This is another entry in my “assumptions” series, in which my intention is to explain one of my underlying assumptions definitively, so the next time I feel the need to veer away from a post’s point at hand to provide full background, I can just link to the full thought and let others veer, if they choose to.

Assumption: Your perception of sweetness is very skewed.

Several points about refined sugar:

This is another entry in my “assumptions” series, in which my intention is to explain one of my underlying assumptions definitively, so the next time I feel the need to veer away from a post’s point at hand to provide full background, I can just link to the full thought and let others veer, if they choose to.

Assumption: Not all fat people are unhealthy, and not all thin people are healthy. But overweight does correlate with ill health, and the greater the overweight, the greater the likelihood and severity of ill health.

This is another entry in my “assumptions” series, in which I state one of my underlying assumptions definitively, so the next time I feel the need to veer away from a post’s point at hand to provide full background, I can just link to the full thought and let others veer, if they choose to.

The assumption here is that food addiction exists.

This is another entry in my “assumptions” series, in which my intention is to discuss one of my underlying assumptions definitively, so the next time I feel the need to veer away from a post’s point at hand to provide full background, I can just link to the full thought and let others veer, if they choose to.

Assumption: What we eat actually matters.

Too often in posts, I find myself having to spend a few paragraphs remaking some point I’ve made before, in the name of completeness, when I’d really rather a “save-get,” as we called them in the early days of electronic front-end systems for newspapers. (You could save a character string once, and get it back with one key as many times as you wanted.)

So I decided to put together a series of posts of my basic assumptions, which I can then just put in a link for, rather than saying it all over again. And this is the first one:

Being fat sucks.

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I put brief questions to interesting people and ask for brief answers in return. To be blunt, today's participant failed miserably — "I told you Michael, diets of any kind, even word diets, probably not going to work with me," she said afterward — but she has interesting things to say, and I'll take form over format any time. She is a northern California psychologist who works often with clients who have eating disorders. She is a leading voice in the Health at Every Size movement, which might be considered a response to body-focused America. 

Note: An unedited (considerably longer) video version of this interview is at the FatBoyThinMan YouTube channel.
Name: Deb Burgard
Born when, where "New Haven, I'm 55. I didn't live there very long, I actually grew up in St. Louis."
Any notable circumstance for that? "I was born on my dad's birthday."
Reside now "San Jose, and I work in Los Altos."
Family status "I just got married the whole way. I had been married in my state, and now, the feds recognize my marriage too."

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and request brief answers in return. Today's participant is a pioneer in the recognition and treatment of food addiction, and I should also acknowledge that she wrote the forward to my 2009 book, "Fat Boy Thin Man." She's the best-selling author of "Food Addiction, The Body Knows," published in 1989, and "From the First Bite," published in 2000, as well as other works. A licensed mental health counselor and certified eating disorders specialist, she conducts workshops for food addicts worldwide and hosts the Food Addiction Conference on AOL's Addiction and Recovery Forum. Please remember, "10 words" is an attitude, not a limit, so no counting! Besides, let's see you do it.

Name: Kay Sheppard
Born when, where Batavia N.Y., Aug. 25, 1938
An early formative event  "I had rheumatic fever when I was a youngster. Leg aches, a lot of pain. I was bedridden for almost a year."
First paying job "Babysitting. 50 cents a week."
Your education "I have a masters degree in counseling."

Some stuff you post just 'cause it's good, just 'cause it'll bring a smile. But also, I've been a Natalie MacMaster fan for a decade at least.

I don’t have to come to every discussion I’m invited to, but sometimes, the invitation is just too juicy.

The case in point this morning is the Corn Refiners Association recent newsletter lead story, “Natural Options for Sweeteners.”

Yes, the refiners boasted that high fructose corn syrup “meets the Food and Drug Administration policy for use of the term ‘natural.’" ‘Course, that sham is on the FDA, and if I were the corn refiners, I’d use it too. But still, it is a sham:

I written before about Plough and Stars, Erik Jacobs's blog about a year as a farming student. Jacobs and I don't know each other, but we worked concurrently at the Boston Globe.

What I expressed previously was my adoration for Jocobs's overwhelming combination of stunning, affecting photography with good writing and reporting about his experience. And, completely, I still have it, but it's hardly worth repeating oneself.