Canadian Obesity Network To Engage People Living With Obesity
Since its inception in 2006, the Canadian Obesity Network (CON) has grown into a 10,000 member strong organisation of researchers, health professionals, policy makers, and anyone working in the private or public sector with an interest in obesity. In short, CON as we know it, is a professional network – all you have to do to become a member is to sign up on the website and state your professional expertise and area of interest. While CON has undeniably changed the landscape of obesity research, practice and policy in Canada, the most important voice in this dialogue has been missing – the voice of people living with obesity and their families. As decided by CON’s Board of Directors, this is about to change. It is now time for CON to engage directly with people who have the problem – not just experts who study or treat it. To help guide CON on this new venture, anyone living with obesity or working with individuals living with obesity (of any age and in any setting) is requested to complete this brief survey (4 questions – takes less than 2 minutes). Your response will help inform a Bariatric Patient Engagement Workshop to be held on April 27, 2015 at the upcoming 4th Canadian Obesity Summit in Toronto. The purpose of the Bariatric Patient Engagement Workshop is to hold a focused conversation and seek insights about the need for and function of a public engagement strategy to inform, support, and empower individuals affected by obesity in Canada. This workshop is CON’s first step towards building a Canada-wide community of individuals affected by obesity that is willing to participate in public engagement initiatives in support of patient-oriented research, practice, and policy. Your help and support is very much appreciated as CON prepares itself for this next chapter of its commitment to engage all relevant stakeholders towards its mission to prevent and reduce the physical, mental and economic burden of obesity on Canadians. To take the survey click here. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Does The Media Depiction Of Obesity Hinder Efforts To Address It?
A study by Paula Brochu and colleagues, published in Health Psychology, suggests that the often unflattering depiction of people living with obesity in the media (as in the typical images of headless, dishevelled, ill-clothed individuals, usually involved in stereotypical activities – holding a hamburger in one hand and a large pop in the other or pinching their “love handles”), may well play a role in the lack of public support for policies to address this issue. The researchers asked participants to read an online news story about a policy to deny fertility treatment to obese women that was accompanied by a nonstigmatizing, stigmatizing, or no image of an obese couple. A balanced discussion of the policy was presented, with information both questioning the policy as discriminatory and supporting the policy because of weight-related medical complications. The findings of the study show that participants who viewed the article accompanied by the nonstigmatizing image were less supportive of the policy to deny obese women fertility treatment and recommended the policy less strongly than participants who viewed the same article accompanied by the stigmatizing image. Given that negative and stigmatising images of people with obesity are the rule rather than the exception in media reports about obesity, the authors suggest that simply eliminating stigmatizing media portrayals of obesity may help reduce bias and foster more support for policies to address this problem. Readers may wish to visit the Canadian Obesity Network’s image bank Picture Perfect At Any Size of non-stigmatizing images of people living with obesity that are available for free download for educational and media purposes. @DrSharma Copenhagen, DK
Introducing Sadly The Line-Dancing Owl
Yesterday, I posted about my daughter Linnie von Sky’s 2nd children’s book Pom Pom A Flightless Bully Tale, that is now available here. Today, I would like to introduce you to Sadly The Line-Dancing Owl, who one morning wakes up with a dark cloud over his head. Learn how Sadly in the end overcomes his sadness and how he finds the help he needs to be his happy self again. After tackling immigration and bullying, Linnie turns her attention to depression – in a children’s book that she admits is somewhat autobiographical, “Depression is REAL and it SUCKS…at least it sucked the living daylight out of me and consumes too many people I love.” Along for the ride is the incredibly talented Ashley O’Mara as the new illustrator. Ashley is a Vancouverite, Emily Carr Graduate, Bird Lover (she draws the cutest darn chickens I’ve ever seen) and like Linnie, knows a thing or two about how much depression hurts. Please consider supporting Linnie’s fundraising campaign by pre-ordering your personal copy(ies) of Sadly The Line-Dancing Owl, which will again be 100% made in Canada. To learn more about Sadly and how you can support this venture, please take a minute to visit Linnie’s Indiegogo page. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Pom Pom A Flightless Bully Tale Takes Flight
Today’s post is to announce the arrival of my daughter Linnie von Sky’s second children’s book, “Pom Pom A Flightless Bully Tale“, that hundreds of you helped fund by pre-ordering your copy(ies) about 12 months ago – your books are in the mail and should be there in time for the Holidays (a big THANK YOU from me for your support!). To those of you, who are new to these pages, Pom Pom is the story of the slightly rotund little penguin Pomeroy Paulus Jr III., who simply hates it when people call him “Pom Pom”. Like any boy his age he’s busy trying to impress ‘the birds’, particularly one bird: Pia. Pomeroy dreams of a pair of orange swim trunks; the ones that Pete, Pucker and Piper own. The same ones Pia said she loved. There’s just one little hiccup. The antAmart doesn’t carry them in his size. The story tells of how mom helps Pomeroy get his own pair of orange swim trunks and how Pia saves the day when she steps up and puts bullies in their place. Here is what Linnie had to say about the reason for writing this book in an interview with Lindsay william-Ross for VancityBuzz: “When you talk about bullying you have to talk about how much it hurts. Kids understand that,” says von Sky, who hopes her stories ignite conversations. Of “Pom Pom,” von Sky remarks: “I think it’s an encouragement to talk about emotions. What triggers certain actions, what makes somebody want to hurt someone else. Are they hurting?” For von Sky, whose protagonist in “Pom Pom” is picked on because of his size, the pain of bullying in the story echoes the passion she first tapped into working with the Canadian Obesity Network. “Weight bullying happens to be the one thing I’m extremely allergic to,” affirms von Sky. For any of you who would like to order your own copy of this delightful little children’s book about bullying, friendship, respect, sadness, empathy, standing up for friends, antarctica, penguins & above all, love (for ages 3 and up) – click here. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Would You Like Some Guilt With That Popcorn?
Yesterday, I blogged about the McKinsey discussion paper that calls on governments to throw everything they’ve got at the obesity epidemic – proven or unproven – anything is better than nothing. That said, it is indeed timely that this week, the US-FDA announced sweeping regulations on putting calories on menus, not just in fastfood restaurants but also in grocery stores, vending machines, and movie theatres. Personally, I am all for it – never mind that we have yet to show that providing this information at the point of purchase actually changes behaviour of the target population (namely the people who do need to watch their calories) – I, for one, do find this information helpful. Thus, every time I visit a McDonalds restaurant (yes, I do), I study the nutritional information that this restaurant chain has been making available to any customer who bothers to ask for decades. Indeed, I do admit to deriving a kind of voyeuristic pleasure in seeing those astonishingly high numbers on certain food items and cannot help myself from inwardly shaking my head at the poor schmucks who order those foods. What I do wonder, however, is whether knowing these numbers has ever actually changed my own behaviour. Take movie popcorn for instance – I love it! (interestingly this is a habit that I only developed since moving to Canada). Not that I am not aware that a large popcorn can easily have all the calories I need for the rest of the weekend – yup, I know that – indeed, I am making an “informed choice”. In the few milliseconds I spend thinking about whether or not I may wish to skip the popcorn this time, those calorie numbers do regularly flash through my mind – in the end, the popcorn always wins. So how will having the numbers up on the menu board staring in my face change things for me? My guess is that I’ll still buy the popcorn, except now it will come with an even larger portion of guilt than before. Obviously, with the numbers up there for everyone to see (including the people in line behind me), there may well now be an added tinge of embarrassment on top of the guilt. Well, I may not be the typical consumer or even the target of these measures – after all these are meant for the people who could obviously do with some nudging towards eating a healthier diet… Read More »
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