Truthful Tuesday

Image Courtesy of www.stationbay.com

     

     I have decided to propose Truthful Tuesday, a day on which my posts will discuss actual honest issues regarding weight, health, and happiness.  As for today's post, I would like to take a stab at one of my most prized addictions, soda.  I LOVE soda, pop, los refrescos.  In any language, carbonated, heavily sugared beverages bring me to my knees.  Unfortunately, this obsession with all things sweet, cold, and bubbly has brought with it a slew of unwanted side effects.  My addiction to caffeine is one place to begin, but why stop there when I can also include the addiction to sugar my body has no doubt acquired.  While it may sound somewhat silly, going more than 12 hours without my favorite neon-green soda pop renders me nearly unable to function due to debilitating headaches and a complete lack of energy.  Given this unnatural obsession with a beverage, I thought it might be a good idea to do a little research into the effects my habit is likely having on my health.
     After spending some time trying to find reputable sources for my post, I stumbled across a selection of quotes that specifically apply to soda consumption and one's health:


James A Howenstine M.D.
A Physician's Guide to Natural Health Products That Work

"In an interesting experiment the sugar from one soft drink was able to damage the white blood cells'                                             

 ability to ingest and kill gonococcal bacteria for seven hours." 

          

"Soft drinks also contain large quantities of phosphorus, which when excreted pulls calcium out of the
 bones.    Heavy users of soft drinks will have osteoporosis along with their damaged arteries."

Marion Nestle
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture) 

"The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times."

"Adolescents who consume soft drinks display a risk of bone fractures three to four-fold higher than those who do not."

"Sugar and acid in soft drinks so easily dissolve tooth enamel."

      Even more shocking is the affect soda consumption has on the risk for diabetes, as even one soda a day can greatly increase a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

Now it's your turn.  Have any of you been compelled to slow or stop all together the consumption of soda?  Have you or a member of your friends or family been directly affected by diabetes?  I welcome any comments or advice you may have to give.  Together we can both educate and learn more about the health risks facing our community.

Honesty, the Super-Power of Children

     Ahhh, children.  Tiny little breathes of fresh air, aren't they?  And honest.....oh, so very honest.  I learned this the hard way a few weeks ago while driving with my oldest son, who is six.  I realized he was not wearing his seat belt, and pulled over so we could discuss the potential dangers and remedy the situation.
 I asked him, "Lowell, why aren't you wearing your seat belt?"
     To which he replied, "Why aren't YOU wearing your seat belt?"
     My initial response was to tell him, "Because I'm a grown-up."
     Typically, this generic reply goes over without a hitch.  But on this day, little Lowell decided to expand on          the topic.
     "Yeah, because you're a grown-up.  But it's also because you're heavy, right?"
     Oy vey.  That hit me hard, right in my over-abundant stomach.  And there was not a single thing I could do about it.  He's a child, and children are well-known for speaking the truth.  What he said was not meant maliciously, or with any ill-intent.  He was simply observing the situation through the uncorrupted eyes of a child.
     I did, eventually, muster a slightly more coherent response, and explained to him that it wasn't nice to make references to a person's weight, under any circumstance.  He had a hard time understanding this, since he was "only telling the truth, Mom."  The entire event opened up a rather large can of society-driven expectations for him, including references to age, skin color, and body type.  As a child, he has yet to grasp the politics of grown-up existence, and what truths are okay to point out, and which truths are best ignored.  The afternoon was a decisively learning experience for me as a mother, and really brought home the responsibility I have to teach my children behaviors that are acceptable within American society.
     How about you, gentle reader?  Have you ever been pinned to the wall by an overtly honest statement made by a child?  "Mommy, why does that man's stomach hang over his pants like that?"  Or, "Mommy, why is that little girl so much darker than me?"  And let's not forget my personal favorite, "Mommy, why is that lady's face so wrinkly?"
     Please enlighten me on how you chose to handle a similar situation.  Goodness knows I can use all the help I can get.

     Greetings, readers!  My name is Molly, and I have been well-rounded for the entirety of my conscious life.  Why "well-rounded," you ask?  Having been married for nearly 6 years, it was imperative early on in the relationship that my husband find a complimentary way to allude to my body-size.  This was for his personal safety.  Being the brilliant man I married, he chose "well-rounded" to describe both my character and my rear-end (his words, not mine).  As a child, my father was fixated on my weight, which was the only thing about his young daughter he could not "fix."  Because both of my parents were home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, his attention to my body-size was a special sort of torment I was unable to avoid due to my unusual home environment.  My mother, may she rest in peace, offered me my first Slim-Fast at the age of 12.  I declined, and she allowed it.  Despite the shelter my mother provided, I lived my life in fear of what the scale would say when my dad made me get on it every single morning of my childhood.  He kept a food diary of my personal caloric intake, and even went so far as to send a list of foods I was not allowed to eat with me when I went to a friend's home to spend the night, to ensure that their parents would not ruin all of his hard work.  Are you sensing a bit of bitterness here?  As well you should.  The point of this emotional rant is this:  I have never experienced life as a thin person.  The skinniest I ever got was right before I became pregnant with my first son, and even then I was a size 14.  Since I am barely 5'1" in stature, this hardly counted as slim.  Living my life as a fat person in a country that caters to the slender, I have experienced my fair share of discrimination and humiliation, and I would be willing to bet that many of you reading this have as well.

     So tell me about it.  Fat or thin, big or small, what challenges have you faced regarding body image in America?  Has your weight ever affected your employment?  Salary?  Who you ask out on a date?  The way others treat you?  This can extend to friends and family as well.  Many times family can be the harshest critics, and this is your venue in which to vent.  Why is it still OK to ridicule people who have weight issues?  Why are overweight/obese Americans the only demographic that remains unprotected in professional and educational environments?  We make up over 60% of America's population.  WE are the majority, and deserve to be treated with respect.