Healthy Weight Week Awards for Healthy Body Image and Slim Chance

Healthy Weight Week features the  Healthy Body Image Awards and the Slim Chance Awards.  This is a brief overview of the winners from Healthy Weight Network. 

Winners of the 
Women's Healthy Body
Image Awards

Adele, a young British singer with a strong contralto voice who wows audiences worldwide. Adele is unapologetic about her weight. “I’ve seen people where it rules their lives, how it wears them down. I don’t want that in my life.” Outspoken about loving her body the way it is, she advises, “Be happy and healthy. I like looking nice, but I always put comfort over fashion. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy.”

 Adele - Natural Woman (Traduzido) 

In Favor of Myself continues to evolve as an interactive educational program promoting positive self and body image among youth in Israel. Developed by Prof. Moria Golan, Director of the Management of Eating Disorders,  Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and now in the process of adaptation into the formal school system, it underwent four years of testing. Analysis shows reduced media influence and appearance focus. The eight sessions explore the impact of consumer culture, adolescent transitions, appearance issues and advertising. Participants learn to identify and counter prejudice and structures that contribute to body preoccupation. They role play, practice positive self-talk, resolve conflict and state their own opinions with confidence. The program builds on the earlier Patch program and is supported in part by the Dove Self Esteem Fund, Unilever. 


Nancy Redd’s books Body Drama and Diet Drama redefine beauty for teen girls.  

Diet Drama, Nancy Redd  

Filled with hundreds of photos of real-life girls of varied sizes, they explore real issues and give real answers, such as changes going on during puberty and common sense ways to deal with them. Redd is a dynamic speaker and self-esteem advocate. With humor, authenticity and compassion, she balances the messages of body acceptance and getting healthier, without self-hatred and unrealistic expectations. She says, “I wrote Body Drama so that we could all acknowledge, understand, and celebrate the fact that everybody is different, and no matter what size and shape you are, you deal with body drama, and you are not alone!” Her books have been on bestseller lists at both the New York Times and USA Today and are translated into Russian, German and Italian.

My Pick: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited, Dove
Dove Movement for Self-Esteem:
A New Vision

Slim Chance Awards

Awards are presented in the following four categories: Worst Gimmick, Worst Claim, Worst Product and Most Outrageous. 


WORST GIMMICK

The “Pure Energy Weight Loss plus Energy Band.” 

 Pure Energy Bands - Loud Rumor Video Productions  

This plastic bracelet embeds green and silver hologram discs claims to give off vibes that resonate throughout the body and stimulate weight loss and health. Among the alleged results are decreased appetite, balanced metabolism, balanced hormones¸ enhanced energy flow, increased energy levels and the promotion of positive emotions. A testimonial declares, “Since I bought my Pure Energy Band I have lost over 83 pounds and I feel fantastic.” Furthermore a disc does not even need to touch the skin—apparently it can hover at some distance. Supposedly, to be effective it “only needs to be within the body’s natural energy field. For most people, that is within two inches of the body.”


WORST CLAIM
Sensa weight-loss crystals.  The Sensa website states boldly that users can lose an average of 30.5 pounds in six months without dieting, exercise food restrictions or drastic lifestyle changes—by merely sprinkling these weight-loss crystals on their food. It claims that Sensa has been “clinically proven.” Smell and taste receptors supposedly send the brain messages to tell your body to stop eating. It “activates a hunger-control switch in the brain and you “eat less and feel more satisfied… no feelings of hunger or intense cravings.” Class-action suits have been filed in California and Texas against the marketers of Sensa, developed by Chicago neurologist Alan Hirsch, M.D. and sold by California-based Sensa Products. The California complaint states that (a) there is no competent and reliable scientific evidence to substantiate these claims and (b) an expert who reviewed Sensa's main clinical study judged it “beyond worthless.” 

WORST PRODUCT

HCG Supplements HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin).  HCG was first introduced more than 50 years ago by British physician Dr. Albert Simeon who claimed the hormone, found in the urine of pregnant women, would mobilize stored fat, suppress appetite and redistribute fat. He contended that regular injections would enable dieters to live comfortably on a 500-calorie-a-day diet. For a time, these weekly injections were the most widespread obesity medication administered in the US. In the mid-70s the FDA and FTC effectively shut them down by ordering the Simeon clinics to stop claiming their programs were safe and effective, and requiring they inform patients in writing that there was no evidence HCG increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction.” More recently infomercial king Kevin Trudeau took up the cudgel. His 2007 book claims HCG is "an absolute cure for obesity discovered almost fifty years ago,” but “suppressed" by medical experts and the FDA. HCG is heavily marketed online and in retail outlets as oral drops, pellets, and sprays, while injections for weight loss continue. Labeling states that each should be taken in conjunction with a very-low-calorie-diet which, the FDA noted, can trigger gallstone formation, electrolyte imbalance and abnormal heart rhythms. (HCG is approved as an injectable prescription drug for the treatment of some cases of female infertility and other medical conditions.) In December the FDA and FTC jointly warned six companies that it is illegal to market over-the counter HCG products labeled as "homeopathic" for weight loss. This is considered a first step in halting sales (Dec 6, 2011). 


MOST OUTRAGEOUS 

Jesse Willms, the Canadian owner of Just Think Media. Willms is a multi-millionaire connected to more than 40 product and company names. The 23-year-old high school dropout is charged with deceiving people who order a free trial of a diet pill called Acai Burn that required only a small handling fee and later found credit cards depleted of nearly $700. It’s a major international problem says Canada's Anti-Fraud Call Centre. The FTC in the U.S. agrees and is suing Willms and his associates—who collected more than $450 million from online consumers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The complaint says Willms sold at least 15 brands of acai berry weight-loss pills, six brands of colon cleansers and supplements containing resveratrol—all marketed with false or misleading claims. Promised money-back guarantees were often ignored. Despite the efforts of credit card companies and banks the money kept flowing through shell companies and manipulation of payment data.


Original article can be found at www.healthyweightnetwork.com. Francie M. Berg, MS, LN serves as chair of Healthy Weight Week. She is a licensed nutritionist, adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and author of 12 books. 



Her latest book "Underage and Overweight: Our Childhood Obesity Crisis – What Every Family Needs to Know” explores the facts behind the obesity crisis and provides a plan for raising confident healthy-weight children.

Francie M. Berg  fmberg@healthyweight.net
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