For years, liberals like me had lauded NPR for reporting on stories that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. They could be counted on for revealing a different perspective on societal and political issues.
But when it comes to weight, NPR has a big problem. Recently, as part of NPR’s series on obesity in America, it’s been running sickeningly laudatory reports on weight loss high schools. (Trigger Warning for talk of calorie restriction and the merits of weight loss. Plus, if you formerly liked NPR you might start to think that defunding it is a good idea. )
The piece below offers a different perspective, and gives you a sense of what these schools really teach: obsessive behaviors, extreme calorie restriction, body hatred, and outright lies.
by Sarah Yahm
And while we’re on the topic of fat kids, please click here to petition to end Georgia’s fat shame campaign against kids.
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This was fascinating and disturbing. Do you have more information on this documentary? Obviously I can see the name of the person who posted it, but if you know anything more about it, I’d love to hear.
They had this story on a few weeks ago that sounds like the same thing, scales in every room, exercising numerous times a day, basically teaching obsession.
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/12/142661672/school-transforms-teens-lives-one-pound-at-a-time
“But I ate more than I should, and when I did the triathlon on Sunday I had like 1800 calories that day, which was more than I probably should have. That’s the most calories I’ve eaten by far.”
Try to run a triathlon on 1800 calories. Try.
That recitation of calories to food… it’s so very familiar. It’s a disorder, and it’s addictive because it gives you a feeling of control. If you feel you are so horrible you need to be disciplined, and you can discipline yourself by monitoring your food intake and exercise so closely, it can make you feel like you are performing an atonement, a penance, that makes you into less of a horrible person.
Turning basic parts of your life, essential metabolic activities that often mean so much because they’re so close to your needs, into avenues of control, into numbers on a page, means that you don’t get to enjoy doing anything that doesn’t contribute to that bottom line. And then you are addicted.
I have experienced this and I would not wish it upon anyone else. Perhaps I was more aware of my self hatred than most, but I have difficulty believing you can live this way and be content.
they are teaching those poor kids an EATING DISORDER. what would be considered anorexia in skinny people is called “weight maintainers” if we are fatties. as someone who is struggling to end a scary 15 year battle with bulimia this brought tear to my eyes. and the world at large would listen to that and find it acceptable somehow? laudatory even? because those kids are “doing something about it” ugh.