The latest idiocy to come out of the media is the accusation that President Obama's nominee for Surgeon General is "too fat". She may be a size 18 or even 20, opines the not so skinny themselves broadcasters and commenters on Fox News.
Hold on a moment, folks! Obama's nominee, Dr. Regina Benjamin, holds a MacArthur Genius Award, is the first African American woman to be elected to the Board of the AMA and the Alabama Medical Association and has served a rural community in Alabama with unselfish dedication. And she might be a little overweight?
What do we want in a Surgeon General? Some have noted that no one called out Surgeon General Everett Koop for being fat, although he was certainly overweight. Jocelyn Elders was not exactly skinny. So why have the purists surfaced now with this kind of attack?
I am calling out these self-righteous (and you can finish this phrase) on this one. Who among you can really cast the first stone here? Who among you is so pure (especially you C Street hypocrites) that you have no vices at all? Never eaten too much. Smoked. Drank. Coveted your neighbor's wife or a woman in Argentina. Lied. Cheated on your income tax?
They cannot attack Dr. Benjamin for her academic or clinical credentials. They are impeccable. They cannot attack her for her service to her clinic, the Bayou LaBatre Clinic in rural Alabama. Her clinic has burned down and been drowned out by hurricanes, but Dr. Benjamin kept it going, often with her own money. They cannot attack her because of her race. To do that overtly would be way too obvious. So how can they attack her? For not being perfectly skinny.
"I thank God that Dr. Regina Benjamin is a fat woman," said Joanne Ikeda, a nutrition specialist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Maybe now we will stop making the assumption that all fat people are unhealthy particularly in light of new data coming from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."
The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance has taken up the cause of defending Surgeon General Nominee Benjamin. The discrimination against people of "weight" is real, in employment and in civil society. It is not something to joke about. In fact, there is a whole decades-old literature about fat discrimination.
We do not always know why someone is overweight. It could be glandular or genetic. We know that African Americans and Latinos have higher rates of obesity, and it is not always about calorie consumption. Nevertheless, the key issue here is this -- do we require that our public officials be the perfect embodiments of their duties and their message? Frankly, I would much rather have a Surgeon General who talks about obesity because she has struggled with her own weight, than someone for whom it is only a theoretical issue. The same for a President who struggles with smoking but still exhorts himself and all of us to try to quit.
If you believe that imperfection is human and that life experience and academic credentials are more important than dress size, please write your Senator and Congress person and ask them to confirm Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. We are SO lucky to have a doctor who makes house calls helping us understand what we all need to do to lead healthier lives.
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The answers to all of these questions is yes, she does. The basic job of Surgeon General involves informing the public of current health issues and making recommendations on what we should do about them. (You can look this up at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/index.html). Dr. Benjamin is definitely qualified.
I look at it this way. If I had some lung illness, I wouldn't give a fig about whether or not my doctor smoked. I would just want to know that he or she was the best pulmonologist available, and that s/he was up-to-date on diagnoses and treatment.
The truth is that in medicine the same regimen does not work for every person. That is one reason that there are multiple medications for seasonal allergies, for example. So why should weight, as a health issue, be any different?
Thanks, Kimberly Wilson
http://bit.ly/XZOdf
Is this really what happens when one can't pick at credentials? How sad.
Every other day, I went to the gym. I did 3.5 hour full body workout using about 11 machines and 4 sets with free weights. A sample of my weights--3 sets of 12 each:
Lower back - 365 lbs.
One leg at a time on the duo-squat machine - 370 lbs.
Lat pull in front - 144 lbs.
Lat pull in back - 122 lbs.
Abdominal - 230 lbs.
Wrist curl with free weights - 50 lbs
Seated rowing machine - 180 lbs
Shoulder shrugs - 250 lbs
Leg extension - 250 lbs.
Then I did a half an hour on the treadmill. After all that, I did another half hour swimming. I was 38 years old--and female.
I never looked any different. I just got stronger and stronger. If I tried to diet, I would immediately start gaining weight on that diet. The only thing that kept me steady was to eat as normally as possible.
I was a diabetic, but my cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, pulse, respiration were all perfect. My blood oxygen saturation was an athletic 99%.
Fast forward 15 years. I'm still fat and still diabetic, but these days I've slowed down. I'm taking martial arts, now, instead.
People need to stop judging . Remember that Jim Fixx, the runner, died of a heart attack and Euell Gibbons and Adele Davis, famous nutritionists,
So yes, we should eat healthy foods in the right amounts and exercise enough to stay healthy. It just doesn't mean that it will make you thin, and that should be okay. Because in another recent study, it was found that being fat didn't mean that one was sick more often or would die sooner. It turns out that the rates of both are the same in both thin and fat people. The truth is, everyone's metabolism is unique to them, and what works with some people does not work with others.
Credentials don't seem to matter to many Republicans anymore it would seem, thus the state of their crumbling political party. You can't be a surgeon general if you're "overweight", but you can sure be the voice of the Republican party in lieu of any actual leadership, or so it appears.
It's pretty clear that 1. Benjamin is seriously overweight --it has nothing whatsoever to do with being "perfectly skinny" (typical distorted hyperbole). 2. Overweight is a major and growing cause of excess morbidity and mortality in this country, worse than all other Western nations 3. Many other serious chronic diseases incl. diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, are either caused or exacerbated by obesity.
And actually the causes of obesity are well known, and really have little or nothing to do with genetics or "hormones"--it's simply an energy imbalance between intake (food), and output (activity). Seems to be that the person proposed to be the country's leading physician should model the types of behavior we wish to encourage.
Teeth-gnashing and feel good crap about her background really don't solve the problem of her dysfunctional problem with food, and given the position for which she's nominated, it probably is important enough to look for candidates better able to exemplify healthy choices.
While there are always cases of people whose weight is caused by physical or mental illness or other health problems, the majority of Americans are fat because they aren't treating their bodies well. If we have a fat surgeon general, we're basically telling Americans not to worry about eating healthy or exercising, since the person who's supposed to be the role model can't even do it.
In all the rush to overhaul our healthcare system, let's not forget that the best health care plan is to start with wellness.
Bullshit. You don't know what her story is or her messages about weight. Yes, overweight is a huge issue in this country (no pun intended). But demonizing people who experience it is certainly NOT the answer. A surgeon general who is overweight but who is eating well and exercising is a MUCH better role model for overweight people than a skinny person who has never encountered weight difficulties in their lives. In addition, you wouldn't have any complaints about a surgeon general who was completely UNFIT but happened to be skinny. We all know skinny people who are nowhere near as fit as some overweight people.
For the record, I am a woman in my late-40s who has had three children and is resasonably thin and fit, but I WAS overweight most of my life through college. I lost weight on diets, but found my mental health destroyed. It wasn't until I could accept my body at whatever weight it was that I could finally stop dieting and get back on the road to physical and mental health. THAT'S wellness.
I have been on several dietary restrictions because of different medical problems for many years. It had gotten to the point that my plea was tell me what I can eat not just eat less and exercise more. After an hour with the dietitian I knew what I could eat and how much to eat. I could have saved much money and possibly have avoided getting diabetes if the doctor had simply sent me for some help years ago when I first went to him. Dr. Benjamin probably would have understood the problem unlike my current doctor who have never had an ounce of excess fat in his whole life.
That said, I don't see her as being at a healthy weight.
However that doesn't disqualify her from being the surgeon general. She has impeccable credentials.
Nice try, righty-tighty wingers!
Who exactly?
Neurological impairment, cardiovascular diseases, and other disorders that have a high genetic component don't care if you're skinny or fat. Too bad the fear-mongers at FOX don't seem to understand that very basic principle.
On the other hand, I know a lot of skinny people with cancer, kidney disease, and digestive issues.
I have worked with quite a few healthy people that either died suddenly or as a result of terminal illness. All of them were under 50 and all male.
Did the healthy people who died suddenly have an accident? otherwise, if they had a stroke, they weren't healthy.
These were guys who worked out, didn't drink much or smoke, ate organic foods, meditated, the whole shebang. You would figure that the one who developed cancer would have the best chances of recovery because of their lifestyles. This was not the case.
Perhaps we have the wrong idea about what makes a person healthy.