For all my fellow vipers observing the holiday 
5 Likes
Noticed about 40 min outside of PGH that I wasn’t wearing the silver bracelet I inherited from my mom, and which I have been wearing basically every day since she died last year.
It was neither fancy nor expensive, but rather irreplaceable - wearing it makes me feel close to her.
I was absolutely heartbroken thinking I might’ve lost it during our outing on the Strip, and we decided to turn the car around to find it.
I’d also called the hotel in case I’d left it in the room… WHERE THEY FOUND IT!
That’s far more of an emotionally taxing ending to a wonderful trip than anyone needed.
But all’s well that ends well.
10 Likes
I have a similar silver bracelet. I’d given it to my mom, and she wore it every day until she died. She had much fancier jewelry, but there it was. I even have a portrait of her wearing it. When I put it on (not often enough, though) I feel like I’m wearing a Wonder Woman cuff. I’d be devastated if I lost it.
5 Likes
I’m seeing a real shift (in America, in the press, in writing, in contemporary parenting advice) in how we think about and discuss bodies and weight, and it feels like Gen Z, as with so many other things (pronouns, sexuality, etc), is leading the charge. As a geriatric Millennial, I just try to keep up. Sometimes the conversation around weight and bodies on HO feels like a retro echo chamber.
2 Likes
At the end of the day, your weight is your weight. Its a statistical number compared to your height to produce a BMI for your doctor to asses your health and health risks (along with other numbers).
Dressing that number up with fancy adjectives or unique nouns doesn’t change that individual’s health. If that individual does not want to follow the advice of their doctor, then they’ll suffer the consequences. No amount of lipstick is going to change that fact.
Whatever advice my doctor gives me, I follow. I figure he has been to College, Med School, etc. and knows A LOT more than me.
2 Likes
The relevance of BMI has long been debunked. It is utterly unreliable as a diagnostic tool.
3 Likes
Not all doctors take this approach.
1 Like
And at the risk of hyperbole, if doctors always got it right we might still be doing bloodletting and conversion therapy. 
2 Likes
My doctor uses it… We discussed all of my numbers during my last visit and my BMI was the first number we talked about. As long as it is below 25… all good.
When I log into my health profile, it is among the first three numbers I see.
Height
Weight
BMI
Then the rest of my numbers are below it. One can only assume since its at the top of the list… its important and utilized.
Some reading on the topic 
1 Like
Also triggering for people who grew up surrounded by toxic diet culture and body negativity and shaming that is no longer acceptable (even though it’s still prevalent).
And odd and off-brand for a site for “thoughtful discussion among avid food-lovers”.
2 Likes
“Furthermore, studies have shown that BMI levels correlate with body fat and with future
health risks. High BMI predicts future morbidity and death. Therefore, BMI is an
appropriate measure for screening for obesity and its health risks.”
Source: www.cdc.gov
Apparently the CDC seems to value BMI as an appropriate tool.
So you want to compare the health practices of the 19th Century with that of the 21st Century??
I do think modern medicine has come a long way since the days of bloodletting. Furthermore researchers have amassed empirical data regarding weight and health risks.
Fat bias (and its detriment to the health of
2/3 of the population) in medicine is well researched and published about at this point.
There’s also a lot of published research about how “fat” people actually can’t lose weight as easily because of biological issues that prevent it, not because they can’t control themselves.
My 75yo aunt’s GP recently put her on an addiction / weight loss medication that has had her drop over 30 lbs in 4 months. Unbeknownst to any of her children (or me, I’m as close) until she started telling us how much weight she was losing — and we asked HOW? I asked her what had been advised alongside to prevent muscle loss and bone density loss given her age, and especially as a woman, the answer was absolutely nothing.
There’s a lot of foolish stuff out there and plenty of under-informed people with degrees.
But again, this is a food site. It’s a particularly odd place to have toxic (and well-debunked) diet tropes keep popping up.
1 Like
We are still doing bloodletting (aka phlebotomy). I have it done 4 times a year.
2 Likes
Did you read any of the links I posted? I think you might find them enlightening, or at least informative.
My point was that standard medicine changes. We are all products of our culture, including medical professionals. Anti-fat bias is part of the water we all swim in. I’m not saying there’s no such thing as empirical evidence. But there is nuance and a difference between say, correlation and causation.
1 Like
It takes govt agencies a while to catch up to what’s already known. Steering a big ship and all.
“The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.”
“He was a mathematician, not a physician.”
“But there were big limitations to Quetelet’s experiment. For one, all the participants were western European men. The experiment also had nothing to do with measuring individual health”
“Using the BMI, most elite athletes would be classified as overweight. That’s because the test doesn’t account for the difference between muscle mass, bone density and body fat.”
“…a bigger flaw is the natural differences in body types between people of various ethnicities, genders and ages.”
“Similar caveats exist for women, who carry weight differently throughout their lifetimes, and older people.”
“For people over-65 a higher BMI is often linked to better health because it means you’re more likely to be well-nourished”
“There are also people who are healthy while being clinically overweight, just as some people who fall into the “healthy” range have metabolic issues.“
Variously from:
4 Likes
I’m not willing to belabor this, but I would say the BMI is flawed, but not useless.
10 Likes
(post deleted by author)
