, far bigger societal problem but attacking what amounts to promoting methods of slow suicide by starvation all in the name of having "the look" is not all bad. JD

Judith, I agree with you 100%.

Personally, though, I would characterize women who starve themselves as tragic, not silly.

Here's a former model's perspective:

http://mamavision.com/2007/09/12/dead-girls-walking/

Judith and Jackie and Yvonne, good points. Obesity (which can be caused by an eating disorder, itself, such as Binge Eating Disorder or Compulsive Overeating) is linked to the eating disorders of Anorexia and Bulimia, in the sense that extreme fear of obesity is often one strong reason for why people become eating disordered. I also think that there are many, many thin images of models and actresses everywhere. Along with the glorification of thinness, obesity rates are also increasing, and much hatred is now directed against obese people. It's really not a good situation for Anyone. But, if anyone is going to be banned, I think the fat person will be banned much quicker than the thin person (and is already banned from alot of tv and magazines and movies, even though there are some large entertainers and always have been, like Queen Latifah). Fat people are also "banned" in a moralistic sense by most people. Maybe it's also that few people seem to be comfortable with very far extremes of weight, at either end of the scale, fat or thin.

Just to note--if you shop at co-ops and get veggies from CSAs and farmers' markets you can avoid seeing a lot of junk (though there is still a fair amount of cleverly disguised junk at health food stores). I don't like seeing garbage myself, not because it tempts me, but because it's annoying, like advertising.