Go, MeMe Roth, Go..! I Support Your Efforts..!

Monday, June 28, 2010

"Huge" show about Anorexia airs tonight on ABCFamily


Congratulations to ABCFamily for promoting positive body image. Tonight's world premiere, "Huge," stars dangerously gaunt Nikki Blonsky of "Hairspray" fame. The show takes place in a teen camp for habitual under-eaters and self-starvers, including a moderately underweight character played by David Hasselhoff's daugther, Hayley. But it's the 21 year-old Blonsky who plays our heroine and defies the camp's will for her to become a healthy weight. The alarmingly emaciated character says it best, "Why should I change..?"

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Penn Jillette Would Rather Make-out w/ a Burger than Me... Shoot, I Kinda Like Him...


Tune in to the latest episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" Showtime series... Episode 2 is "Fast Food" and features "Mindless Eating" author and Cornell professor Brian Wansink, NYU Associate Professor of Public Policy Rogan Kersh, and me.

We had a total blast shooting this episode... but you won't see those parts. Oh well... their "Cheerleaders" episode last week was really good.

And apparently I'm not Penn Jillette's type. He'd prefer to make-out with a burger... My loss??

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Happy "Eat Your Vegetables" Day- Hooters and Limp Men


Yeah, it's Eat Your Vegetables Day... We get it, right? We're supposed to be eating a mostly-Vegetarian diet... So if you happen to eat meat (your best source of B12), think of it more as a garnish...

Stuart Varney & Co., let's talk about Hooters... Obesity discrimination in Michigan... and Hey Men! Happy Father's Day. Now check your "health dipstick" this weekend and make sure you're hitting that 135-degree angle. Good artery health means great bedroom performance..!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Felt this fatigue? I know I have. America's Obesogenic culture is counting on all of us to give in to it...


I love Dan and Chip Heath's book "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard..." Any book that uses Van Halen's notorious brown M&M clause as higher metaphor for better business strategy is alright with me... (David Lee Roth, I'll luv ya till the day I die...)

One of the many insights in Switch, and there are many gems, is the concept of willpower that fatigues. Ever committed to healthful eating then spent the day on the Jersey Shore with a boardwalk overflowing in Kohr Bros. frozen custard, funnel cakes, cotton candy, taffy, fried OREOS and gi-normous pizza slices..? Sure that stuff is crap, so you don't indulge. But for those of us raised in the Pop-Tart generation, that crap looks mighty tempting... And saying "no thanks" aloud or just in your mind over and over again all day long can get exhausting.

Smarter folks than I have studied this exhaustible self-control... Check it out from Dan Heath in June 2nd's Fast Company. And BTW, it's still no damn excuse... It's just motivation to plan our days more strategically.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Is this you? You want it so bad. And maybe it takes loads and loads to satisfy you?


I find it hard to even look at this photo of the chocolate cake... I want to eat the whole damn thing, and I don't mean one slice. No, I want to grab the rest of the cake box and empty it out, and maybe hunt down the baker for another...

How 'bout you? No effect? One nibble will go a long way? Or maybe you wanna scarf it down?

Scientific American and Eric Stice at the Oregon Research Institute are calling it the "Goldilocks Principle of Obesity."

For me, eating sweets just triggers the urge to eat more sweets. Why is that true for most of us? There are 2 things going on: 1- a cascade of pleasure chemicals is released when I eat sweets, so now craving-inducing dopamine reminds me of that constantly. Eat it! Eat it! Eat it! It was sooo delicious last time..! And 2- a charge of sugar leads to a rush of insulin, then a plummet in sugar. So my now out-of-whack-blood-sugar-body tries to convince me I'm hungry even when I'm really not. Smarter, more disciplined people than I are giving up sugar altogether. (Way to go, Ellen DeGeneres..!) So far, I'm just trying not to go overboard. I make sure to eat right and exercise daily, and basically eat within my means. But if I had to be 100% honest, I'd be better off just ditching the treats.

Connie Bennett's SugarShock! book is a great resource for giving up sugar...

Food Makers know all about our behavioral and neuro-chemical dependencies upon junk food. They installed them after all... We're onto you about the "Bliss Point," Kellogg's, Coke and Kraft..! And who owned Kraft up to just a few years ago..?

Monday, June 07, 2010

Hooters Girls Are Too Fat? Obesity Discrimination? What Does Michigan's Special Protection for the Obese Mean for American Business?


Bad news, America, the obese are starting to win special protections. Nevermind most obesity is the result of habitual improper eating...

Hooters girls say they were fired (in an at-will state) for being too fat! Michigan, with its special protections for the obese, says it's against the law, but will that actually hold up in court??

And what does this mean for American businesses? Do you have the right to market your business as you see fit, especially if your employees are your company's greatest marketing, eh hem, asset? Nobody's going to Hooters for the wings...

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Pro-Fat Acceptance is Over. Healthy at Every Size (HAES) is Over.


R.I.P. Obesity... You're torturing Americans, especially our most precious newborns. Pro-Fat Acceptance is Over. Healthy at Every Size (HAES) is Over. I say so. Darwin says so.

Obese Pregnancy = $200,000.00
Normal Pregnancy = $13,000.00

And how do you calculate the human suffering..?

Paul Campos and Linda Bacon, pay up..!

National Man Boob Day Pretends to be about Doughnuts


Come on, every doughnut costs you 300 calories...or more! That's a 3-Mile Run for every glob of fried dough... We all know that it's not really National Doughnut Day--It's National Man Boob Day.