Introduction: How My Life Changed with One Sentence
1. Body image issues are clearly on the rise for boys and men, but there are few statistics on the subject yet, maybe because men are far less open about such concerns than women.
2. Charlotte Cooper, “Headless Fatties,” 2007, accessed on October 23, 2014, www.charlottecooper.net.
3. C. Y. Chang, D. S. Key, and J. Y. Chen, “Essential Fatty Acids and Human Brain,” Acta Neurologica Taiwanica 18, no. 4 (2009): 231–241.
4. According to a 2008 survey done by Self magazine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. See www.med.unc.edu/www/newsarchive/2008/april/survey-finds-disordered-eating-behaviors-among-three-out-of-four-american-women.
5. According to an NPR story, “Skinny Isn’t All That: Survey Finds Fewer American Women Are Dieting,” aired January 7, 2013.
Chapter 1: Four Big Fat Lies About Weight and Health
1. B. Chaix et al., “Food Environment and Socioeconomic Status Influence Obesity Rates in Seattle and Paris,” International Journal of Obesity 38 (2014): 306–314; Susan Everson et al., “Epidemiological Evidence for the Relation Between Socioeconomic Status and Depression, Obesity, and Diabetes,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 53 (2002): 891–895; Supriya Krishnan et al., “Socioeconomic Status and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes: Results from the Black Women’s Health Study,” American Journal of Epidemiology 171 (2010): 564–570; Jessica Robbins et al., “Socioeconomic Status and Diagnosed Diabetes Incidence,” Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 68 (2005): 230–236; Mei Tang et al., “Gender-Related Differences in the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Self-Reported Diabetes,” International Journal of Epidemiology 32 (2003): 381–385; and Timothy Lee et al., “Socioeconomic Status and Incident Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Data from the Women’s Health Study,” PLOS One, 2011.
2. Duk-Hee Lee et al., “A Strong Dose-Response Relation Between Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Diabetes,” Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk 29 (2006): 1638–1644; and J. S. Lim et al., “Inverse Associations Between Long-Term Weight Change and Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants,” International Journal of Obesity 35 (2011): 744–747. Also, environmentalist Sarah Howard, the national coordinator of The Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s Diabetes-Obesity Spectrum Working Group, has created a website exploring links between diabetes and POPs at www.diabetesandenvironment.org.
3. Bruce Blumberg and Amanda Janesick, “Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and the Developmental Programming of Adipogenesis and Obesity,” Birth Defects Research (Part C) 93 (2011): 34–50.
4. E. L. Dirinck et al., “Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants: Relationship with Abnormal Glucose Metabolism and Visceral Adiposity,” Diabetes Care 37 (2014): 1951–1958.
5. America’s State of Mind Report, 2011, http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s19032en/s19032en.pdf.
6. Amresh Shrivastava and Megan Johnston, “Weight Gain in Psychiatric Treatment: Risks, Implications, and Strategies for Prevention and Management,” Mens Sana Monographs 8 (2010): 53–68.
7. Marion Nestle, “Diet Wars,” Frontline, first aired April 8, 2004.
8. Jotham Suez et al., “Artificial Sweeteners Induce Glucose Intolerance by Altering the Gut Microbiota,” Nature 514 (September 2014): 181–186.
9. National Obesity Forum, “State of the Nation’s Waistline Obesity in the UK: Analysis and Expectations,” 2014.
10. Michael Stones, “‘We Exaggerated Obesity Crisis’: Pressure Group,” Foodmanufacture.co.uk, January 20, 2014.
11. William Ernest Henley, “Invictus,” from Book of Verses (1888), http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182194.
12. J. A. Bell, M. Kivimaki, and M. Hammer, “Metabolically Healthy Obesity and Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies,” Obesity Reviews 15, no. 6 (2014): 504–515.
13. Per the Mayo Clinic website, accessed October 23, 2014, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/prediabetes/basics/treatment/con-20024420.
14. Attia’s TEDMED talk on the subject is provocative and fascinating. See it at www.ted.com/talks/peter_attia_what_if_we_re_wrong_about_diabetes.
15. Eugenia Calle et al., “Body-Mass Index and Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of U.S. Adults,” New England Journal of Medicine 341 (1999): 1097–1105.
16. Robbins et al., “Socioeconomic Status,” 2004; Tang et al., “Gender-Related Differences,” 2003; Lee et al., “Socioeconomic Status,” 2011; Everson et al., “Epidemiological Evidence,” 2002; and Krishnan et al., “Socioeconomic Status,” 2010.
17. Michael D. Wirth et al., “Chronic Weight Dissatisfaction Predicts Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Aerobic Center Longitudinal Study,” American Psychological Association 33 (2014): 912–919.
2: The Amazing! Seventeen-Day! Flat-Belly! Grain-Brain! Biggest Loser! Raw Food! Diet
1. Sadie Whitelocks, “Trendy Crash Diets This New Year Are Likely to Last Just 15 Days and Could End Up with Women Weighing MORE,” Mail Online, January 2, 2002, accessed October 24, 2014, www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2081315/Trendy-crash-diets-New-Year-likely-just-15-days-end-women-weighing-MORE.html.
2. “100 Million Dieters, $20 Billion: The Weight-Loss Industry by the Numbers,” ABC News, May 8, 2012.
3. According to statistics from the Eating Disorder Foundation of Denver, Colorado, www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org/EatingDisorders.htm.
4. “The U.S. Weight Loss Market: 2014 Status Report & Forecast,” accessed October 24, 2014, www.marketresearch.com/Marketdata-Enterprises-Inc-v416/Weight-Loss-Status-Forecast-8016030/.
5. R. L. Corwin, N. M. Avena, and M. M. Boggiano, “Feeding and Reward: Perspectives from Three Rat Models of Binge Eating,” Physiology & Behaviour 104 (2011): 87–97.
6. Traci Mann et al., “Medicare’s Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer,” American Psychologist 62 (2007): 220–233; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer et al., “Obesity, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents: How Do Dieters Fare 5 Years Later?” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 106 (2006): 559–568; K. H. Pietiläinen et al., “Does Dieting Make You Fat? A Twin Study,” International Journal of Obesity 36 (2012): 456–464.
7. Paul Ernsberger and Paul Haskew, “Health Implications of Obesity: An Alternative View,” Journal of Obesity and Weight Regulation 6, no. 2 (1987): 55–137.
8. Marlene Cimons, “Five Diet Firms Charged with Deceptive Ads,” Los Angeles Times, October 1, 1993.
9. Barbara Altman Bruno, “The HAES® Files: History of the Health at Every Size Movement—the Early 1990s,” published on the Association for Size Diversity and Health blog, www.healthateverysizeblog.org/2013/07/16/the-haes-files-history-of-the-health-at-every-size-movement-the-early-1990s/.
10. David M. Garner, “Ineffectiveness of Weight Loss and the Exaggeration of Health Risks Associated with Obesity,” testimony before the Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Regulation, Business Opportunities, and Energy, May 7, 1990.
11. David M. Garner and Susan C. Wooley, “Obesity Treatment: The High Cost of False Hope,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 91 (1991): 1248–1251.
12. K. H. Pietiläinen et al., “Does Dieting Make You Fat? A Twin Study,” International Journal of Obesity 36 (2011): 456–464.
13. M. J. Müller, A. Bosy-Westphal, and S. B. Heymsfeld, “Is There Evidence for a Set Point That Regulates Human Body Weight?” F1000 Medicine Reports 2 (2010): 59.
14. Janet Tomiyama et al., “Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol,” Psychosomatic Medicine 72 (2010): 357–364.
15. Sendhil Mullainathan, “The Mental Strain of Making Do With Less,” New York Times, September 21, 2013.
16. Janet Polivy, Julie Coleman, and C. Peter Herman, “The Effect of Deprivation on Food Cravings and Eating Behavior in Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 38, no. 4 (2005): 301–309.
17. Susmita Kaushik et al., “Autophagy in Hypothalamic AgRP Neurons Regulates Food Intake and Energy Balance,” Cell Metabolism 14 (2011): 173–183.
18. Nancy Krebs et al., “Assessment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity,” Pediatrics 120 (2007): S193–S228.
19. Paul Campos, “Childhood Shmobesity,” The New Republic, February 11, 2010.
20. See www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/underweight_child_07_10/underweight_child_07_10.htm for more details.
21. J. Norman and R. Reynolds, “The Consequences of Obesity and Excess Weight Gain in Pregnancy,” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 70 (2011): 450–456; and Matthew Gillman and David Ludwig, “How Early Should Obesity Prevention Start?” New England Journal of Medicine 369 (2013): 2173–2175.
22. Lindsey Murtagh and David S. Ludwig, “State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity,” JAMA 306, no. 2 (2011): 206–207.
23. Mattias Öberg et al., “Worldwide Burden of Disease from Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke: A Retrospective Analysis of Data from 192 Countries,” The Lancet, November 26, 2010.
24. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer et al., “Dieting and Disordered Eating Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Findings from a 10-Year Longitudinal Study,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 111 (2011): 1004–1011.
25. E. Enriquez, G. E. Duncan, and E. A. Schur, “Age at Dieting Onset, Body Mass Index, and Dieting Practices. A Twin Study,” Appetite 71 (2013): 301–306.
26. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, “Dieting and Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors During Adolescence,” Journal of Adolescent Health (2012): 80–86.
27. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer et al., “Obesity, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents: How Do Dieters Fare 5 Years Later?” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 106 (2006): 559–568.
28. Interview with Katie Loth, December 2013.
29. Lisa Belkin, “Dara-Lynn Weiss, Author of ‘The Heavy,’ Does Not Regret Putting her 7-Year-Old on a Diet,” Huffington Post, January 15, 2013.
30. The campaign continues, however, at www.strong4life.com.
31. Daniel Callahan, “Obesity: Chasing an Elusive Epidemic,” Hastings Center Report, 2013.
32. Leora Pinhas et al., “Trading Health for a Healthy Weight: The Uncharted Side of Healthy Weights Initiatives,” Eating Disorders 21 (2013): 109–116; and Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, “Integrating Messages from the Eating Disorders Field into Obesity Prevention,” Adolescent Medicine 23 (2012): 529–543.
33. You can read the full story in Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia (New York: William Morrow, 2010).
34. Annemarie Olsen, Per Møller, and Helene Hausner, “Early Origins of Overeating: Early Habit Formation and Implications for Obesity in Later Life,” Current Obesity Reports 2 (2013): 157–164.
35. M. L. Butryn and T. A. Wadden, “Treatment of Overweight in Children and Adolescents: Does Dieting Increase the Risk of Eating Disorders?” International Journal of Eating Disorders 37, no. 4 (2005): 285–293.
36. Comments made at the 2013 American Diabetes Association convention.
37. Per Wing’s bio on the National Weight Control Registry page, www.nwcr.ws/people/Rena.htm.
38. Steven N. Blair et al., “Body Weight Change, All-Cause Mortality, and Cause-Specific Mortality in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial,” Annals of Internal Medicine 119 (1993): 749–757; and Lauren Lissner et al., “Variability of Body Weight and Health Outcomes in the Framingham Population,” New England Journal of Medicine 324 (1991): 1839–1844.
39. Emily K. Anderson et al., “Weight Cycling Increases T-cell Accumulation in Adipose Tissue and Impairs Systemic Glucose Tolerance,” Diabetes 62, no. 9 (2013): 3180–3188; and Linda Nebeling et al., “Weight Cycling and Immunocompetence,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 104 (2004): 892–894.
40. Daniel P. Beavers et al., “Cardiometabolic Risk After Weight Loss and Subsequent Weight Regain in Overweight and Obese Postmenopausal Women,” Journal of Gerontology A Biol Sci Med Sci 68 (2012): 691–698.
41. H. Yatsuya et al., “Association Between Weight Fluctuation and Fasting Insulin Concentration in Japanese Men,” International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 27 (2003): 478–483.
42. M. B. Olson et al., “Weight Cycling and High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Women: Evidence of an Adverse Effect: A Report from the NHLBI-Sponsored WISE Study,” Journal of the American College of Cardiology 36 (2000): 1565–1571.
43. J.-P. Montani et al., “Weight Cycling During Growth and Beyond as a Risk Factor for Later Cardiovascular Diseases: The ‘Repeated Overshoot’ Theory,” International Journal of Obesity 30 (2006): S58–S66.
44. Emanuele Cereda et al., “Weight Cycling Is Associated with Body Weight Excess and Abdominal Fat Accumulation: A Cross-Sectional Study,” Clinical Nutrition 30 (2011): 718–723.
45. Taeko Kajioka et al., “Effects of Intentional Weight Cycling on Non-Obese Young Women,” Metabolism 51, no. 2 (Feb 2002): 149–154.
46. Alison Field, Susan Malspeis, and Walter C. Willet, “Weight Cycling and Mortality Among Middle-Aged or Older Women,” JAMA Internal Medicine 169 (2009): 881–886; and Victoria Stevens et al., “Weight Cycling and Mortality in a Large Prospective U.S. Study,” American Journal of Epidemiology 175 (2012): 785–792.
47. Alison Field et al., “Weight Cycling and the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes Among Adult Women in the United States,” Obesity Research 12, no. 2 (2004): 267–274; Gary Foster, D. B. Sarwer, and T. A. Wadden, “Psychological Effects of Weight Cycling in Obese Persons: A Review and Research Agenda,” Obesity Research 5 (1997): 474–488; and Lauren R. Simkin-Silverman et al., “Lifetime Weight Cycling and Psychological Health in Normal-Weight and Overweight Women,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 24 (1998): 175–183.
48. Robyn L. Osborn et al., “Yo-Yo Dieting in African American Women: Weight Cycling and Health,” Ethnicity and Disease 21 (2011): 274–280.
49. J. P. Foreyt et al., “Psychological Correlates of Weight Fluctuation,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 17 (1995): 263–275.
50. C. A. Geissler, D. S. Miller, and M. Shah, “The Daily Metabolic Rate of the Post-Obese and the Lean,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 45 (1987): 914–920.
51. Asheley C. Skinner, Michael J. Steiner, and Eliana M. Perrin, “Self-Reported Energy Intake by Age in Overweight and Healthy-Weight Children in NHANES, 2001–2008,” Pediatrics 130 (2012): e936–e942.
Chapter 3: Good Food, Bad Food
1. Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Mark Nord, and Anita Singh, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2012,” a report from the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture, September 2013.
2. Per the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, accessed October 24, 2014, www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expenditures.aspx#.U9WXlo1dVrg. I have seen lower estimates from other sources, but this one seems the most reliable.
3. Shan Guisinger, “Adapted to Flee Famine: Adding an Evolutionary Perspective on Anorexia Nervosa,” Psychological Review 110, no. 4 (1993): 745–761.
4. R. M. Puhl, J. Luedicke, and J. A. Depierre, “Parental Concerns About Weight-Based Victimization in Youth,” Childhood Obesity 9 (2013): 540–548.
5. Excerpts from the first edition of “Dietary Goals for the United States,” February, 1977, www.zerodisease.com/archive/Dietary_Goals_For_The_United_States.pdf.
6. “Interview with Arthur Agatston,” Frontline, January 7, 2004, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/interviews/agatston.html.
7. See www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/ for more information.
8. Jason Andrade et al., “Ancel Keys and the Lipid Hypothesis: From Early Breakthroughs to Current Management of Dyslipidemia,” British Columbia Medical Journal 51, no 2 (2009): 66–72.
9. Nina Teicholz, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014).
10. “Diet Wars,” Frontline, first aired April 2004.
11. Michael Gard and Jan Wright, The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality, and Ideology (Oxon: Routledge, 2005), 114–115; and Julie Guthman, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 93–95.
12. M. F. Rolland-Cachera, F. Bellisle, and M. Deheeger, “Nutritional Status and Food Intake in Adolescents Living in Western Europe,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54 (2000): S41–S46.
13. Jeffrey Sobal and Albert J. Stunkard, “Socioeconomic Status and Obesity: A Review of the Literature,” Psychological Bulletin 105 (1989): 260–275.
14. L. Hallberg et al., “Iron Absorption from Southeast Asian Diets,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 30 (1977): 539–548.
15. David Ludwig and Mark Friedman, “Always Hungry? Here’s Why,” New York Times, May 16, 2014.
16. Roland Sturm and An Ruopeng, “Obesity and Economic Environments,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 64 (2014): 337–350.
17. See Scientific American’s entertaining “Processed Food: A 2-Million-Year History” in its September 2013 issue.
18. “Rise and Fall of Trans Fat: A History of Partially Hydrogenated Oil,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2013, www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-rise-and-fall-of-trans-fat-20131107-story.html.
19. Miriam E. Bocarsly et al., “High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Characteristics of Obesity in Rats,” Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 97 (2010): 101–106.
20. H. Bart Van der Worp et al., “Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies?” PLOS Medicine, March 30, 2010.
21. Iris Higgins, “An Open Apology to All My Weight Loss Clients,” Huffington Post, August 16, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/iris-higgins/an-open-apology-to-all-of_b_3762714.html.
4: Money, Motivation, and the Medical Machine
1. Andrew Newman, “Enticing Doctors to Endorse a Weight-Loss Program,” New York Times, December 27, 2011.
2. Michael Gard and Jan Wright, The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality, and Ideology (Oxon: Routledge, 2005), 179.
3. Robert Pool, Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 189.
4. Jeffery Sobal, “The Medicalization and Demedicalization of Obesity,” in Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition as Social Problems, ed. Donna Maurer and Jeffery Sobal (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1955), 70.
5. Norman Jolliffe, “Some Basic Considerations of Obesity as a Public Health Problem,” American Journal of Public Health 43 (1953): 989–992.
6. Paul E. Craig, “Obesity: A Practical Guide to Its Treatment Based on a Controlled Study of 821 Cases,” Medical Times 83, no. 2 (1955): 156–164.
7. From “Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female,” in Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, ed. Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999): 97–116.
8. Flemming Quadde, “Stereotaxy for Obesity,” The Lancet 303 (1974): 267.
9. Ted Rothstein, “The Dental Professionals Role in the Treatment of Morbid Obesity—None!” January 14, 2013, accessed October 24, 2014, www.drted.com/OJW%20NYSDJ%20articles%20Dec04.html.
10. Maaike Kruseman et al., “Dietary, Weight, and Psychological Changes Among Patients with Obesity, 8 Years After Gastric Bypass,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 110 (2010): 527–534; N. V. Christou, D. Look, and L. D. Maclean, “Weight Gain After Short- and Long-Limb Gastric Bypass in Patients Followed for Longer Than 10 Years,” Annals of Surgery 244 (2006): 734–740; and Daniela O. Magro et al., “Long-Term Weight Regain After Gastric Bypass: A 5-Year Prospective Study,” Obesity Surgery 18 (2008): 648–651.
11. Jonathan P. Weiner et al., “Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Health Care Costs of Obese Persons,” JAMA 148 (2013): 555–562.
12. Jean Mitchell and Tim Roger Sass, “Physician Ownership of Ancillary Services: Indirect Demand Inducement or Quality Assurance?” Journal of Health Economics 14 (1995): 263–289.
13. Susan Coyle, “Physician-Industry Relations. Part 1: Individual Physicians,” Annals of Internal Medicine 136 (2002): 396–402.
14. “Conflict-of-Interest Policies for Academic Medical Centers,” a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, December 2013.
15. Bernard Lo and Marilyn J. Field, eds., Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009).
16. “An Epidemic of Obesity Myths,” Center for Consumer Freedom, accessed October 24, 2014, www.obesitymyths.com.
17. Per ProPublica’s “Dollars for Docs” website http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars; Michael F. Jacobson et al., Unpublished letter to Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science, August 21, 2003; Xavier Pi-Sunyer, “The Medical Risks of Obesity,” Postgrad Med 121 (2009): 21–33, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879283/; and Xavier Pi-Sunyer, “The Role of the Endocannabinoid System in Contributing to Obesity,” Medscape, online slides with audio www.medscape.org/viewarticle/567417; click on “Faculty and Disclosures.”
18. Michael Oldani, “Thick Prescriptions: Toward an Interpretation of Pharmaceutical Sales Practices,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18, no. 3 (2004): 325–356.
19. Eric Quiñones, “A Prescription for Change,” Princeton Weekly Bulletin 92, no. 25 (2003).
20. Mark Friedberg et al., “Evaluation of Conflict of Interest in Economic Analyses of New Drugs Used in Oncology,” JAMA 282 (1999): 1453–1457; Justin Bekelman, Yan Li, and Cary P. Gross, “Scope and Impact of Financial Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research: A Systematic Review,” JAMA 289 (2003): 454–465; Thomas Bodenheimer, “Uneasy Alliance: Clinical Investigators and the Pharmaceutical Industry,” New England Journal of Medicine 342, no. 20 (2000): 1539–1544; and Richard A. Davidson, “Source of Funding and Outcome of Clinical Trials,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 1 (1986): 155–158.
21. Dana Katz, Arthur L. Caplan, and Jon F. Merz, “All Gifts Large and Small: Toward an Understanding of the Ethics of Pharmaceutical Industry Gift-Giving,” American Journal of Bioethics 3 (2003): 39–46.
22. Jason Dana and George Loewenstein, “A Social Science Perspective on Gifts to Physicians from Industry,” JAMA 290 (2003): 252–255.
23. Jason Dana, “How Psychological Research Can Inform Policies for Dealing with Conflicts of Interest in Medicine,” in Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009).
24. George A. Bray, “Why Do We Need Drugs to Treat the Patient with Obesity?” Obesity 21, no. 5 (2013): 893–899.
25. Per COI information in the International Journal of Obesity, www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n7s/full/ijo2008230a.html.
26. Kevin Lomangino, “Conflicted Obesity Mythbusting,” Clinical Nutrition Insight 39 (2013): 8–9.
27. George Budwell, “The Paradox of Obesity Drugs,” The Motley Fool, November 25, 2013.
28. Benjamin Djulbegovic, “The Uncertainty Principle and Industry-Sponsored Research,” The Lancet 356 (2000): 635–638; Howard Mann and Benjamin Djulbegovic, “Comparator Bias: Why Comparisons Must Address Genuine Uncertainties,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 106 (2013): 30–33; and Benjamin Djulbegovic et al., “Medical Research: Trial Unpredictability Yields Predictable Therapy Gains,” Nature 500 (2013): 395–396.
29. Paula Rochon et al., “A Study of Manufacturer-Supported Trials of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in the Treatment of Arthritis,” Archives of Internal Medicine 154 (1994): 157–163.
30. Bodenheimer, “Uneasy Alliance,” 2000.
31. Ibid.
32. Helena W. Rodbard et al., “Statement by an American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists/American College of Endocrinology Consensus Panel on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Algorithm for Glycemic Control,” Endocrine Practice 6 (2009): 540–559, www.projectinform.org/pdf/diabetes_aace.pdf.
33. John Fauber and Ellen Gabler, “Doctors with Links to Drug Companies Influence Treatment Guidelines,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 18, 2012.
34. Amanda Sainsbury and Phillipa Hay, “Call for an Urgent Rethink of the ‘Health at Every Size’ Concept,” Journal of Eating Disorders 2 (2014): 8.
35. Rebecca Puhl and Chelsea A. Heuer, “The Stigma of Obesity: A Review and Update,” Obesity 17, no. 5 (2009): 941–964.
36. M. R. Hebl and J. Xu, “Weighing the Care: Physicians’ Reactions to the Size of a Patient,” International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 25 (2001): 1246–1252.
37. Rebecca Puhl and Kelly Brownell, “Bias, Discrimination, and Obesity,” Obesity Research 9 (2001): 788–805.
38. Peggy Ward-Smith, in a poster presentation at the 2014 meeting of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
39. K. Davis-Coelho, J. Waltz, and B. Davis-Coelho, “Awareness and Prevention of Bias Against Fat Clients in Psychotherapy,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 31 (2000): 682–684; and e-mailed notes from Rebecca Puhl.
40. Delese Wear et al., “Making Fun of Patients: Medical Students’ Perceptions and Use of Derogatory and Cynical Humor in Clinical Settings,” Academic Medicine 81, no. 5 (2006): 454–462.
41. Marlene Schwartz et al., “Weight Bias Among Health Professionals Specializing in Obesity,” Obesity Research 11 (2003): 1033–1039.
42. George Blackburn, “Medicalizing Obesity: Individual, Economic, and Medical Consequences,” Virtual Mentor 13 (2011): 890–895.
43. There’s an entire website devoted to personal stories of encounters with biased medical professionals, called First, Do No Harm, at http://fathealth.wordpress.com.
44. C. L. Olson, H. D. Schumaker, and B. P. Yawn, “Overweight Women Delay Medical Care,” Archives of Family Medicine 3 (1994): 888–892.
45. N. K. Amy et al., “Barriers to Routine Gynecological Cancer Screening for White and African-American Obese Women,” International Journal of Obesity 30 (2006): 147–155.
46. Eugenia Calle et al., “Body-Mass Index and Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of U.S. Adults,” New England Journal of Medicine 341 (1999): 1097–1105.
47. Kortni Jones, “Weight Stigma Among Providers Decreases the Quality of Care Received by Obese Patients,” unpublished dissertation, 2010.
48. R. M. Puhl, T. Andreyeva, and K. D. Brownell, “Perceptions of Weight Discrimination: Prevalence and Comparison to Race and Gender Discrimination in America,” International Journal of Obesity 32 (2008): 992–1000.
49. Puhl and Heuer, “The Stigma of Obesity.”
50. “National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed October 24, 2014, www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/estimates14.htm.
51. Albert Samaha, “Type Miscast: An Elmhurst Doctor’s Type 2 Diabetes Misdiagnosis Results in the Death of a Six-Year-Old Girl,” The Village Voice, October 2, 2013.
52. See “Statistics About Diabetes: Overall Numbers, Diabetes and Prediabetes,” American Diabetes Association, accessed October 24, 2014, www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/.
Chapter 5: The Truth About Beauty
1. Patricia Owen and Erika Laurel-Seller, “Weight and Shape Ideals: Thin Is Dangerously In,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 30, no. 5 (2000): 979–990.
2. Dennis Hummel et al., “Visual Adaptation to Thin and Fat Bodies Transfers Across Identity,” PLOS One 7, no. 8 (2012).
3. Nancy Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest (New York: Doubleday, 1999), 70.
4. Karl Grammar and Randy Thornhill, “Human (Homo sapiens) Facial Attractiveness and Sexual Selection: The Role of Symmetry and Averageness,” Journal of Comparative Psychology 108, no. 3 (1994): 233–242.
5. Deborah L. Rhode, The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); and Judith H. Langlois et al., “Maxims or Myths of Beauty: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review,” Psychological Bulletin 126, no. 3 (2000): 390–423.
6. Laura Fraser, “The Inner Corset: A Brief History of Fat in the United States,” in The Fat Studies Reader, ed. Esther Rothblum and Sandra Solovay (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 11–14.
7. Jeanne Martin, “The Development of Ideal Body Image Perceptions in the U.S.,” Nutrition Today 45 (2010): 98–110.
8. Ibid.
9. According to a June 22, 2009, story on Jezebel.com, which quotes Monroe’s dressmaker.
10. Ian D. Stephen and A. Treshi-Marie Perera, “Judging the Difference Between Attractiveness and Health: Does Exposure to Model Images Influence the Judgments Made by Men and Women?” PLOS One, January 20, 2014.
11. Henri Tajfel et al., “Social Categorization and Intergroup Behaviour,” European Journal of Social Psychology 1 (1971): 149–178.
12. Henri Tajfel and J. C. Turner, “An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict,” in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, ed. W. G. Austin and S. Worchel (Brooks/Cole, 1979).
13. Seth Stephens-Davidowicz, “Google, Tell Me. Is My Son a Genius?” New York Times, January 18, 2014.
14. Lenny Vartanian and Meghan Hopkinson, “Social Connectedness, Conformity, and Internalization of Societal Standards of Attractiveness,” Body Image 7 (2010): 86–89.
15. You can track the progress of the Truth in Advertising Act of 2014 online at www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4341.
16. Rheanna N. Ata, J. Kevin Thompson, and Brent J. Small, “Effects of Exposure to Thin-Ideal Media Images on Body Dissatisfaction: Testing the Inclusion of a Disclaimer Versus Warning Label,” Body Image 10 (2013): 472–480.
17. Marika Tiggemann, Amy Slater, and Veronica Smyth, “‘Retouch Free’: The Effect of Labeling Media Images as Not Digitally Altered on Women’s Body Dissatisfaction,” Body Image 11 (2013): 85–88.
18. N. Micali et al., “Frequency and Patterns of Eating Disorder Symptoms in Early Adolescence,” Journal of Adolescent Health 54 (2014): 574–581.
19. Michaela Bucchianeri et al., “Body Dissatisfaction from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Findings from a 10-Year Longitudinal Study,” Body Image 10 (2013): 1–7.
20. Eve Wiseman, “Uncomfortable in Our Skin: The Body-Image Report,” The Guardian, June 9, 2012.
21. Donna Maurer and Jeffery Sobal, Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition as Social Problems (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995).
22. According to research from the American Association of Advertising Agencies. See “How Many Advertisements Is a Person Exposed to in a Day?,” ams.aaaa.org/eweb/upload/faqs/adexposures.pdf.
23. Viren Swami et al., “The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Body Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36 (2010): 309–325.
24. Anne Becker et al., “Eating Behaviours and Attitudes Following Prolonged Exposure to Television Among Ethnic Fijian Adolescent Girls,” British Journal of Psychiatry 180 (2002): 509–514.
25. According to Facebook, as reported by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 23, 2014.
26. Per Business Insider’s report on Social Media Engagement, September 2014; www.businessinsider.com/social-media-engagement-statistics-2013–12.
27. Patti M. Valkenburg, Jochen Peter, and Alexander P. Schouten, “Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents’ Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem,” CyberPsychology & Behavior 9 (2006): 584–590; Corey Neira and Bonnie Barber, “Social Networking Site Use: Linked to Adolescents’ Social Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Depressed Mood,” Australian Journal of Psychology 66 (2014): 56–64; Michael Chan, “Multimodal Connectedness and Quality of Life: Examining the Influences of Technology Adoption and Interpersonal Communication on Well-Being Across the Life Span,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (2014): 1–16; and Moira Burke, Cameron Marlow, and Thomas Lento, “Social Network Activity and Social Well-Being,” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 10 (2010): 1909–1912.
28. Wen-ying Silvia Chou, Abby Prestin, and Stephen Kunath, “Obesity in Social Media: A Mixed Methods Analysis,” Translational Behavioral Medicine 4 (2014): 314–323.
29. Anna North, “Shamed, Flamed, Harassed: What It’s Like to Be Called Fat Online,” New York Times, October 3, 2014.
30. Sumitra, “Rest at Your Own Risk: Moscow Benches to Publicly Display Sitters’ Weight,” Oddity Central, September 23, 2014, accessed October 24, 2104, www.odditycentral.com/news/rest-at-your-own-risk-moscow-benches-to-publicly-display-sitters-weight.html
31. Jason D. Seacat, Sarah Dougal, and Dooti Roy, “A Daily Diary Assessment of Female Weight Stigmatization,” Journal of Health Psychology (2014): 1–13.
32. Evolutionary psychologist Glenn Geher wrote an interesting blog post on how social comparison can help us. See www.evostudies.org/2013/06/social-comparison-evolutionary-psychology-and-the-best-job-in-the-world/.
33. Laura Turner Garrison, “Who Lives Like That? The Most Absurd Aspirational Ads Out There,” SplitSider, July 31, 2012, accessed October 24, 2014, www.splitsider.com/2012/07/newcastle-who-lives-like-that/.
34. Julie Guthman, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 52.
35. “New Beauty Study Reveals Days, Times and Occasions When U.S. Women Feel Least Attractive,” PRNews Media, accessed October 24, 2014, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-beauty-study-reveals-days-times-and-occasions-when-us-women-feel-least-attractive-226131921.html.
36. Michelle Yeomans, “Global Beauty Market to Reach $265 Billion in 2017 Due to an Increase in GDP,” CosmeticsDesign.com, November 7, 2012, accessed October 24, 2014, www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Market-Trends/Global-beauty-market-to-reach-265-billion-in-2017-due-to-an-increase-in-GDP.
37. According to psychologist Charlotte Markey, puberty is a risk factor for body dissatisfaction, and body image is a crucial developmental issue. Charlotte Markey, “Why Body Image Is Important to Adolescent Development,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 39 (2010): 1387–1391.
38. Line Tremblay et al., “Perceptions of Self in 3–5-Year-Old Children: A Preliminary Investigation into the Early Emergence of Body Dissatisfaction,” Body Image 8 (2011): 287–292.
39. John Worobey and Harriet Worobey, “Body-Size Stigmatization by Preschool Girls: In a Doll’s World, It Is Good to Be ‘Barbie,’” Body Image 11, no. 2 (2014): 171–174.
40. Sarah Harrison et al., “No Fat Friend of Mine: Very Young Children’s Responses to Overweight and Disability,” European Congress on Obesity (2013). The Leeds research actually reprised a study done in the 1960s with ten- to twelve-year-olds, who showed greater liking for the obese characters though they still rejected them.
41. Christine E. Blake et al., “Adults with Greater Weight Satisfaction Report More Positive Health Behaviors and Have Better Health Status Regardless of BMI,” Journal of Obesity (2013).
42. Patricia van den Berg and Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, “Fat ’n Happy 5 Years Later: Is It Bad for Overweight Girls to Like Their Bodies?” Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007): 415–417.
43. Sharon Hayes and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn, “Am I Too Fat to Be a Princess? Examining the Effects of Popular Children’s Media on Young Girls’ Body Image,” British Journal of Developmental Psychology 28 (2010): 413–426.
44. N. R. Kelly, C. M. Bulik, and S. E. Mazzeo, “An Exploration of Body Dissatisfaction and Perceptions of Black and White Girls Enrolled in an Intervention for Overweight Children,” Body Image 8 (2011): 379–384.
45. Sarah Kate Bearman et al., “The Skinny on Body Dissatisfaction: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Girls and Boys,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 35 (2006): 217–229.
46. Ann Frisén and Kristina Holmqvist, “What Characterizes Early Adolescents with a Positive Body Image? A Qualitative Investigation of Swedish Girls and Boys,” Body Image 7 (2010): 205–212; and Kristina Holmqvist and Ann Frisén, “‘I Bet They Aren’t That Perfect in Reality’: Appearance Ideals Viewed from the Perspective of Adolescents with a Positive Body Image,” Body Image 9 (2012): 388–395.
47. “Women in the Labor Force in 2010,” US Department of Labor, accessed October 24, 2104, www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/Qf-laborforce-10.htm.
48. “Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College?,” National Bureau of Economic Research, accessed October 24, 2014, www.nber.org/digest/jan07/w12139.html.
49. Marika Tiggemann and Jessica E. Lynch, “Body Image Across the Life Span in Adult Women: The Role of Self-Objectification,” Developmental Psychology 37 (2001): 243–253.
50. Megan Gannon, “Americans Feel Most Attractive at This Age,” LiveScience, July 10, 2014, accessed October 24, 2014, www.livescience.com/46741-older-americans-feel-best-about-their-looks.html.
51. Kate Coyne, “Melissa McCarthy In Her Own Words,” People, July 7, 2014.
Chapter 6: It’s All In How You Look at It
1. R. H. Salk and R. Engeln-Maddox, “‘If You’re Fat, Then I’m Humongous!’ Frequency, Content, and Impact of Fat Talk Among College Women,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 35 (2011): 18–28.
2. Lauren E. Britton et al., “Fat Talk and Self-Presentation of Body Image: Is There a Social Norm for Women to Self-Degrade?” Body Image 3 (2006): 247–254.
3. Helen Sharpe, Ulrike Naumann, and Janet Treasure, “Is Fat Talking a Causal Risk Factor for Body Dissatisfaction? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 46, no. 7 (2013): 643–652.
4. Christine E. Blake et al., “Adults with Greater Weight Satisfaction Report More Positive Health Behaviors and Have Better Health Status Regardless of BMI,” Journal of Obesity (2013).
5. Michael D. Wirth et al., “Chronic Weight Dissatisfaction Predicts Type 2 Diabetes Risk,” Health Psychology 33 (2014): 912–919.
6. Charlotte Markey, “Why Body Image Is Important to Adolescent Development,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 39 (2010): 1387–1391.
7. Adam B. Cohen and Ilana J. Tannenbaum, “Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Judgments of the Attractiveness of Different Body Types,” Journal of Sex Research 38, no. 3 (2001): 226–232.
8. G. Staines, C. Tavris, and T. E. Jayaratne, “The Queen Bee Syndrome,” in The Female Experience, ed. C. Tavris (Del Mare, CA: Communications Research Machines, 1973).
9. Rachel Fox, “Too Fat to Be a Scientist?” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 17, 2014.
10. Georgie Silvarole, “Fat Acceptance Movement Prioritizes Comfort Over Healthy Lifestyle,” The Daily Orange, September 24, 2014.
11. “Chronic Stress Puts Your Health at Risk,” Mayo Clinic, accessed October 24, 2014, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037.
12. Peter Muennig, “The Body Politic: The Relationship Between Stigma and Obesity-Associated Disease,” BMC Public Health 8 (2008).
13. Ibid.; and Peter Muennig, “I Think Therefore I Am: Perceived Ideal Weight as a Determinant of Health,” American Journal of Public Health 98 (2007): 501–506.
14. Julie Lumeng, “Weight Status as a Predictor of Being Bullied in Third Through Sixth Grades,” Pediatrics 125 (2010): e1301–e1307.
15. Rebecca M. Puhl and Joerg Luedicke, “Weight-Based Victimization Among Adolescents in the School Setting: Emotional Reactions and Coping Behaviors,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41 (2011): 27–40.
16. Rebecca M. Puhl, Jamie Lee Peterson, and Joerg Luedicke, “Weight-Based Victimization: Bullying Experiences of Weight Loss Treatment-Seeking Youth,” Pediatrics 131 (2013): e1–e9.
17. Janet Latner et al., “Residual Obesity Stigma: An Experimental Investigation of Bias Against Obese and Lean Targets Differing in Weight-Loss History,” Obesity 20 (2012): 2035–2038.
18. R. M. Puhl, T. Andreyeva, and K. D. Brownell, “Perceptions of Weight Discrimination: Prevalence and Comparison to Race and Gender Discrimination in America,” International Journal of Obesity 32 (2008): 992–1000.
19. Marlene Schwartz et al., “The Influence of One’s Own Body Weight on Implicit and Explicit Anti-Fat Bias,” Obesity 14 (2006): 440–447.
20. These comments were drawn from two personal interviews with Majdan and from his essay “Memoirs of an Obese Physician,” Annals of Internal Medicine 153 (2010): 686–687.
Chapter 7: Now What?
1. Jen Christensen and Jacque Wilson, “Congressional Hearing Investigates Dr. Oz ‘Miracle’ Weight Loss Claims,” CNN, June 19, 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/06/17/health/senate-grills-dr-oz/.
2. The youngest child known to have had bariatric surgery was a two-year-old boy from Saudi Arabia.
3. Stephen R. Daniels and Aaron S. Kelly, “Pediatric Severe Obesity: Time to Establish Serious Treatments for a Serious Disease,” Childhood Obesity 10 (2014): 283–284.
4. After getting pushback, Obama changed the campaign’s rhetoric from fighting childhood obesity to raising healthier kids; the White House later credited Let’s Move! with plateauing rates of childhood obesity, though those rates had actually plateaued several years earlier.
5. Tricia L. Psota, Barbara Lohse, and Sheila G. West, “Associations Between Eating Competence and Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers,” Journal of Nutrition Education Behaviors 39 (2007): S171–S178; and Barbara Lohse et al., “Eating Competence of Elderly Spanish Adults Is Associated with a Healthy Diet and a Favorable Cardiovascular Risk Profile,” Journal of Nutrition 140 (2010): 1322–1327.
6. For more information, see ellynsatterinstitute.org/hte/whatisnormaleating.php.
7. Burgard maintains a website called Body Positive, www.bodypositive.com.
8. Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, 3rd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012).
9. Marcia Wood, “Health at Every Size: New Hope for Obese Americans?” USDA website, March 2006, accessed October 24, 2014, www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/mar06/health0306.htm.
10. Amanda Sainsbury-Salis and Phillipa Hay, “Call for an Urgent Rethink of the ‘Health at Every Size’ Concept,” Journal of Eating Disorders 2, no. 8 (2014).
11. Christopher Freind, “Solve America’s Obesity Problem with Shame,” PhillyMag.com, October 12, 2012.
12. Leon Festinger, “A Theory of Social Comparison Processes,” Human Relations 7 (1954): 117–140.
13. Sara B. Cohen, “Media Exposure and the Subsequent Effects on Body Dissatisfaction, Disordered Eating, and Drive for Thinness: A Review of the Current Research,” Mind Matters: The Wesleyan Journal of Psychology 1 (2006): 57–71.
14. Jill A. Cattarin et al., “Body Image, Mood, and Televised Images of Attractiveness: The Role of Social Comparison,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 19 (2000): 220–239.
15. Anna Campbell and Heather A. Hausenblas, “Effects of Exercise Interventions on Body Image: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Health Psychology 14 (2009): 780–793; and Katherine M. Appleton, “6 x 40 Mins Exercise Improves Body Image, Even Though Body Weight and Shape Do Not Change,” Journal of Health Psychology 18, no. 1 (2012): 110–120.
16. T. Smith-Jackson, J. J. Reel, and R. Thackeray, “Coping with ‘Bad Body Image Days’: Strategies from First-Year Young Adult College Women,” Body Image 8 (2011): 335–342. That last item on the list was the least-used strategy, maybe because body acceptance is a process rather than a decision.