There IS a scientific reason for it! It’s called “starvation syndrome,” which is a constellation of psychological and physical changes that result from consuming less energy than your body needs to thrive.
The syndrome was first described by researchers during the Second World War who studied a group of men who ate a reduced-calorie diet of just 1,600 calorie/day for three months. The researchers wanted to document the effects of starvation due to wartime interruptions in food supplies, and this amount of calories was deemed similar to what many war refugees were eating at the time (a fact that is quite disturbing when you consider that most weight-loss diets direct people to voluntarily consume this same small amount of food).
Researchers carefully documented the outcomes of this restrictive eating and this is what they found [all quotes from Junkfood Science]:
As the men lost weight, their physical endurance dropped by half, their strength about 10%, and their reflexes became sluggish… The men’s resting metabolic rates declined by 40%, their heart volume shrank about 20%, their pulses slowed and their body temperatures dropped. They complained of feeling cold, tired and hungry; having trouble concentrating; of impaired judgment and comprehension; dizzy spells; visual disturbances; ringing in their ears; tingling and numbing of their extremities; stomach aches, body aches and headaches; trouble sleeping; hair thinning; and their skin growing dry and thin. Their sexual function and testes size were reduced and they lost all interest in sex. They had every physical indication of accelerated aging.
The psychological changes were just as disturbing, and included nervousness, anxiety, depression, loss of interest in hobbies, and social withdrawal. Most relevant to your Ask, the men’s relationship with food also changed dramatically:
…they became obsessed with food, thinking, talking and reading about it constantly; developed weird eating rituals; began hoarding things; consumed vast amounts of coffee and tea; and chewed gum incessantly (as many as 40 packages a day). Binge eating episodes also became a problem as some of the men were unable to continue to restrict their eating in their hunger.
I am sure this will all sound very familiar to anyone who has dieted to lose weight or suffered from food insecurity or suffered from an eating disorder! The body needs energy to survive and to thrive, and if it doesn’t get it, you are going to “hear” about it.
A recent study (Lipson & Sonneville, 2017) examined 9713 students from 12 different colleges and found that body weight was the most consistent predictor of eating disorder symptoms. Students with a BMI in the “overweight” or “obese” range were at the highest risk and students with a BMI in the “underweight” range were surprisingly at the lowest risk… A 2013 article by Sim et al. that I wrote about in an earlier post found that eating disorder symptoms in adolescents with a weight history in the “overweight” or “obese” range not only were under-diagnosed, but symptoms were actually encouraged by medical professionals who congratulated these patients for losing weight…
Eating disorder prevention and intervention efforts are often targeted at people in the “underweight” range while people categorized as “overweight” or “obese” are targeted for weight loss interventions. Fat people are told to diet, even though dieting is one of the strongest predictors for both development of eating disorders and weight gain. Isn’t it time we stopped prescribing behaviors to people at higher weights that are diagnosed as eating disorder symptoms in people at lower weights? Food restriction, purging food (either through laxative use, self-induced vomiting, or exercising to compensate for calories consumed), viewing foods as “good” or “bad,” and defining our self-worth based on the numbers on the scale are unhealthy at any weight. We need to recognize these symptoms as what they are—signs of an eating disorder—even when the person who is engaging in them lives in a fat body.
Well my dear, if you read my most recent posts you will see that a young person your age and size needs to be eating about double what you are currently eating. So “eat more” would be my main advice! “Throw your scale in the garbage” would be my second piece of advice. And third, learn about weight-inclusive models of health like Health at Every Size. (see my “HAES” tag to learn more)
But more generally, and contrary to what you may think you know, type two diabetes is not caused by your eating and exercise habits. It is primarily a disease of social adversity, caused by the physiological changes that can accompany poverty, food insecurity, and social marginalization in people who are genetically susceptible. (see my “t2diabetes” tag for more).
If this sounds like your family’s experience, perhaps the best things you can do to support your health is to educate yourself about the social determinants of health and to join local community organizations working towards health justice. I say this because I believe that, for many of us, our only choices in life are to rebel against social expectations or wither and die trying to conform. And this includes attempting to conform with dominant models of “health” that actively exclude fat bodies, racialized bodies, disabled bodies, LGBTQ+ bodies, et al. I choose to rebel. I hope you do too.
Choice facts from the linked article: Type 2 diabetes is far, far more common among the poor and excluded. Poor women are particularly susceptible. And over 90% of the population variance in occurrence of metabolic syndrome [which includes Type II diabetes] cannot be explained by individual health behaviors.
Carrie is almost half way to her goal to get the £100k she needs for life saving surgery, but if she doesn’t reach her goal by September 1st then her surgery will be cancelled, and given the extremity of her condition it’s likely she’ll die before it can be re-arranged.
If you’re able to help financially, then you can do so at her GoFundMe. But if you don’t have money to spare there’s still a lot you can do to help prevent Carrie dying from an easily preventable death.
Reblog this post! Obvious and easy but for some reason posts I’ve made for Carrie seem to have much less luck than any other donation posts I’ve ever made.
If you play Fallout 4, then you can help with an extra effort that is being made on Tuesday the 14th. Carrie’s Fund is organising a
Fallout 4 Flash Mob with the hope of spreading awareness and also getting the attention of Bethesda. Disabled and chronically ill folks are a huge customer base for games companies, and Carrie’s Fund is hoping that Bethesda might help advertise their need or help directly.
Do fund raisers of your own! I know that’s a lot to ask but Carrie’s wife is essentially unable to spend any time campaigning now as Carrie’s condition deteriorates and her care needs become more complex. (If you do raise a substantial sum then please contact the campaign for the best way to get the money to them – they lose a portion to fees if it’s done through GoFundMe). Her situation is desperate and this is her last chance.
Please, please reblog this.
Posts for Carrie seem to do badly and she is running out of time.
If you’re able, please donate or reblog. She has lost an incredible amount of functionality in just a few more months and is very literally on death’s door. If you can share on other social media, that would be amazing, too. At times, I work myself sick with anxiousness because I think she won’t make it, but I have seen strangers on the internet achieve incredible things. Please, please help.
Always be vague. Say I think they’re in today or not until later. If they press say it’s company policy not to give out the schedule. Most companies do have this and even if they don’t how would a stranger know. Don’t give out specifics, they can get people injured or even killed.
At my last job someone came up and asked when “Sarah” was working next. I didn’t tell him and then texted her a description, turns out he was an abusive ex who had been stalking her. Don’t do this shit please.
as the replies to the original tweet said, don’t even acknowledge they work here. they could’ve been going round all the local shops trying to find the one they work at, don’t confirm it for them so they can just stalk the shop until the victim comes in or out. pretend you can’t recognise the description and/or name, and then inform your colleague. chances are it’ll be someone they don’t want to see or don’t properly know. otherwise why wouldn’t they simply have texted them?
That also includes anyone coming in asking about a coworker. No matter how nonthreatening they might seem. Unless the coworker has expressly said that telling this person that information is OK.
Abusive family members can use the same tactics. And there are any number of other reasons the person may not want even that much info given out about them.
I was just thinking about how some people in fandom love to police the way authors represent bilingual characters. And one of the biggest arguments I’ve seen is “I hate when they switch languages randomly in sentences” and “I hate when they just start speaking in another language and say, haha oops sorry I was talking to my mom”
Because like… I was just sitting and talking to my gf in english. They were simultaneously messaging their brother in english. They were playing world of warcraft, which is in english. Then we were quiet for five seconds, they had one thought in danish, and just started talking to me in danish, when they know I don’t speak danish.
If my friend Bolla is talking to her mom or sister when she messages me, she’ll message me in danish without thinking about it.
When Sora and Theo get startled or mad playing video games on a call with me, they abruptly switch into danish without thinking about it.
They’ll forget words in english ((the same way english speakers forget english words)), but remember it in danish, and have to switch into danish for another one of them to translate for me.
I’m not bilingual, but the bilingual experience seems wild and sporadic to me, and not nearly as cut and dry as a lot of fandom police try to make it. Also, like everything else, the bilingual experience is different and unique to everyone, so like… chill. People are just trying to give representation. Meet them with guidance rather than hate.
Yeah all of this.
I’m no longer functionally bilingual but I was until I was about 7, and I know I don’t think like straight English speakers.
My brain is usually a cocophany of different sounds. Little flits of language where a word is half one language, half another, and linked to a picture.
I tell people I think in pictures but I kind of don’t. I think in tactile sounds and sometimes it comes out my mouth in one big garbled mess.
My phone is set to Dutch, but I live in the UK. I’ll Google for stuff and click on the first Wikipedia link I see, and I literally won’t realise it’s in Dutch for a while, sometimes not after copying/pasting a passage to someone who doesn’t speak Dutch.
One time I was reading a book and found a hilarious paragraph. I read it aloud to the person I was dating at the time, who waited politely for me to be done before informing me that it wasn’t in English.
My guess here is that this is due to the ongoing problem of lack of mental health care for children in the UK.
The shortage of childrens’ mental health beds is so bad that police cells are regularly used to make up the shortfall.
The police are not remotely equipped to deal with suicidal seven year olds, and they don’t want to either, because they know it’s not the right environment. So they’re doing shit like this to try to “help” they kids that get thrown at them. And the worst thing is that I think this is a genuine attempt.
And apparently this is now happening regularly enough that they have a special cell.
And I’m pretty sure that it’s the mental health issues and should be in hospital kids they’re doing this for, because I don’t think they’d give a shit about the obviously “criminal” kids like this.
good morning don’t fucking use essential oils around your pets especially birds and reptiles and cats spraying your pet with diluted lavender isn’t going to antioxidize them or whatever stupid bullshit you pulled off a holistic website
There are SOME essential oils that are safe for pets but many that can and WILL injure or kill your pet. Do your damn research just like you would for yourself
There are NO essential oils safe for your pets.
I did my research. I am a biochemist.
Essential oils are concentrated extracts, which are highly volatile. Their fumes are full of phenols, monoterpene hydrocarbons, phenylpropanes, and ketones. These compounds are toxic and can cause serious illness and death through extended exposure.
Let’s take a popular one: lavender oil. The active ingredient in essential lavender oil is linaool. Linaool is a cytotoxin, it destroys cell membranes. Inhaled and placed on skin, it can cause permanent damage.
“but what if you dilute it?”
Dilution won’t work. Long time exposure of a diluted toxin will result in the same damage as short term exposure of a concentrated one. Ingesting small amounts of radioactive material over time will give me the same cancer a gamma burst would. And if you dilute it extensively, you’re basically removing any effect you desired of the oil.
There’s no reason to use essential oils around pets. They make calming supplements that aren’t volatile and toxic. They make calming pheramone diffusers. If your animal is destructive (like a plucking parrot) then they’re understimulated and bored. Spritzing your pet with dangerous oils aren’t a substitute for reassessing and changing husbandry.
I’ve used lavender countless times on my cats Sebastian. He has huge paws and lots of fur so he’s susceptible to yeast infections between his little toe beans, and lavender helps speed up the healing process and ease the swelling a bit. I’ve also used lavender for burns on my dogs paw pads.
first of all, if you have a problem with me @ me next time instead of hiding in your tags
Second of all, did you like… actually read what I wrote? Because I literally stated that lavender oil has a toxic component that can cause cell damage over time. Did you conveniently skip over that part?
I have seen MULTIPLE internet sites listing essential oils that are studied and known to be toxic to cats and dogs as “safe”. There are many, many bad sources out there. If you do your research, make sure you’re actually basing your information on scientifically verified, peer-reviewed information, not tertiary sources and anecdotal information.
Do not use essential oils on your pets or around your pets.
If your pet has chronic paw infections, take it to the vet. Your vet can address the root cause (lots of fur and big paws shouldn’t inherently cause yeast infections and I’d really suggest looking at the cat’s diet and other lifestyle issues) and provide more effective, safer treatments.
Essential oils are incredibly toxic for reptiles, birds, and small animals as well. Reptiles and birds are especially susceptible to the fumes (VOCs). This includes essential oil diffusers, which I’ve often seen touted as “safer” than candles. They are not safer and still release dangerous VOCs.
Related to one post from a little while ago, I was reminded of a quote from something I reread recently.
From Every Day Is a Good Day, edited by Wilma Mankiller. With this specific quote coming from her intro to chapter 6:
The women at this gathering speak of love in grand, sweeping terms that embrace the natural world, family, clan, community, and nation. Love is not limited to immediate family or to a romantic partner. It is not doled out in small increments to a socially prescribed person or group of people. It is all encompassing.
LaDonna Harris speaks eloquently about the high value she places on her relationships with others, which she describes as “not letting go of people,” even her adversaries. A Cherokee traditionalist echoes this sentiment and speaks of the need to “live and care for one another in such as a way as to ensure that there will be no reason to let go of others.”…
The larger society’s endless conversation about whether gay and lesbian couples should be accepted and granted rights to marriage, adoption, and other rights was nonexistent among these women. They place a very high premium on respect: respect for oneself, for others, for all living things. It is highly disrespectful to label another human being and define them based primarily on their sexual preferences. These women care more about the human decency and dignity of people, and whether they are a contributing part of the community, than about their adult relationships with others.
(And that would be with some longer term different ideas about what constitutes a valuable contribution to society, yeah.)
I included the longer part before the bit directly discussing labels, mostly for additional context.
But yeah, I have also encountered some people who wanted to assume that a statement like that is exactly the same as the “don’t let yourself be defined by X!” discussed earlier. Very possibly because that invalidating, othering approach is most of what they have encountered up close.
(Very much like the difference between people honestly trying to understand and relate to someone else’s experiences, and the dismissive deliberately not getting it “Oh, everyone does that! And you are making me very uncomfortable by even talking about this, jfc leave it already if you don’t want to totally alienate everyone around you. Weirdo” versions. Not at all the same scenario, but I do get the idea that a lot of people are mostly used to encountering the dismissive kind.)
When, yeah, that “don’t let yourself be defined by X!” behavior is one indication of exactly the types of disrespectful “boxes are more important than actual people” attitude being objected to there.
I mean, similar is part of why I have gotten more and more personally resentful of feeling pressured to choose from a certain assortment of boxes. And a good bit of the reason it’s hard to even try to talk about some of this stuff, even if you do make it very clear that the last thing you want to do is dictate how anyone else needs to be navigating or even relate to any of it. That’s still not what some people will hear.
I can understand why certain approaches do appeal to some other people. Not that it would even matter if I didn’t understand at all, because it’s their lives and experiences to make sense of and manage the best they can! The same approach is not going to make sense for everyone, though. It just won’t. And that doesn’t mean anyone is necessarily wrong.
Plus, pegs. It’s hard to even start talking about some things when you are coming at them from a sufficiently different perspective that you’re not necessarily even talking about what a lot of people would assume based on some surface similarities. More complicated when those things are also heavily enough politicized that pretty much everyone involved has been hurt in some way(s).
Not just thinking about the main subject of that quote here, but that’s definitely one aspect where it’s relevant.
Reminded of this again, with some framework that just doesn’t make much sense to me in the first place.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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