Pete, that is because you are completely ADORABLE !

Yes, Fay, ask!

I'm reading the Washington Post series on childhood obesity. The writing and reporting are both horrible. (Well, the writing I'm used to -- I frequently have an urge to take a red pen to the Post.) First article, they keep using the terms "overweight" and "obese" without defining either one, and frequently using them as synonyms. They cite "studies by scientists" without giving any information about these studies.

Then, there's a sidebar about finding "healthy" foods that your kids will eat. Mac and cheese from a box (some of the ones they mentioned are at least whole wheat, others aren't), pasta with tomato sauce, and chicken and hamburgers. The chicken and hamburgers are the only things they mention that don't come out of a box or bag or jar, and they don't mention anything at all about getting lean cuts -- just, hamburgers and chicken. And serve them with frozen french fries, which they don't mention can be baked rather than fried.

Mac and cheese from a box (some of the ones they mentioned are at least whole wheat, others aren't), pasta with tomato sauce, and chicken and hamburgers.

...they're citing these as the HEALTHY things?? Dear god, what are the bad things??

[link]

For mac and cheese lovers, there's Kraft Whole Grain Macaroni and Cheese; Annie's Homegrown Totally Natural Arthur Macaroni & Cheese, or Bunny Pasta with Yummy Cheese. Whole Foods 365 Everyday Macaroni and Cheese is a bargain at about 99 cents and has nearly the same ingredients as Annie's for a fraction of the cost.

Broiled or grilled burgers and chicken are a snap to make. Simply add fries from the frozen food section, for better nutrition than you'd get at the drive-through. Ian's Sweet Potato Fries have 70 calories per serving of seven chunky fries. They're low in sodium and fat, and provide nearly three times the daily intake of Vitamin A. Compare with Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries, with about double the calories and fat, and nearly 10 times the sodium and no Vitamin A.

There is not a single vegetable in this article. (I'm not counting jarred tomato sauce.)

Speaking of, i'm staying up watching a special on BBCA about two reporters who each tried to get to a size 00. They were UK size 12 (which I think is an 8 or 10). Really interesting and scary.

I know a few people who wear 00. Most of them are fairly active and healthy, and just happen to be built really small. (Well, one of them eats total junk, but the rest are fairly healthy.)

They seem to be going with the idea that kids will not eat anything other than "kid food," so go and find slightly healthier versions of it.

oh, yes. There are some people who are naturally thin. In this case, they were people with "normal" bodies who decided to lose weight for this experiment, for five weeks. they did crazy diets and detox centers, etc.

That sounds really fascinating, Vortex--wish I got BBCA. Did they manage? I mean, I am about a US 12 now, and I've been a US 8 and certainly could've still lost some more weight...but I don't think I could be a 0. My bones are not that small.

My old boss was doing bikram yoga like, six days a week and working out at the gym also, before her wedding, and she was built a lot like me, maybe even a little smaller boned--and even she only got down to a 4 at her very smallest. So I've always figured a 6 would probably be my lowest healthy weight, maybe a 4 if I was pretty anorexic...

[Edit: and doing it in like, five weeks? That's even more crazy. Good lord. I totally know there are people who are just small, that's normal. The other manager in the department was a size two, and somewhat fleshy, not super skinny, just birdboned. It's how she was built. But for a person who's normally an "average" size person...]

One of them (the shorter one) got into the 00 jeans, but they were tight (the announcer made a point of saying that they would fit a 6 year old). The other one lost about the same amount of weight, but because she was taller, her BMI didn't change as much.