Your fat has a brain, and it's trying to kill you. And the best line of defense is muscle. Muscle is now known to be one of the most dynamic systems in the body; when it contracts, it undergoes huge changes at the cellular level. And its mortal enemy is fat. (Also, why liposuction may not be so good for you health wise).
posted by tatiana131
on Mar 5, 2013 -
98 comments
Listening to what the tongue feels:
First, drink some black coffee. Next, rub your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It should feel a little rough, like very fine sandpaper: the tiny bumps on your tongue, called papillae, are raised just enough to create friction against your palate.
If you now add cream to your coffee and try again, the sensation should be much smoother — almost velvety. A layer of fat and mucous is now coating your tongue, providing lubrication and preventing friction.
What you have just done was, until very recently, the most accurate method for evaluating the oral perception of fat — the precise degree of tongue-coating creaminess in milk, mayonnaise, or chocolate pudding.
posted by ennui.bz
on Feb 19, 2013 -
21 comments
American paratrooper Arthur Boorman suffered debilitating injuries during the first Gulf War. Doctors told him he'd never walk unassisted again.
15 years later.... [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 27, 2012 -
16 comments
Comedian/podcaster
Ari Shaffir interviews comedian
Ralphie May on the realities of being morbidly obese, including very frank, often touching, sometimes hilarious discussions of health issues (including his near-death experience), social acceptance, fashion, personal demons, sex, comedy, and cannabis use.
"Fat" pt 1 (direct mp3) "Fat" pt 2 (direct mp3) (NSFW audio)
posted by LordSludge
on Aug 3, 2012 -
23 comments
The Fat Trap (NYT pop review): Overweight individuals in Western nations (
and, increasingly, beyond) face interpersonal and
institutional stigma for their bodies*. Oftentimes, these stigmas are predicated on the belief that being overweight is a
moral failure, that being overweight is usually a result of laziness, decadence, and/or characterlogical poor impulse control. However, an emerging consensus among obesity researchers points toward
strong, common physiological and individual genetic factors as causative for heightened BMIs in the modern world and the general failure of dieting to produce BMI outcomes.
A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine (paywalled) adds to this body of evidence, suggesting that chemical messengers held to contribute to altered "efficient" metabolism and increased hunger in the wake of low-calorie dieting are (on average) significantly elevated up to a full year (if not longer) following a substantial drop in weight from dieting.
[more inside]
posted by Keter
on Dec 28, 2011 -
173 comments
Chris Christie Is Fat.
Who Cares? "What is it about fat that turns otherwise smart people into complacent fools? No, this isn’t a new discovery about the supposed health risks of obesity: it’s an observation about how the sight of a fat body can transform people like
Michael Kinsley and
Eugene Robinson—writers whose work I usually admire—into bigoted know-nothings, spouting absurd prejudices they would mock if they were aimed at almost any group other than fat people."
posted by Fizz
on Oct 3, 2011 -
299 comments
Obesity Epidemic Grows: [CNN.com] "Two-thirds of all adults and about a third of all children and teenagers in the United States are overweight or obese according to a report release Thursday by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
According to
"F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011,"[PDF] adult obesity increased in 16 states during the past year and rates soared to 30% or more in these 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Four years ago, only one state - Mississippi - had an adult obesity rate of more than 30%. No state showed a decrease in it obesity rate in Thursday's report."
posted by Fizz
on Jul 7, 2011 -
231 comments
Hello, I am fat. This is my body (over there—see it?). I have lived in this body my whole life. I have wanted to change this body my whole life. I have never wanted anything as much as I have wanted a new body. I am aware every day that other people find my body disgusting. I always thought that some day—when I finally stop failing—I will become smaller, and when I become smaller literally everything will get better (I've heard It Gets Better)! My life can begin!
posted by fernabelle
on Feb 12, 2011 -
580 comments
Why Wal-Mart Is Making Our Health Its Problem - "So what's behind
the [healthier-eating] initiative? In a word: scale. In
a recent article in HBR, Chris Meyer and I argued that we'll see companies taking more and more ownership of externalities they could ignore because of changing sensibilities and better sensors (meaning detection and reporting of impacts by third parties). But we also identified a third driver: the scale of modern business. Whereas in the past, a single grocer could not have much impact on society, in today's highly consolidated market, Wal-Mart touches a significant percentage of the nation's food intake. Once you reach a scale where your decisions have ramifications for millions, it is hard to pretend that the impacts, even as distant ripples, are not your problem."
posted by kliuless
on Jan 24, 2011 -
75 comments
Fried Beer. As the Dallas Morning News reports, the Fried Beer was the result of a painful process of trial and error for creator Mark Zamble. His initial efforts kept exploding once they hit the fryer, and he kept getting burned. Zamble has already applied for a patent and trademark for Fried Beer, which appears to be a pocket of pretzel dough filled with its signature beverage.
posted by furiousxgeorge
on Aug 28, 2010 -
54 comments
Don't ever accept a Tequila shot from Fat Mike While performing as
Cokie The Clown at SXSW this year, Fat Mike of
NOFX made a lot of folks uncomfortable telling stories of his fucked up childhood, his mother's death, and of other crazy shit he allegedly witnessed and did throughout his life. The biggest "gag" of the evening involved Tequila. I imagine they would have been even more uncomfortable at one of
these shows.
posted by snottydick
on Mar 25, 2010 -
120 comments
The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media. You may know them from such projects as
How to build a fake Google Street View car,
public domain donor stickers,
internet famous class, the
first rap video to end with a download source code link, or their numerous
firefox add-ons (such as
China Channel,
Tourettes Machine, or
Back to the future). FAT members have been hard at work standardizing various open source graffiti-related software packages, including
Graffiti Analysis,
Laser Tag,
Fat Tag Deluxe and
EyeWriter [previously] to be
GML (Graffiti Markup Language) compliant.
Fuck Google.
Fuck Twitter.
FuckFlickr.
Fuck SXSW.
Fuck 3D. FAT Lab is
Kanye shades for the open source movement.
posted by finite
on Mar 13, 2010 -
8 comments
Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and.... fat? Dr.
Russell Keast, an Austrailian scientist who
studies "perceived flavour, consumer acceptance and preference of foods and nutrition," has conducted research exploring humans' apparent sixth taste perception: fat. The kicker? Sensitivity to the taste of fat was negatively correlated with fat intake and BMI. Dr. Keast discussed the results of his
latest research with
Slashfood, and
The Sydney Morning Herald.
(via) [more inside]
posted by sentient
on Mar 11, 2010 -
31 comments
Obesity can be “caught” as easily as a common cold from other people’s coughs, sneezes and dirty hands.... As many as one in three obese people may have become overweight after falling victim to the highly infectious cold-like virus, known as AD-36.
posted by caddis
on Jan 26, 2009 -
327 comments
Pink Floyd fans may not need no education but
Gilmourish, an exhaustive review of the guitars and audio effects of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (with help from an insider), will leave most comfortably numb.
posted by punkfloyd
on Oct 19, 2007 -
35 comments
"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat." According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.
posted by mr_crash_davis
on May 10, 2007 -
82 comments
RIP Heather MacAllister. "Any time there is a fat person onstage as anything besides the butt of a joke, it’s political. Add physical movement, then dance, then sexuality and you have a revolutionary act.” Founder of
Big Burlesque and Venus Group, she died Feb 13 after a long fight with ovarian cancer. She was notably
photographed by
Leonard Nimoy. Multiple
memorial services are planned for her birthday, Feb 25.
[some links may be NSFW]
posted by cubby
on Feb 15, 2007 -
15 comments
A group of scientists have
announced that they have created cloned and genetically modified pigs that make their own omega-3 fatty acids. NPR
has more on the story, including an audio report from Joe Palca. There are apparently some naturally occuring pigs with their own omega-3 fatty acids, primarily a Spanish breed called Ibérico. Descended from native Iberian wild boar, black-footed Ibérico hogs are raised in specially maintained oak forests, and feed primarily on acorns.
Until last September, however, no Spanish producer had been approved to export Ibérico products to the United States, and consumers may have to wait a few more months before they can get their hands on the
tasty pork. As the ham is sure to be in short supply, you can put down a $199 deposit now for a ham that will carry a final price tag of as much as $1000. If you're unable to wait for—or afford—the Spanish version, you can treat yourself now to the
Bacon of the Month Club, which serves up a different artisanal bacon each month. For more on raising hogs, read
James Buchan's account in the London Review of Books. And don't forget the bacon blogs: [
1] [
2] [
3] [
4] [
5].
posted by monju_bosatsu
on Mar 27, 2006 -
28 comments
