Addiction

Tossing the empties, hiding the evidence

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When I maybe 12 years old, I talked Donald, the sometimes-shaven caretaker at the synagogue my family attended, to let me take home the leftover challah after Saturday services. It was just a few slices, but they was free, and I wouldn’t have to share them with anyone.

Are you sure it’s OK with your folks, Donald would ask, and of course, I’d assure him it was, just as assuredly that it was not.

I don’t remember how many times he gave me the leftovers, but I remember why he stopped: My mother found a crumb-filled bag under my bed, and the jig was up.


BMI defects are not the obesity problem

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As many readers know, I used to weigh as much as 365 pounds. Today, I hover between 205 and 210, with a height of 5-foot-10 1/2. I often say that for 20-years-plus, I’ve had a normal-sized body.

I choose that description because I’m certainly not thin, and besides, during the dark years when most people knew I was freakishly fat before they knew a single other fact about me, normal-sized was as lofty as my goals ever got.


Link to Commonwealth Club podcast

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I mentioned after my appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California a couple of weeks ago that a podcast would result, and that I would mention when it was available. Well, it is, which I learned when someone who'd listened to it tweeted to me about it.

My opinion is that anyone would be best served by listening to the whole recording. Please do not overlook that point when I say the following:


Kari Hamerschlag: "We have to fight really really hard to make the drastic change we need.”

Greetings and welcome to another episode of 10 Words or Less, in which I ask brief questions, and request brief answers, of interesting people. Today’s guest is a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group who focuses on food and agriculture policy. Remember, the 10-words thing is a goal, not a rule, so please, no counting.
Kari Hamerschlag, food policy analyst, Environmental Working Group

Name Kari Hamerschlag
Born when, where Washington D.C., Nov. 28, 1963
Anything unusual about the circumstances? “My mom’s doctor had just been attending to Jackie Kennedy.” [For you young kids out there, Kari was born 5 days after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.]
Residence now “Oakland, Calif.”
A formative event early on “Living in Switzerland from ages 11 to 15, among many different cultures and languages.”
Someone outside your family who influenced you “Gary Hart. I worked for him when I was  a junior in high school, and later worked as a volunteer on his presidential campaign. He got me started in politics.”
Something that helps you be effective in your job “The understanding that it takes persistence and a long time to make the kind of change we’re working for.”
A habit you’re trying to change “Negative thinking.”


Jenny Huston: "They’re scared, hence the attacks.”

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I ask brief questions, and request brief answers, of interesting people. Today’s contestant is a chef and food-justice activist who circulates an exhaustive compendium of food-related news. Remember: the 10-words thing is a goal, not a rule, so please, no counting. And besides, let’s see you do it.
Bay Area food activist Jenny HustonName Jenny Huston
Born when, where San Francisco, February 1959
Resides Oakland
Occupation Food services consultant
How long have you been doing your weekly news update? “Since 2003.”
How much time does it take you? “Only a couple hours. As I come across things, they just get stuck into the list.”


Regulating sugar, this time on "On Point"

Judging from my in-box, lots of people heard yesterday’s “On Point” broadcast about regulating sugar. But of course, it would be wrong to use that guideline, because my friends were pinging me specifically because they knew I would be interested. And I was.


Australian obesity graffiti, and other tweets

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A semi-digression-free roundup of recent tweets...

Aussie billboard graffiti comment: "#Obesity has never tasted so good." http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12573657/attack-on-fast-food-avalanche/

How you can help eating-disorder awareness, by Margarita Tartakovsky. http://bit.ly/w91EOJ


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