Obesity And Vitamin D Deficiency - Greater Risk For Breast Cancer

[Julieanne]

North American Menopause Society
September 19 2018

Vitamin D is already well known for its benefits in building healthy bones. A new study supports the idea that it also may reduce cancer risk as well as breast cancer mortality, especially in women with a lower body mass index. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Read more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0919083443.htm

[Islander]

If you were to watch a few films from the 40s and the 50s, you would see very few obese people and even fewer obese women. The same is true of television in the 50s and even the 60s. People back then were slender. Today obesity seems to be trending everywhere. I don't know how it would be possible to reverse this in the US, short of standing the whole SAD on its head.

[Julieanne]

I certainly don't like 'fat shaming', but I worry about the normalising of obesity. There is a rapper, Lizzie B, who is huge. She encourages women to love their body and is probably a big influence on young women. On the other hand, Rebel Wilson, an Aussie actor who was obese, has regularly posted photos of herself as she dieted, exercised and lost an enormous amount of weight. She is known in the US, as she has made a number of American movies. Apparently, some obese women feel threatened by this and see it as close to fat shaming.

[Islander]

Men seem not to be so weight conscious, possibly because women are inclined to overlook obesity in favor of status and net worth. Women, on the other hand, realize that the first thing any man notices when looking for a partner is body shape. Yet it seems that most women I know who are slender were born that way and maintained that shape without effort; the rest of the slender women have had to work overtime to maintain that shape... Meaning that it's possible with careful attention to diet and exercise. I have been through several periods when I was overweight, the worst being after I quit smoking. That's a rebound that's apparently common. At its peak, I made a deliberate effort to get back to normal, and having done so, I've maintained an ideal weight for the last 15+ years. The diabetic diet I adopted, which prohibits grains and sugars, certainly helped to achieve that status.

I can't approve of fat shaming but I think it's important to not to mislead obese people, especially women, into thinking this state of affairs is healthful. I question whether Lizzie B is doing any of her fans a favor.