Comments on: Minding Women’s Magazines: Asinine Advice

By: Sandy

Sandy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:08:42 +0000

Just found this, and it’s highly amusing when you take apart the language and question the assumptions

The daftest thing I’ve ever read about calories, and it’s stuck with me for years, is that one should always drink iced water. Because the body’s effort to warm the iced water will burn more calories. I believe the article said something like nine calories for each glass of water! Woooo!

Holistic medicine says putting iced water into the stomach dampens the digestive fires and makes food harder to digest, which seems to me a whole other problem.

Nine calories – snort!

By: Minding the Magazines: Is Marie Claire Making Progress? | Weightless

Minding the Magazines: Is Marie Claire Making Progress? | Weightless — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:14:24 +0000

[...] models rule the runways and women’s magazines alike. Also ruling magazines is a litany of guilt-ridden food and fitness advice. Advice that often makes us feel bad about ourselves and [...]

By: anna

anna — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:12:30 +0000

I’ve just been reading through your archives, and I love all of your posts. You are brilliant.

By: Navigating the Holidays: Q&A with Marsha Hudnall | Weightless

Navigating the Holidays: Q&A with Marsha Hudnall | Weightless — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:40:15 +0000

[...] I recently wrote a post about silly suggestions from women’s magazines. What’s the silliest or worst tip you’ve seen [...]

By: Annie, MS, RD

Annie, MS, RD — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:27:42 +0000

I will apologize in advance for venting but this does seem like an appropriate venue. As a member of the weight management practice group and listserv there is a lot of conversations about topics that I question their importance in helping clients meet their goals. Most recently this has been about discretionary calories and their calculations. Imparting no disrespect to the AHA, but is this really helpful in teaching people how to live a healthy lifestyle by giving them a set number of sweets they can have every day? Like with weight watchers, if you tell someone they can have only this much sugar during the day they will focus on it and make sure that they are meeting that limit. Isn’t that defeating the whole purpose of trying to eat healthy and live a longer healthy life if all your focus on is how much sugar you can have. Whereas, if we focus more on consuming whole grains, fruits/vegetables, and lean meats/dairy products and maintaining an active lifestyle with daily physical activity, won’t the overall education and focus of the patient be more helpful and illustrate long term success? That’s a mouth full. The guiding question is, wouldn’t people be better supported to be educated how to eat healthy tasty foods that are economical and manage calories and physical activity? It appears that the information available to the general public at times is too specific or is defeating the overall purpose of helping them to live a healthier life versus a tightly controlled one.

By: LT

LT — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:52:38 +0000

@Liz: Oh, and what’s so bad about standing instead of sitting at work? That article regarding the downfalls of a sedentary lifestyle has saved me!

Unless one can convince one’s employer that they should pay for a “standing desk” or you buy your own, I don’t see how this is feasible. Bending over to work at your desk is asking for back issues. And most of us can’t afford the “standing desk” price tag.

By: Minding the Magazines: “Eat This, Not That” Gone Too Far? | Weightless

Minding the Magazines: “Eat This, Not That” Gone Too Far? | Weightless — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:16:43 +0000

[...] also a slew of insidious messages. When looking through the latest Fitness, where I found some interesting advice, I came across the following sidebar (copied directly from the magazine; unfortunately, the sidebar [...]

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:45:07 +0000

All of us can eat in healthy ways and exercise, and I encourage that. But guess what? Some of us will do this and still be fat. Fat does not always equal unhealthy, and thin does not equal healthy. The images we see in these magazines are of thin women, not necessarily healthy ones. As a matter of fact, for most women to look this way they would need to do things that are not healthy at all. There are lots of signals of health…cholesterol level, glucose level, heart rate, and others. And for women, want to live longer? Then be “overweight.” because women in that category tend to live longer.
The thin ideal exists to control women. Create a standard that is unrealistic for most but convince them that if they meet that standard they will be happier, and if they don’t meet the standard it is all their fault. Then when they invariably don’t, they will blame themselves and feel bad. And it will keep them obsessed with the standard rather than the real problems in women’s lives, like the fact that women receive lower pay, are beaten an raped at unbelievable rates, and are still doing most of the housework and childcare. Brilliant.

By: New Blog, Weightless, Critiques Media While Promoting Well-Being | Our Bodies Our Blog

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:45:15 +0000

[...] a poor body image and suggestions to help readers be less self-critical. In aptly titled “Minding Women’s Magazines: Asinine Advice,” Tartakovsky pulls out “tips” from magazines including Women’s Health, [...]

By: Elisabeth W

Elisabeth W — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:26:12 +0000

When I was an undergrad I did a research project on the prevalence of eating disorders among my fellow students and came across a startling fact re: models. A model for a popular soft drink,(if I remember correctly it was Rolling Rock Cola,) in 1940 the average model weighed 140lbs and was 5’4″ but today was 5’9″ and weighed 109lbs. What kind of message does that send?