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Saturday, Jul 4, 2009
I concur with thoughtsofsusan. I went to the Buffie website and the lady has no tummy fat. Her butt is likely genetic and all natural. Even if she dieted the only way to get rid of it would be via lipo. Which she is unlikely to do as her backside is umm quite lovely.
That said poor diet choices can hurt you even if you don't see via flab. I have a stick skinny friend with cholesterol problems. The fat doesnt go to her hips but to her arteries instead.
Without checking Ms Dickerson's sources, I'm assuming this statistic is based on BMI (body mass index). Although this measure is commonly used to define healthy weight ranges for adults (BMI between 18 and 25), the usefulness of this measure is still controversial in public health debates.
Although the single range is used, it's also known that health risks may vary by race. For Asians a healthy BMI is lower than 25, while for Blacks a healthy BMI may be as high as 27. The science to justify this variability is that body composition (specifically bone density and percentage of lean muscle tissue) varies by race. The BMI was developed as a measure only for non-pregnant adults aged 18-65, though it is currently used for may different populations and I haven't kept up with how valid that is. I know it not a valid measure for pregnant women or very althletic people. A recent paper suggested that a waist-to-height ratio of 0.5 or higher is a better predictor of cardiovascular health risks.
Back to my main point, if BMI is the measure being used to categorize African-American women as "overweight" it may actually be over-counting the number of women who are at higher health risks because of their weight; the 78% may actually be much lower if race-appropriate ranges were used.
This woman has zero fat on any part of her body but her ass - which is a large bubble butt.
The stomach is flat, her arms are perfect - and wow, she has perfect legs. It would take a large pair of jeans to put her in, but it would have to be waist free pants, since her waist is small. I'd guess 36-26-40 ?? The anti-fat people are showing they are as insane as the religious right - thats right homo's caused 9/11 - and fat people the health crisis.
What is it with right wing nuts and their homo fixation? And what is it with the white weight nuts - and how terrible it is if anyone likes a body type they don't approve of - weird fixations....and I wish both would just shut up.
According to this website http://neebone.co.uk/featurettes/buffie-the-body/, at 157lbs and 5'7", Buffie is not obese, but normal. Inputting in her waist measurements (included in some BMI calculators) improves her BMI even more. There is no great danger from a big butt, and having a big butt does not mean one is fat. It is not quite clear why the author chooses to conflate two different topics (love of big butts, dangers of obesity in the African-American community)into one mess of a topic. I daresy the vast majority of black men, for better or worse, might prefer a large backside, but still don't want a woman who is obese. It is a very easy distinction to make, so it makes one wonder why the author struggles with it.
She looks normal to me except for that epic ass which, like Pam Anderson's former oversized knockers, is way out of proportion to the rest of her. I find it hard to believe that she didn't have surgery of some kind. Just lucky I guess?
An earlier poster said soul food is a nutritional nightmare. This poster is uninformed!
A few years ago Nutrition Action Newsletter (known affectionately as the "food police") had a contest to determine the single most nutritional food. The collard green beat out the runner-up, the sweet potato, by a thin margin.
Additionally, soul food is the very definition of "slow food" so popular in elite (white) foodie circles just now.
African-Americans (and everyone else) should eat MORE "soul food" and less fast food.
Buffie isn't fat. Ironically by making Buffie the example of the obese, Debra Dickerson is subversively supporting the "mainstream" idea of body size/type and beauty. Also, mixing the sensational topics of big booties, race and obesity into a 1000 word article just doesn't make for much of anything except maybe bad navel gazing.
I'm glad this is being discussed. Kudos to the person that raised the issue of healthy BMI ranges being different for different cultures. There are different standards for people of different genetic background, although the best thing to go by is likely body fat percentage (since Asians are more likely to be overfat at the same weight as whites, etc.) There are other genetic differences within the realm of heart disease risk that blacks have compared to whites.
Here's something else brought to mind. High risk for these diseases is associated with intra-abdominal fat mass because of the link to cortisol levels. Those women that have more "pear-ish" shapes are at less risk than those with big bellies. So, by emphasizing the butt on a woman who otherwise has a flat stomach is to a certain degree kinda healthy. Another thing - men across cultures have found women with a golden waist to hip ratio sexy. It appears to be something that has been genetically programmed into all men, so an emphasis on a big butt is natural - far more natural than wanting a woman to have big tits. Makes sense - you can give birth better. Of course, all things to moderation, right?
Well anyway, this is something I would rather have a discussion about: why are black Americans - women AND men - more predisposed to being obese? Is it only culture that promotes a certain ideal, or are there other factors? I'd say so. In my city whole foods markets are abundant in the wealthy, white communities but not so much in the predominantly black or hispanic communities. I had a single mom who struggled to cook a "healthy" dinner every night despite time constraints. This dinner was healthier than Mc Donalds, but consisted mostly of TV dinner-type fare...the best she could do, but still not healthy - and she had a heart attack in her 50s. So did my father who had a stressful job involving a lot of travel. What about the expense of joining a gym? Stressors particular to the black community? Access to affordable healthcare and preventive services? There's a lot of things that could be done other than changing cultural stereotypes to fight this problem, like making healthy living affordable for all Americans.
The Wasilla soap opera just gets weirder as Palin complains critics are "picking apart a good point guard"
The media outlet's use of Bush euphemisms sparks a much-needed debate on journalistic standards.
And so are his Fox News pals, who lambasted Sen. Al Franken's "stolen election"
An inflexible right wing is allowing the Golden State to drown in debt. But it's not alone
Thanks for sharing, Governor. Now please take a cue from Norm Coleman, and go away
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