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.

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.

Because I haven't posted from "Britain's Got Talent" recently...

I’ve been wanting to get to this topic for a while, but it has languished in the in-box, as too many other things do:

The headline is, “The Food Industry Fights Back,” and it’s written by Dave Fusaro, editor in chief of foodprocessing.com (“Home Page for the Food & Beverage Industry”). The subhed is just as good: “On obesity, food safety, 'questionable' ingredients, the industry can do a better job of tactfully defending itself; the key is transparency.”

So where to begin! How ‘bout: Yes, it’s true that I do have antipathy toward many nutritionists and registered dietitians, because too often I’ve been advised, or heard friends advised, to eat moderately, without ruling out any foods — because the advisers think that advice is sound for everyone, and it’s not.

This website, Sociological Images, says that this campaign that purports to fight childhood obesity is shaming to fat kids.

I think they have it wrong.

What I see are short statements by four fat kids who are telling the truth about what it's like to be fat.

I wrote previously about Sue Shekut's blog post triggered by a Men's Health story titled "I Hate Fat People," by Richard Cunniff, and now I return to the story itself. It is excellent, full of reporting and original thought, and I commend it to you wholeheartedly.

I greatly enjoyed my first foray onto public radio this morning, sharing the air with Dr. David Kessler, the author of "The End of Overeating." 

I'd only give my appearance a B- or so, — lots of "ums" and "uhs," etc. — and I hope I'll get better with more opportunity.

Last week when the Marie Claire blogger scare was going on, I was asked to weigh in at CommonHealth, a blog operated by WBUR. I was grateful to be asked and pleased to participate. 

The short version of this was, it isn't so bad, to me, that the blogger said she doesn't find fat people aesthetically pleasing. Honestly, neither do I. And here's the key point: Neither do most fat people I know! They aren't proud of how they look, and they don't much like seeing others.