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My stance is that unrestricted eating means unrestricted eating. Yummy yummy candies, cakes, ice creams, tarts, chips, pizza, burgers, fries and other goodies are part of a normal varied diet. It’s perfectly OK to eat them every day as part of an otherwise varied and satisfying diet. It is nothing but cultural biases like classism and racism that vilify such foods. It’s even wrong to claim that they don’t have any “nutrients” (though I also don’t believe in analyzing our foods in that way so I won’t indulge that aspect of your question any further, beyond pointing out that it is incorrect).

Most people who have the privilege of food security live their lives restricting those foods, and so they begin to take on a special obsessive place in their lives. People crave those foods, then eat them and feel guilty, so they restrict them again. People moralize about those foods and link the eating, or avoiding, of those foods to personal feelings of worth. This is all disordered. 

The truth is that those yummy things are just foods. No different in the grand scheme than a carrot or an avocado or that god-awful kale.

So when people who have the privilege of food security truly embrace unrestricted eating, those foods lose all their power. They become just another option in a wide sea of food options. Some days you eat them, and some days you don’t, and you don’t worry about it at all. Doesn’t that sound better than obsessing all the time?

But honestly, this topic is far too big to cover in a single ask. I spent two years working with a dietitian and educating myself online to learn how to eat intuitively and without any restriction at all. I am lucky that I was able to access that support and it has been truly life changing for me and my family. If you want to learn how to get from where you are to a place of peace with food, you can start your education here:

The Food Psych Podcast

The Fat Nutritionist

The Ellyn Satter Institute

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Well, if you read my blog, you know that basically everyone who loses weight gains it back within 3-5 years, and fully 70% regain more weight than they lost. Your own lived experience may affirm the truth of these statistics.  

And it turns out that weight gain is an independent risk factor for the development of Type II diabetes. Oh, and for men your age, weight gain also increases the risk of all-causes mortality. 

So prescribing weight-loss to improve glucose metabolism seems remarkably short-sighted to me, given that the inevitable weight regain could further harm your health.

But research has shown that some moderate behavior changes can help support metabolic health, within the range that is possible for each individual given our unique genes and life experiences. 

Eating adequately and regularly throughout the day (i.e., over 2500 to 3500 calories per day; no more than 3 hours between meals/snacks). It is easier for your body to process glucose when it comes regularly. Periods of restriction followed by larger meals can stress the body’s abilities to process glucose. Note, you do not need to restrict food groups or eat less. Just nourish yourself adequately and often.

Moving your body so your breathing is moderately elevated for about 20 minutes per day. This level of activity maximizes absorption of glucose into the muscles. Note that more exercise than this does not bring added benefits. No need to push yourself to extremes. Daily moderate activity is all it takes and you don’t even have to do it all at once.

Sleeping at least 7 hours per night, and most importantly, treating sleep apnea if it exists. About 50% of people with Type II diabetes have sleep apnea (compared to about 20% of the general population) because poor sleep affects glucose metabolism. Treating sleep apnea with CPAP therapy is 100% effective and has no side effects. It also improves glucose metabolism. A man your age and size is very likely to have sleep apnea, so get tested! 

A twitter thread from Christy Harrison, MPH, RD:

High BMI is NOT a risk factor for hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, or mortality in COVID-19, according to this large new study of 10,000+ people with the virus (CW: weight-stigmatizing language, BMI numbers)

I hope we’ll see major media reporting on this study, as it’s one of few studies on this topic to fully adjust for confounding variables, and definitely one of the largest studies that I’ve seen to date on this topic. 

Interestingly, it found that although Black patients were more likely to be hospitalized and to receive mechanical ventilation than white patients, they WEREN’T more likely to die.

This may have something to do with equalized healthcare access (this study was conducted in the VA healthcare system) or less-discriminatory care in that system (where the percentage of Black patients is much higher than many other healthcare systems).

Also, Hispanic ethnicity was not associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes in this study, which again may reflect the better access to quality care that patients of color receive in the VA system.

That access and quality may also be why larger-bodied patients fared just as well—and in some cases better—than smaller-bodied patients in this study (see Table 1).

In short, this study supports what I’ve been saying since March: we need to stop jumping to the conclusion that high BMI independently raises COVID-19 risks; when we have good studies that control for confounding variables, those supposed risks disappear. It’s not the weight.

When a thin person like Bob Harper has a heart attack, it’s blamed on genetics. When a fat person has a heart attack, it’s blamed on our size – or rather, the eating and activity habits that are wrongly assumed to cause our size. 

That is fat phobic health science in a nut shell.

all eating disorders are disorders of restriction. the difference is in people’s bodies’ responses to that restriction. to put it very crudely, anorexics respond w more and more restriction (at least for a while), bulimics with binge eating and then purging, and BED with more frequent bingeing, with other disorders scattered across the spectrum and most people sliding from one set of behaviors to another over time. most anorexics end up bulimic or in some type of b/p cycle bc the body’s drive to eat after starvation is so overwhelming. eventually, almost everyone binges to some extent and w varying frequency. 

It’s exactly what it sounds like. You didn’t bag this bird. What’s inside? Who knows? You just have the weight to go on. Is it a robin who will just let you do your thing and you both move on with your day? Is it a tiny little wren?

As it clamps down on your finger and twists, you know. You grin and proudly announce “I’ve got a cardinal! And it got me back!”

On June 11th, Michael Hickson, a quadriplegic black man with COVID-19 was killed by a hospital in Austin Texas.

Doctors decided he had "no quality of life" an was not worth spending the resources to save.

The conversation between his doctor and his wife was caught on audio 1/?

[description of image: a photo of Hickson, lying in a hospital bed and smiling for the camera /description]

Doctor: So as of right now, his quality of life -- he doesn't have much of one.

Melissa: What do you mean? Because he's paralyzed with a brain injury he doesn’t have quality of life?

Doctor: Correct.

--

Hickson was refused food or treatment for 6 days

In the YouTube video, the doctor can be heard saying "he will have lines and tubes coming out of his body... That's not quality-of-life"

I have tubes coming out of my body. I happen to like my life. Without those tubes I'd be dead

Our definition of quality is vastly different

So, when you see me repeatedly yelling about masks, paying attention to disabled people, and you don't understand why I tweet with passion, remember this.

I'm fighting to change culture that doesn't see disabled life as quality. many of us are afraid and rightly so.

LaBlaq @LoveAndShalom

Please, please, please don't sweep this under the rug. Your disabled friends are in danger.

“No one has offered condolences. There has never been an apology or acknowledgment of his death. It’s like they just don’t care,”

#disabled not disposable

The dog thought she was in trouble and pushed the chair under her 😭