Pat Hartman | Childhood Obesity News

Prepare for the Worst, Part 3

Pat Hartman August 13, 2026 No Comments

The posts in this sequence explore some of the dark corners of obesity-related attitudes, because parents of children who seem to be headed in that direction might benefit from awareness about the future possibilities. The intention here is not to frighten anyone into locking the potentially obese child into a closet where a few hundred calories per day can be passed through a slit in the door.

However, evidence exists in every corner and on every level of society that the life of a morbidly obese individual is not ideal. Of course, no parent is advised to make a child’s existence miserable in order to avoid obesity. On the other hand, no parent is advised to ignore a potential situation in the hope that it will just go away.

It has long been accepted that to attach “phobia” to a word does not exactly connote fear of the thing. “Homophobia,” for instance, is understood to signify an emotion closer to hatred, but it sounds more acceptable in polite society.

In a nightclub

This sentence in a Psychology Today article was written by Seth Meyers, Psy.D., about a live standup comedy performance where an obese comedian told a stupid joke that would not have been funny, or even interesting, no matter who might have said it. About the audience, Dr. Meyers observed,

They laughed because they hate fat people, and worse, because they believe fat people deserve such spite.

But then, the mental health professional pulled a switcheroo and went on to explain how that was not true at all, and actually, a totally different dynamic was in play. Here is what really happens when haters display their obnoxious behavior:

They’re taking a mental break — almost like releasing a valve with too much pressure — from judging themselves.

In this situation, the performer on stage has volunteered for a role that should have become obsolete centuries ago, and it’s not a court jester. In the olden days, anyone who mattered was forced to live in or near the royal palace, where the monarch could keep an eye on them, and also to make sure that the ruler could be seen to administer justice. But if the crown prince misbehaved, his sacred person could not be violated, so there was a staff member called the whipping boy, who would be punished instead, in the hope that the prince would feel bad and learn how to behave properly.

In modern times

So, what a professionally obese person does is fill the role of whipping boy, absorbing the scorn that members of the general public (in this case, audience members) secretly feel they themselves actually deserve. And at least the stage professional volunteered for the job. But the lady next to you in the airplane didn’t ask to be your whipping boy. She gets the job anyway, as you spend on her that disgust you actually feel for your own 30 extra pounds.

Meyers observes that “there appears to be limitless self-judgment out there in the universe,” which is reflected in the amount of judgment that the ordinary citizen is prepared to dish out, especially on obese people, who are pathetically easy targets. The random observer in the grocery store aisle will not be equipped with enough knowledge to judge you for eating your own hair, but will certainly be able to guess that you eat too many doughnuts.

And, parents: The world is full of sad, mad, self-hating people who can’t wait to judge, dislike, and embarrass your child, in the unconscious and very mistaken belief that pouring out scorn on somebody else will make them feel better, and heal their pain-filled lives.

Here is another thing: While helping our own child to grow up undamaged, we probably don’t particularly want to damage anybody else along the way, or contribute to the unhappiness of somebody we don’t even know. Also, Dr. Meyers suggests a way to help make the world a kinder, more understanding place by taking the Empathy Test.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Psychology of Why People Dislike or Hate Fat People,” PsychologyToday.com, 05/06/11
Image by FreeFunArt/Pixabay

Prepare for the Worst, Part 2

Pat Hartman August 11, 2026 No Comments

At times, a potential difficulty does not look or sound like much of a threat, especially if no obstacle in that particular genre has been encountered or faced down before. But if and when a poisonous issue strikes, it can take over the entire universe for a while, and impede progress in sneaky and frankly ugly ways. In the sometimes precarious equilibrium of the family, this type of problem is never welcome; and to put up with it for even one day can feel far too long.

Here is the situation. Your daughter or son is overweight, or appears to be leaning in that direction. If and when this kid’s condition starts inspiring you to listen to a podcast about childhood obesity, or to schedule the yearly physical a couple of months early, you are in a good position to stock up on information. What can you do or say to meet the possibility of resistance from some unexpected quarter, and to minimize any threat to your child’s physical and psychological well-being?

Well, plenty, actually. This is why parents follow Childhood Obesity News, use resources like Brainweighve, and harvest random factoids that might come in handy someday. They (you, we) are to be congratulated for that diligence. The family ship makes a course correction and adjusts the sails, the mental, emotional, and physical parameters, to accommodate the new reality.

But — with a project like this, it often turns out that not all possible variables can be accounted for or addressed. For instance, in a clan situation, who wants to believe that some relative is out there feeling the urge to negate the efforts you make toward preventing your child from joining the ranks of a disrespected and ridiculed part of the general population?

Who and why?

The misguided individual might be an older relation who struggles with weight issues and who, consciously or not, follows the “misery loves company” philosophy. Maybe that cousin does not want to be the only obese person in the family circle, and he might even try to undermine your efforts to help the young child avoid obesity. Or it could be an aunt who believes that a teenager can be protected from sexual experimentation by a layer of subcutaneous fat.

If divorce is part of the history, there might be an unavoidable step-parent who is a bad influence or a worse example. This person might be simply careless, or actively desirous of causing trouble. Or, it might be a teacher who is all smiles and enlightenment on visiting day, but who believes that teens should be studying instead of dating; who secretly hopes to let them all share the misery she experienced during adolescence. It could be a family friend whose own kid isn’t very popular, and who feels a twisted need to level the playing field.

If your troubled child is in the teen years, it is possible that someone in his or her friend circle is a real nutcase who gets their kicks from manipulating people and situations in non-obvious ways and for unwholesome reasons.

The bottom line

The ground-level fact of the matter is, not all contingencies can be accounted for or handled.
Like it or not, plenty of folks harbor hostile feelings toward selected groups of their fellow humans. A disturbed individual may simply hate overweight people, or may feel even more animosity toward overweight people with caring parents.

There is no magic advice-wand to wave that can get rid of a lousy influence. For the parent of a growing child, one of the most frustrating problems is the inability to protect that kid from sabotage by a poisonous individual.

Somebody out there with a bad attitude might be hurting your child. If this is the case, maybe you can do something about it; maybe you can’t. But there is a catch. To interfere, or even acknowledge that a conflict exists, might only worsen the situation. For the target, the reason is largely irrelevant. What matters is the damage done.

Still, awareness is half the battle. If your child is dealing with obesity, either now or potentially, parental ignorance will not help. But — even the most healthily transparent child might be unwilling or unready to share some things, and there is nothing wrong with that.

To play detective might serve no purpose. The troublemaker is not interested in improving their character. Some folks are willing and even eager to hurt others for hundreds of misguided reasons, and sometimes they don’t even realize it themselves. It may even be that nothing can be done about this individual. We may have to face the fact that an ongoing situation can’t be avoided.

This message is not just for the custodial parent of a sensitive child, or one who has enough problems already. No, it is for any nearby grownup who might face the pain of knowing that a perfectly nice child is being attacked by some demons right now, or in all likelihood will soon be a target. While you may not be able to stop the pain, there is probably something good you can do.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Image by Sunriseforever/Pixabay

Prepare for the Worst

Pat Hartman August 6, 2026 No Comments

It may seem harsh, but a very effective way to develop awareness is to get a taste of some of the things that unfeeling strangers will be saying about your beloved children a few years from now if you don’t get out ahead of this potential problem. It’s a shameless scare tactic, an effort to shock any mom or dad into planning ahead, and vowing to never let their children feel the pain of being ridiculed and ostracized.

The object here is to provide motivation for parents who are not yet dealing with childhood obesity; to solidify their determination that the family will never need to deal with it:

This is how fat-shaming works: It is visible and invisible, public and private, hidden and everywhere at the same time… — Michael Hobbes

To quote what people have said and done is one way to predict what they intend to do. These examples represent how people might be treating your beloved child someday. Probably no one deliberately decides to have a child who will be disrespected or ridiculed because of their appearance. The very fact that we might envision such a fate, and dread it, could make us hate ourselves for being so prejudiced, or for even thinking of such a thing.

But let’s not lose the thread. These glimpses into a potential future are for the benefit of brand-new parents, or for couples still at the stage where parenthood is not yet even a special gleam in the eye:

I struggled with anorexia for years… My girlfriend at the time used to get so mad at me, because she assumed my need to lose weight and be “thin” extended to her. She was perfect and stunningly beautiful, and her fat was never a problem for me. My “fat” was. Because I had a mental illness that almost cost me my life… — crimsoncat21

Obesity prevention is a subject that future moms and dads should probably consider, sooner rather than later, especially if the tendency to be overweight runs in the family. Such a possibility needs to be acknowledged, brought up and discussed, to (hopefully) discourage unnecessary conflict later on. If either parent comes from a heritage where people tend to be overweight, to prepare for that eventuality cannot be wrong.

Could anyone be blamed for making an emotional plea to future parents? Something like, “People may be very disrespectful of your unborn child, someday. They may call your child names and hurt her or him with a thousand small, everyday hostilities. Please make it a priority to not let your child grow up fat.”

To be honest, thin people dealing with fat-phobia is just thin people trying not to look like me. NOT looking like me is worth everything they hate doing but force themselves to suffer through and everything they love but deprive themselves of. As though looking like me is the worst thing they could possibly imagine… — airagorncharda

Is it possible to ever say enough about fat-shaming? Apparently not, because the culture provides a boundless array of examples from which to choose. For the benefit of any reader who wishes to make an in-depth study of this discouraging phenomenon, we gather relevant quotations, useful to any parent or medical professional who has not yet developed a comprehensive mental grasp of the pervasive hate aimed at overweight people in our society:

It’s like the adults are giving the kids permission to view fatness as wrong and something that you need to change… In an effort to make students aware, the campaign had made one girl’s problem far worse… — Lindo Bacon

Journalist Bethany Brookshire interviewed writer, speaker and scientist Lindo Bacon about visiting a school to speak during National Childhood Obesity Month, and how a very large girl student cried because during that period, she came in for even more than the usual share of bullying.

We hope to capture the ear of parents who are not yet dealing with childhood obesity, with the object of motivating them to avoid the issue at all costs. Before that cute, cuddly baby even walks, is the appropriate time to start thinking about this issue and about how to head it off at the pass. Awareness is a wonderful way to begin — awareness of how much you really do not want to see your child or children become victims of fat-phobia.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong,” HuffingtonPost.com, 09/19/18
Source: “crimsoncat21,” Tumblr, undated
Source: “Weight shaming is literally sickening,” ScienceNewsForStudents.org, 09/30/21
Image by Ari_Dit/Pixabay

Physicians, Heal Thyselves

Pat Hartman August 4, 2026 No Comments

A lengthy paper published five years ago discusses fatphobia from many angles, beginning with its progenitor and birthplace, which the authors identify as “diet culture.” In their view, fatphobia is a form of systemic oppression, known by its tendency to condemn the extra-large body as unaesthetic, unattractive, shameful, and even pathological.

The diet culture enthusiasts might even be regarded as cruel liars, who continue to insist that “health, happiness and moral virtue” can only exist in a slender body, and who aim to embarrass, shame, and even demonize their fellow humans by insisting on an ideal vision of beauty that can realistically be attained by only a lucky few.

For some reason unfathomable to many others, these harsh masters reserve their most severe criticism for women who have the nerve to violate the arbitrary rules of bodily perfection. Meanwhile, men do not come in for even a fraction of the condemnation heaped on their sisters, mothers, daughters and wives.

Now, here comes the cringe part…

Fingers are pointed where?

Authors Camille Cottais, Jeanne Pavard, and Marion Sanchez make the following observation:

Medical fatphobia is particularly widespread, discouraging or even preventing fat people from accessing health care.

The illustration on this page represents a quotation from an obese young man who said the worst thing that had happened to him in the past year was when his old physician retired and he suffered great dread about starting over with a new one.

Many doctors have been criticized for participating in the spread of the diet culture, about which these authors refer us to the work of “anti-diet dietician” Christy Harrison. She characterizes diet culture as a “belief system.” This means in practical terms that the active imagination can spin off into reflection on certain antiquated religious practices which still persist in some corners of the world. On holy days of atonement, believers demonstrate regret for their sins by flogging themselves or dragging heavy wooden crosses through the streets.

In the diet culture, we exhibit our faith by jogging along the boulevards or exercising in gyms with big windows at street level. In other words, we feel a need not only to obey the admonitions of proper behavior for the faith, but a compulsion to be seen doing that. And like religions (Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, etc.), the diet culture has subdivisions: ketogenic, paleo, intermittent fasting, and so forth:

Examples of diet culture include labelling food as good or bad, promoting various kinds of restrictive diets, praising weight loss or eating, not allowing oneself to eat more than a certain number of calories, feeling guilty for eating “too much,” or exercising to punish oneself or to compensate for eating.

Various types of food are assigned moral values, just like the different degrees of respect shown to the housewife who scrubs the floor on her knees after the rest of the family are asleep, and another sort of woman, also up after midnight, who hangs out near the saloon. Some foods are demonized for containing too many calories, or the wrong kind. Meanwhile, a fresh fruit or vegetable is privileged to wear a halo — at least until a cyclosporiasis outbreak comes along and ruins everything.

We all live in this diet culture, existing in a constant state of awareness that even if we have — so far — managed to avoid being labeled fat, that horrid condition could very possibly be our fate next year. From then until forever, we will be punished by having our food choices condemned by the establishment, and possibly also by developing anorexia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or worse.

And yet, the medical professionals who hope to prevent or reverse obesity in children cannot possibly all be repressive tyrants who anticipate punishing people with too many numerals in their waistlines. They did not make the time investment or endure the workload and expense of medical education only to acquire the privilege of looking down with scorn on overweight people.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Fatphobia: a pervasive and socially accepted discrimination,” GrowThinkTank.org, 07/19/21
Images by lapinvert and geralt/Pixabay

Just Another Four-Letter Word

Pat Hartman July 30, 2026 No Comments

Bias is one of those words that we may think we know the meaning of, like having a preference for something, but there is more to it than that. “Bias” hints that perhaps the judgment behind the relevant opinion is ill-informed, unfair, or just plain ignorant.

When people, including many professionals in medicine and psychology, use the term, they do not always seem aware that such prejudice is unfair and unjustified. And yet, we occasionally find writers who feel compelled to go to a great deal of trouble to explain the difference between informed opinion and ugly bias.

One of the major figures in this area has been Aubrey Gordon, a book author, podcaster, and advocate of fat acceptance, who for the first few years of her writing career used the pseudonym Your Fat Friend. A documentary film has been made about her.

Your Fat Friend zeroes in and names names

Early in 2020, Gordon published an article that severely criticized a popular TV series, “The Biggest Loser,” calling it one of the most harmful reality shows on the air. The host, Jillian Michaels (characterized as a celebrity fitness trainer), seemed to want to have things both ways, by insisting that her own attitude toward overweight people was “inclusive,” while at the same time accusing the popular entertainer Lizzo of glorifying obesity.

Gordon pointed out that the show actually popularized a logic of abuse, blaming the hopeful weight losers for their own sad situations. Michaels, she wrote, had a “lengthy history of publicly shaming, humiliating, and even publicly abusing fat people, and went on to say that,

The show promoted its trainers as providing “tough love” motivation, but many former contestants describe their experiences differently. In 2016, the Guardian compiled a list of Michaels’ most infamous insults, which range from demeaning to outright violent toward contestants… In the world of The Biggest Loser, its fat contestants were abject failures, wretched people who could be saved only by the trainers who humiliated them.

It was strongly suggested that rather than having good intentions, the TV series actually specialized in promoting the dirty four-letter word, bias. As an example of societal bias, in another essay Gordon brought up an unbelievably callous custom practiced by a Cornell University fraternity, the “pig roast, a contest that awarded points to fraternity members for sleeping with fat women.” With such a disgusting custom finding acceptance at one of the nation’s top providers of higher education, what hope could there ever be for the eradication of bias and the dawn of acceptance?

From Hastings Bioethics Forum

A couple of years back, endocrinologist Jody Dushay called out a seemingly harmless article about concerns in the ethical, policy, and public health areas, throughout which she nevertheless detected a strong undercurrent of bias.

Some experts claim that weight-loss meds should be prescribed sparingly because their use may divert patients from utilizing “good lifestyle choices” — an argument found inadequate by this medical weight management professional. To her ear, it sounded like unwarranted prejudice against people who live with obesity, eliciting the response,

When we elevate the bar for using pharmacotherapy to treat high body weight, we do so because, consciously or not, we are labeling obesity a disease of choice. My clinical experience informs my understanding that obesity is almost never entirely preventable, but bias against those with obesity certainly is.

It seems, in fact, entirely possible that the only truly reliably preventable aspects of obesity are personal bias and systemic bias.

Source: “Your Fat Friend,” IMDb.com, 2023
Source: “’The Biggest Loser’ Is One of the Most Harmful Reality Shows on Television,” Medium.com, 01/12/20
Source: “Why can’t we recognize fat anger?,” Medium.com, 02/26/18
Source: “What Is Preventable About Obesity?,” TheHastingsCenter.org, 09/16/24
Image by jobinscaria/Pixabay

You Like Po-tay-toe and I Like Po-tah-toe

Pat Hartman July 28, 2026 No Comments

Any person with no memory of that corny old song is not to be blamed in the least. The point that needs making is whether you call a belief system by the name of body acceptance, fat acceptance, body positivity, healthy at every size, or use some other terminology, it’s still the same old starchy vegetable.

Apparently, the whole subject kind of took a backseat with the arrival of weight-loss drugs on the open market. This is the conclusion offered by an AI source that was consulted just for fun, but it sounds about right. When asked how it formed that impression, AI referred us to a perfectly respectable publication, Psychology Today.

As journalist Mia Barnes reported,

The movement isn’t gone, but it’s not the cultural force it once was.

Many former adherents of the body positive philosophy have disappointed their fellow rebels by turning to the popular and increasingly affordable GLP-1 drugs, in the hope of cultivating a different sort of body to accept and feel positive about. Sadly, many true believers feel double-crossed just because some former comrades have reordered their priorities. The amount of mental energy used to express those emotions could be better employed elsewhere. Barnes goes on to say,

For some, it feels like a betrayal of the movement’s core values, while others argue that body positivity should include supporting people in making choices that align with their well-being — whatever that looks like for them.

She suggests that a healthy response to the debate is to adopt a philosophy of body neutrality, which includes protecting your sanity and emotional health by abandoning the destructive habits of self-criticism and comparison with others. Appreciation for one’s organs and limbs when they perform their jobs correctly, without causing pain, is an attitude that many disabled people would love the opportunity to experience just once in their lives.

But they are unable to escape; while at the same time, morbidly obese people, individuals who theoretically could transform themselves just by deciding to, roam the earth.

Some spiritual and mental-health schools of thought promote the idea that gratitude for the good we receive is a prerequisite for acquiring more psychological benefits. A “Sixties” quotation has probably stuck with a lot of people as they aged — “Praise all that you see, and more will appear.”

Ugly truths emerge

As previously mentioned, American landlords and employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of weight — and this holds true in all but one state. But the ignominy worsens, because an organization that looks into these matters, the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, has done enough research to state that “Fat people are even more prejudiced against fat people.”

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “So, Is the Body Positivity Movement Still a Thing?,” PsychologyToday.com, 01/23/25
Source: “Insight: America’s hatred of fat hurts obesity fight,” Reuters.com, 05/11/12
Image by RobinHiggins/Pixabay

One Woman’s Very Definitive Viewpoint

Pat Hartman July 23, 2026 No Comments

Who is Five Hundred Pound Peep? We may never know, but in 2001 she published an article about a major life change, then in 2010 followed it up with “Goodbye NAAFA and the rest: Why I left Size Acceptance.”

To assess the movement’s condition after an interval of almost a decade, she closely studied its “websites, publications, organizations and spokespeople” and concluded that it had noticeably shrunk. Yes, many if not most of its goals were praiseworthy — equal rights; no discrimination; plain old human decency (among other things) — but somehow it just wasn’t able to hang in there.

Two major organizations had formed — the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) and the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA). There were also smaller groups with specialized aims like socialization and dance, but by 2010, the membership numbers had fallen off and the foundations were no longer just weakened, but at the stage that could justifiably be called “crumbling.” The author made some observations:

— Americans have gotten even fatter and corpulence is becoming even more reviled…
— The first reason Size Acceptance has not grown is it promotes fat rather then just dealing with it as a physical characteristic.
— Fat people can indeed be healthier and in better shape via exercise and better food, but some reality checks are in order.
— Physical realities come crashing through for those who suffer with obesity in its most severe forms.

The slogan “Health at any size” did not really catch on, because even the most zealous fat-acceptance enthusiasts were unable to maintain the notion that truly healthy health is possible once a person gets north of 400 pounds or so. Trying to maintain the ideal of good health at any size is a losing battle.

For a writer, the great advantage of having a place online where people can not only find you, but can also talk back, is a real boon — because it gives you even more to write about. And also, of course, it allows the writer to receive feedback from regular people, who say things like:

I cannot, with a clear conscience, advocate or agree with any movement that does not address the reality of the negative health consequences of severe obesity.

“Five Hundred Pound Peep” noted the absence of solid, serious medical studies focused on “supersized” individuals such as herself, and consistently made such solid points as,

— Imagine a kidney disease foundation telling those with kidney disease they must accept their condition. Fat people are told this is “your lot in life you must accept it”.
— “Fat” for most fat people is not their preferred way of being… for many it hurts, and makes everything harder to do.
— Obesity is seen like something like tallness, a normal part of person’s makeup.
— Repeating mantras of “Fat People are healthy,” even amid oxygen and wheelchair dependent people, very few are buying into the lie.

The author made the very painful point that, outside of the Size Acceptance clan, many obese people are not buying into the positive angle at all, but perceive SA as a population of “extremists who have given up.” She accused the size acceptance crowd of walling itself off to an inappropriate degree, and wondered out loud where the academic researchers might be who are “willing to face honestly the complexities of obesity.”

And according to the personal opinion of at least one public voice, namely “Five Hundred Pound Peep,” this sort of activity should have no place in the movement:

Some “size acceptance” websites, you will find obese women selling videos and nude photographs of themselves to the proverbial “FA” [or fat admirer]. Odd that objectification of fat women, has been one of the results of the “acceptance message.”

Increasing numbers of obese women came to see that the fat admirer (crudely known as the chubby chaser) really should have no place in this discussion. Technically, that extreme degree of fat admiration is what is known as a sexual fetish. But wait, it gets even worse.

One other debauched world is the one of “feeders” who seek to make their significant partner fatter and “feedees” who want to be fatter.

In other words, there are excellent reasons for the parents of overweight children to reject complacency or acceptance. Not wishing their daughters to grow up and star in sexual fetish porn is one of the strongest of those reasons.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Goodbye NAAFA and the rest: Why I left Size Acceptance,” Archive.is, 07/04/10
Images by Kyra_Starr/Pixabay

Childhood Obesity Not a Problem

Pat Hartman July 21, 2026 No Comments

Okay, then, what is the problem? Some folks think the problem is anybody who believes that an obese person needs counseling about the drawbacks of remaining in that condition, or who tries to find answers that can eliminate or at least alleviate the burden of carrying around a detrimental amount of fat.

Sadly, some folks preach that the main thing wrong with the world is anti-fat bias. They seem to believe that the slightest mention or hint that to remain obese would not be in an individual’s best interest is a vile insult which violates that individual’s humanity.

“Fat activists” like Virginia Sole-Smith think they have a duty to correct all the people who see obesity as an unhealthy state, or at least as a condition that could lead to health problems. She authored a book titled Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, which aims to correct the worldview of people who believe that childhood obesity is a problem that needs to be addressed.

The other side

Rachel Bowman wrote a review, and while Dailymail.com has since removed it from their website, we did copy it some time ago as research material. It is brought up now because the annoying mindset that inspired it has not disappeared.

With scorn for both “diet culture” and anti-fat bias, Sole-Smith has claimed that any attempt to control a child’s weight is bad. (However, it seems that folks hooked up to her Instagram account voiced strong disagreement, mentioning the increasing rates of both diabetes and of costs to healthcare systems.)

Sole-Smith has told journalists that her own kids are routinely served snacks and desserts because when parents restrict certain kinds of food (like the ones containing fat, sugar, and chemical additives), their children will grow up lacking the ability to make informed decisions about what is or is not suitable. It is an interesting theory, but one which has been widely contested.

Medical profession criticized

Folks who possess this mindset are angry that doctors presume to advise their patients to slim down, because weight loss cannot solve all medical problems. So, it seems they believe it should not be prescribed for, or attempted by, anyone at all — a rather narrow viewpoint, to say the least.

“Treat patients as they are” is one of the slogans, and on closer examination it does not make much sense. A doctor treats a patient with a hip fracture like a patient with a hip fracture — by attempting to correct that distressing and disabling condition. A doctor treats a patient with pneumonia like a patient with pneumonia — by trying to cure it and make sure it doesn’t return. We could go on like this all day, but hopefully, the point is made.

“Sure, go ahead and let the sick person continue to live with pneumonia. As long as they can do normal stuff like get back and forth to the bathroom, or hold a phone conversation, what’s the problem?” That is hardly a sane point of view, and any doctor who voiced it should probably be forbidden to practice.

Sole-Smith uses the example of drug addiction to assert that all patients, even addicts, “are worthy of dignity and respect… It doesn’t matter whether you caused it, doctors are supposed to meet you where you are.” Except for one thing… What kind of a lousy doctor would think it’s okay to leave the patient still being an addict? Around here, we too believe that a patient should be accorded every ounce of dignity and respect — while at the same time being advised that obesity is not a desirable condition to remain in, and that there are ways out of it.

Refutation

Bowman’s review included words from Kelly Brownell, professor emeritus of public policy at Duke University, who said,

I think it’s possible to simultaneously hold in your mind that the condition of obesity is concerning, while at the same time protecting the rights of the people who have it… You can think of many other parallels, like depression or alcoholism, where you don’t want the people who have these things to be stigmatized — there are clearly negative effects of that — but it doesn’t mean you discount the ravages of those diseases.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Fat activist who thinks childhood obesity is a myth”, MSN.com
Image by GDJ/Pixabay

Till There Was Chicken Fat

Pat Hartman July 16, 2026 No Comments

Recently, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the news by not doing too well in a noteworthy way:

We are giving parents, schools, and communities the tools to help children build healthy habits, strengthen their bodies, and discover what they’re capable of achieving.

Long before former First Lady Michelle Obama ever appeared in the news, a great leader ushered in an earlier health-conscious era, when childhood fitness was deemed essential as a pillar of America’s future. That man’s nephew recently said,

More than 60 years ago, my uncle, President John F. Kennedy, challenged America to make physical fitness a national priority because he understood that the strength of our nation begins with the health of our people…

By bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test and launching GetActive.gov/kids, we are giving parents, schools, and communities the tools to help children build healthy habits, strengthen their bodies, and discover what they’re capable of achieving.

The J.F.K. era was also presided over by a particular song, to which it is possible that more people have performed their calisthenics than to any other musical composition in history.

The anthem of that 1960s aspirational effort was “Chicken Fat,” which, aside from accompanying the largest total number of workouts, is a contender in another field: cringe-worthy lyrics. It’s so goofy, it is basically a self-parody.

There is nothing a gymnasium full of children or teenagers could do to it that it hadn’t already done to itself… and they had plenty of opportunity, because every school in America received a free phonograph record of “Chicken Fat.”

Who did it and why?

The creator of this masterpiece was Meredith Willson, more generally and widely known as the creator of “The Music Man” (which, incidentally, also included a song later recorded by the Beatles, “Till There Was You.“)

The government needed to send phonograph records into 142,000 schools, and several patriotic professionals stepped up to make it happen. Willson donated all his efforts for free, and so did Robert Preston, who was filming The Music Man at the time. During a break from the set, he slipped away to record “Chicken Fat.”

The original disc held the shorter “radio edit” on one side and the six-minute version for school gym class on the other. Capital Records made the actual discs for free, and they were often shipped with a printed instruction card illustrating the exercises, designed by a college football coach.

The Junior Chamber of Commerce got in on the act, financing the purchase and delivery of 50,000 copies to schools. Eventually, one way or another, American schools received around half a million free copies of the record, and some schools still faithfully carried out its instructions into the 1980s.

Plenty of Chicken Fat to go around

YouTube.com offers multiple versions of the song, including a very lively and humorous version from the University of Evansville Cheer Squad. This official website includes a summary of the fitness program’s history, methods, intentions, and aims, designed to reach into every school in the nation, and not only to arrive in those institutions, but to change the very nature of their goals and ambitions.

It goes without saying that the concept of achieving fitness was intended to move from the educational setting into every home in America. And into the military establishment if need be. Then, as now, the nation experienced a shortage of young men who could do Push-up #1, and then along came this perky, annoying song telling them to do 10. As we learn from material written by an uncredited author:

First, during and after World War II, the US Military became concerned over the high number of young men who, when drafted, proved to be too physically unfit to become part of the US Armed Forces. (Imagine what they would find today!)

Any new idea can attract more attention with some variety of fun, though it might be risky, because notions about what is or is not fun tend to vary widely. Speaking of fun, any aficionado will enjoy this Chicken Fat quiz, and may discover they don’t know as much as they thought.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “RFK Jr. mocked online after failing public fitness test,” MSN.com, undated
Source: “Secretary Kennedy Restores the Presidential Fitness Test, Launches Get Kids Active,”
www.HHS.gov, 06/29/26
Source: “Go You Chicken Fat, Go!,” YouTube.com, undated
Source: “University of Evansville Cheer Squad,” undated
Source: “Go, Chicken Fat, Go!,” LOC.gov, undated
Source: Boomers: “Do you remember exercising in school to ”Chicken Fat”?”, MeTV.com, 06/22/26
Image source: Pat Hartman

Another Nation Jumps on the Banned-Wagon

Pat Hartman July 14, 2026 No Comments

Globally, one in five children aged 5-19 is overweight, according to journalist Charity Kilei. Our blog has previously tackled the subject of what happens when a nation becomes fed up with the careless and irresponsible feeding of children. Since governments, for various reasons, cannot or will not stop companies from selling products they should be ashamed to call edible, decisions have been made aimed instead at reducing awareness of those products’ existence.

Relentlessly, childhood obesity has invaded here, there, and everywhere. In recent years, one country after another has become fed up with using its resources to treat increasing numbers of cases of heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other maladies, even including some cancers, that result from HFSS diets — those initials representing, of course, high levels of fat, salt, and sugar.

The Earth groans under multitudes of overweight children. Of course, the statistics vary somewhat from place to place, but in general, worldwide, among the 5- to 19-year age span, one young person among every five is carrying around too many pounds, liters, stones, kilograms, or whatever the local unit of measurement happens to be.

A long history

For centuries, the religious establishment has recognized that if education is left in its hands until a child reaches the age of 7, the indoctrination pretty much lasts for a lifetime. Junk food advertising works in exactly the same way.

As mentioned, it has been a while since Childhood Obesity News brought up this topic, but the archives are bounteously filled with it. An 11-part series on “Selling Crap to Kids” appeared here three years ago. Quite some time before that, we featured a five-part series on “Television Advertising and Childhood Obesity.” But despite our best efforts (and those of multiple concerned organizations), the situation has continued to deteriorate.

Around the world with junk food

Kilei names France, Norway, Sweden, and South Korea as countries that have already enacted measures to limit the sort of advertising that children, to their detriment, were routinely absorbing. In the United Kingdom, the decision has been made to keep the harmful advertising off television before 9:00 in the evening, and around the clock on the Internet:

The UK government estimates the new regulations will remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, prevent around 20,000 cases of childhood obesity, and generate approximately £2 billion in long-term health benefits.

In England, nearly one-quarter of all the children who start primary school each year are already overweight, and by the time they are through with those grades, the number is more like 35%. But this is not the only issue. In the 5-to-9-year age group, the major reason for hospital admissions is tooth decay. For this and other reasons, the U.K. had already cracked down on “soft drinks,” which, though they are filled with sugar, exert an effect that is far from sweet on the children’s health and the nation’s budget.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) even started to voluntarily comply early, last fall, partly encouraged by the fact that they are still permitted to advertise sugar-free versions of oat cereal granola, and muesli:

In Kenya, if current trends persist, projections suggest that by 2030, more than 1 million children aged 5–19 could be living with obesity.

Kenya is also planning tighter controls to better protect children. There, the Ministry of Health announced plans to, if not forbid, at least tame the commercial glorification of unhealthy foods, and is developing a Nutrient Profile Model to illustrate the expectations regarding the promotion of salt, sugar, and saturated fats.

Countries that are working on this issue look to the pioneers like Singapore, where “similar policies have been effective.” But the World Health Organization (WHO) has not found voluntary measures alone to be successful anywhere:

Globally, an estimated 188 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 are living with obesity, representing about 9.4 per cent of that age group. This marks a sharp rise from around 3 per cent in 2000. In total, approximately 391 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 are overweight.

Somehow, and this does not speak well for us as responsible citizens and parents, the government always has to get involved and make laws if real progress is to even be hoped for.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “UK follows France, Sweden and South Korea in banning junk food ads for children,” EastLeighVoice.co.ke, 01/05/26
Image by Laborrate/Pixabay

Prepare for the Worst, Part 3

In a nightclub

In modern times

Prepare for the Worst, Part 2

Who and why?

The bottom line

Prepare for the Worst

Physicians, Heal Thyselves

Fingers are pointed where?

Just Another Four-Letter Word

Your Fat Friend zeroes in and names names

From Hastings Bioethics Forum

You Like Po-tay-toe and I Like Po-tah-toe

Ugly truths emerge

One Woman’s Very Definitive Viewpoint

Childhood Obesity Not a Problem

The other side

Medical profession criticized

Refutation

Till There Was Chicken Fat

Who did it and why?

Plenty of Chicken Fat to go around

Another Nation Jumps on the Banned-Wagon

A long history

Around the world with junk food

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

The Book

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Presentations

Food & Health Resources