I feel that she's trying to be extraordinarily careful, hence the little stat in the add about the lowered risk of diabetes. She seems dedicated to not turning this into a "I lost 40 pounds" diet ad campaign. At the same time, Jenny Craig is a diet, and has nothing to do with exercise which does have proven health benefits. I'm torn.

I think Queen Latifah is beautiful as is. Isn't she dating a personal trainer? Everything I have heard about her suggests that she has a very healthy lifestyle and is just naturally a "bigger" (I do not mean fatter) person. Not everyone needs to be a size 2, and not everyone who isn't skinny has health issues.

As much as I hate hate hate it, weight loss actually does have proven health benefits as well, especially for people who are very overweight. Obesity puts you at risk for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, etc. and small amounts of weight loss make a big difference in that risk, even aside from exercise.

As much as I hate hate hate it, weight loss actually does have proven health benefits as well, especially for people who are very overweight. Obesity puts you at risk for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, etc. and small amounts of weight loss make a big difference in that risk, even aside from exercise.

"put your hands on me again and i'll put your ass in handcuffs."

queen latifah still rules!

I was so disappointed when I saw her appear in one of these ads.

I saw my mother live a pretty horrible middle aged and elderly experience, primarily because she was overweight. I saw her husband live a pretty horrible middle aged and elderly experience, primarily because he was overweight.

I live in the reality based world.

Gotta love all the concern trolls.

Look, Latifah was never at the seriously obese size that you folks are referencing in your comments about health. Someone her size who exercises and watches what she eats (regardless of weight loss) is going to be healthier than a thin person who smokes and eats fast food all the time but isn't genetically disposed to weight gain.

The fact that any actress/entertainer who moves into the mainstream is pretty much obligated to trim down to a size 2 is disgusting.

Also, the weight loss industry that she's signed on to has very little interest in the actual health of their clients. In fact, they'd quickly go out of business if they were selling a successful product -- no fat people, no diet trends to pawn on them. People who think this crap has anything to do with health are NOT living in a reality based world.

Skinny people are not automatically healthy, for christ's sake! My grandmother, for instance, refused to ever stop smoking because she said if she did, she would get fat. She battled lung cancer in the '80s, had to have a quadruple bypass, and died a few years ago of recurring lung ailments.

I also have an aunt who had serious issued with her metabolism (can't remember the word for it right now) and was losing weight even though she was eating normally. I'm sure Hollywood and the fashion world would have thought she looked fabulous, but she was NOT healthy.

So let's stop equating "heatlhy" with "skinny." They are not automatically related, no matter how much people like to say so.

Blitzgal,

Why does everyone who offers a different opinion have to be a "concern troll"? I've been called the same several times for disagreeing. It's a nonstarter and it's an impolite and dismissive way of arguing your point.

It's not just majorly obese people who suffer problems from being overweight. I STRONGLY agree that there are people of different sizes and shapes. And many assessments of health are insane (particularly the absurd BMI, which would list LeBron James, elite athlete, as "seriously overweight" and nearing "obese").

However, there's a health issue here. Pure dieting isn't the best way to go about it, sure, but losing weight can have major health benefits.

And Jessica, "conflating health with size really bugs the shit out of me." I see what you're saying, but it's not a conflation. Losing weight, especially in such an overweight country, is often the healthy choice.

I see how people could have small, nitpicky problems with what Latifah's doing, but I'm having a hard time seeing this as like an obviously bad decision on her part.

I liked her better before she went blonde and weavy. I guess she is doing what she has to do to survive (or thrive?) in Hollywood, but it's not exactly inspirational.

montefiore, the thing is, it's not totally clear that weight is in fact the big factor in disease. The studies that say it is have a lot of publicity backing by the multi-billion dollar diet industry, while the equally credible ones that suggest genes are the main cause and that weight is only tangentially related, if at all are not being pushed as much.

I'm going to suggest you go over to Shapely Prose at kateharding.net and read the tab labeled "But don't you realize fat is unhealthy?" Go read that. It pretty much sums up why some people get irritated at your arguments. Cool?

The thing is- a heavy person with a healthy lifestyle is in a better position than a thin person with an unhealthy lifestyle, but a thin person [I'm talking about normal and not 'cut'] with a healthy lifestyle is in a better position than a heavy person with a healthy lifestyle. To my point, seeing ads like this[..or more accuaretly bodies like this] is nice because it does promote a healthy body image [a comprimise between trying to set unrealistic goals to giving your self a free pass to ignore your health.]. Although it would be better if Queen Latifah was using her story and view for a general health campaign or something instead of a diet ad.

Whether or not you subscribe to the idea that it's possible to be fat and healthy (I do, and I echo Emmy's suggestion to read Kate Harding's Shapely Prose blog) the "lose 5-10% of your weight" argument is completely irresponsible. It suggests that whatever the weight, you'll be better off lighter, which is patently untrue. Does the same message apply when you're 170 pounds? 140? 110? 95? Presumably not, but that's not going to stop a slim young woman of 110lbs from deciding she's "too fat" and "losing 11lbs will be good for her health".

"The "lose 5-10% of your weight" argument is completely irresponsible.It suggests that whatever the weight, you'll be better off lighter, which is patently untrue."

downside-up I agree totally!

Over 90% of people who diet gain it back (plus more) within a year. Many studies have shown that the loosing and gaining back of weight consistantly over lifetime can have severe health consequences, especially impacting your heart. Also, their have been a ton of books/articles written showing that the many of the studies that equate obesity with health risks were and are funded by companies like weigh watchers and Jenny Craig. Many people in the health care field have supported the concept of "health at any size" where if someone is eating a healthy diet and getting a sufficient amount of exercise-they can be just as healthy as a think person doing the same thing. Their are plenty of thin people who eat like crap and don't get sufficient exercise-but as a result of equating health with thin, think they don;t need to do anything to change their lifestyles. The reality is that most of us are stuck with the body we have and hating /judging people based on their weight will do nothing but make fat people feel like crap. Fat hatred is a form of oppression and feminists need to recognize that.

Over 90% of people who diet gain it back (plus more) within a year. Many studies have shown that the loosing and gaining back of weight consistantly over lifetime can have severe health consequences, especially impacting your heart. Also, their have been a ton of books/articles written showing that the many of the studies that equate obesity with health risks were and are funded by companies like weigh watchers and Jenny Craig. Many people in the health care field have supported the concept of "health at any size" where if someone is eating a healthy diet and getting a sufficient amount of exercise-they can be just as healthy as a thin person doing the same thing. Their are plenty of thin people who eat like crap and don't get sufficient exercise-but as a result of equating health with thin, think they don;t need to do anything to change their lifestyles. The reality is that most of us are stuck with the body we have and hating /judging people based on their weight will do nothing but make fat people feel like crap. Fat hatred is a form of oppression and feminists need to recognize that.

I just about cried when I saw Latifah in a Jenny ad. Here she was, a big strong proud woman, and she fell into the diet trap that is Jenny F'ing Craig.

Healthy? She's doing it for her health? Bullshit. Have you seen the ingredients in Jenny Craig food? It is FAR from healthy food. Partially hydrogenated oils (i.e. trans fats), high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives out the wazoo.

Look what happened to Kirstie Alley. She lost the weight, and then as soon as she stopped, bam, the weight piled back on, and Jenny Craig dropped her like a lead weight.

If Her Majesty *snort*, the Queen Latifah really wanted to 'get healthy', Jenny Craig is the LAST place she'd go. They are for temporary weight loss only.

on the "healthy skinny person" and "healthy heavy person" note, wasn't there a study recently that found that slightly overweight people were far less likely to die than skinny people and a little bit less likely to die than "normal" people?

Femidancer: "on the "healthy skinny person" and "healthy heavy person" note, wasn't there a study recently that found that slightly overweight people were far less likely to die than skinny people and a little bit less likely to die than "normal" people?"

The basic finding is that once you control for exercise and other relevant factors, there is no risk to being overweight (BMI 25-30) and minimal evidence of risk through the first part of the obese range (30-35). Healthwise, it's better to be "fit and fat" than to be slender and not regularly exercising.

Once you get above that, there is an accelerating health risk and later life mobility problems, artritic joint problems, etc.

On the flip side, there are also health risks to dieting, and we simply don't know how to make fat people slender (most diets fail) short of surgery, which has it's own complications.

A whole separate issue is the outrageous moral panic over weight. I can understand being concerned about extreme weight (extreme thinness vs. extreme fatness). But many people use "health" to cover and justify their prejudice, hatred, and downright nastiness towards fat people.

*sorry, don't have time to look up the references. But "Flegal" is the author of one of the recent major studies where they had proper controls. Also, Paul Campos argues strongly against the "obesity myth", though of course their are biases on that side too.

This is the kind of thinking that lead to my former doctor ordering a bunch of blood work and whatnot, then looking disappointed when it turned out that my cholesterol and blood sugar and blood pressure were all excellent. Because obviously if you're carrying extra weight, you must be greviously ill with any number conditions that are linked to obesity. (Quite aside from the fact that no one ever seems to want to detail what "increased risk" means.)

Over 90% of people who diet gain it back (plus more) within a year.

Because they return to the unhealthy lifestyle they had before. "Diet" is meant to mean "Change in your diet". Not a temporary thing.

You don't switch to salads for six months, lose weight, and go back to cheeseburgers and milkshakes. It's not how this works.

The reality is that most of us are stuck with the body we have

False. No one is born 70 pounds overweight. The body you have is the one you let yourself have. If you eat like crap, don't exercise, and lead a sedentary lifestyle, and get fat, it's not society's fault, it's not your genes.

I hate this whole attitude of "no responsibility for my own actions" people get about their health and weight.

Fat hatred is a form of oppression and feminists need to recognize that.

Then you could say "Meth addict hatred is a form of oppression", "alcoholic hatred is a form of oppression".

I'm sorry, I've seen overweight people that get out of breath walking from the living room to the kitchen.

That's not health. Even if they eat like crap and are generally unhealthy in their lifestyle, a person of a healthy weight won't get out of breath walking 20 feet.

Carrying the extra weight is unhealthy, period. The body isn't a thing meant to support extra weight in such a manner.

Sorry, ME. That was just about the last straw for me. Trollbegone is here...

I think that this ad is great. Yes, it's Jenny Craig, yeah they have problems, yes Queen Latifah is beautiful just as she is. But, they aren't saying, hey get skinny! At least they are discussing health in our culture that's obsessed with simply being skinny. And hey, personally, if I lost 20 lbs, I'd be a lot healthier. (But prob not by using Jenny Craig)

I'd buy the idea that it's a New And Different kind of ad, promoting a healthy lifestyle at any size, if they didn't tack on the bit about "Lose ten pounds for ten dollars!" at the end.

"but a thin person [I'm talking about normal and not 'cut'] with a healthy lifestyle is in a better position than a heavy person with a healthy lifestyle."

That depends on which parts of her are thin.

For example, give where my body burns fat first when I lose weight, if I get any thinner I won't reap the benefits of losing weight (metabolism, etc.), as much as I'll reap the brunt of transphobia ("she removed her breasts, what a pervert!!!").

As a woman of color, I simply do not see what all the fuss is about. I have seen nearly *all* of the older women in my family suffering from various diseases - high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes. And you know what? It's completely true that losing even a little of your weight makes a huge difference in managing these conditions. Any doctor will tell you that. But there are many cultural reasons why women are color are either reluctant or unable (or both) to commit to a health program. So I say GO LATIFAH! for putting the message out there subtly that women of color have the ability to take ownership of their health. To me, that is a very positive message. (Now, if you want to be made at Latifah, be mad at her very stereotypical role in Bringing Down the House - but that's another issue.)

FeministLawProf, nearly all reputable studies show that one's health benefits from a well-balanced diet (and that a restricted diet is quite unhealthy), and that even more important benefits come from exercise. However, those two things do not always lead to weightloss, and are just as beneficial when they're not accompanied by weightloss. That is the entire basis for "Health at Every Size". Taking ownership of one's health is a great step for many people, but as long as we incorrectly conflate ill-health with overweightness and obesity, we do a disservice to people of all weights. In some cases overweightness may be a sign of bad health, but it is by no means always, or even usually the case, just as thinness is not an automatic sign of good health.

Mina,

People who store fat in the lower part of their body (as opposed to tummy and breasts) are less likely to suffer cardiovascular disease, according to some studies.
(I am naturally skinny with tiny boobs, and while it was tough for awhile in the teenage years I have just sort of learned to live with the idea that some people will consider me "boyish" or unattractive)

That being said, I don't really know what to think. Does anyone have any idea of whether when deciding whether or not someone is "healthy", ratio of muscle mass to total body mass matters? Like for instance, I definitely am not an athlete. But I /am/ able to carry out certain kinds of physical tasks fairly well. I have some muscle mass, which isn't a lot, but considering I'm overall pretty thin I can handle myself pretty well, walk long distances, etc.
So do you think that someone who is heavier would have to work out harder to gain the same sort of mobility? That at least makes some sense to me...

Also I know my mom has read some stuff indicating that say, for diabetes, weight has more to do with that than diet. I don't know how true that is though... My mom /does/ glorify skinny-ness more than I wish she did (she's not that thin herself) partially b/c I just don't feel that most people /do/ think it's that great. I mean, maybe if I had big boobs and a small waist instead of just being lanky it'd be different or something... *shrug* But as it is, I see guys I find attractive with girls who are heavier than me more often than not...

I know fashion mags push the skinny... but I feel like as soon as I stopped reading them and watching so much tv, super-skinny really isn't the ideal for many people these days, aesthetically speaking...

i get mixed up a lot of times with this issue, especially as it relates to healthy heavier people and unhealthy skinny people. it is true that there have been some studies that say people who are at the high end of ideal body weight and into overweight are healthier than those who are underweight but we have to remember the tool they are using to measure that is BMI. BMI is an ok tool to use if you are measuring a population but it is a shitty tool to use for a specific person. To be at my ideal body weight, under 25 bmi, I would need to be no more than 207 pounds (at 77 inches tall). Check out a bmi calculator easy to find and see what category youre in. It has me at just .4 lower than being obese though youd be hard pressed to be in better shape than me. Either way though I do need to lose weight as the health issue that most concerns me is joint pain and breakdown. Any way you slice it, if youre carrying around 20-30 pounds more than your ideal (a very specific personal number not accounted for with bmi) that is going to put a lot of wear and tear on your knees, ankles, and hips.

As far as being overweight being reflective of poor health, I too dont see it that way all the time but people 50+ pounds over whatever weight their body tells them it should be at are usually unhealthy. When I was in the service we used to have annual weigh-ins and tapings and all that. If you were over your max weight (for me it was 230) and your body fat was too high you went on a weight loss program. The first step of the program was a medical screening to check for thyroid problems or other issues that may be contributing to weight gain. Out of the hundreds of people who went in and out of the program not one had any issue like that causing there weight gain. Of course thats not real evidence but it makes it hard for me to swallow that a significant percentage of the people I see waddling around and grazing at mcdonalds are just big boned or have a thyroid issue.

Does anyone remember a study, probably way out of date now, i think it was in the late 90's early 00's, that said the only group whose life expectany wasnt cut shorter by being overweight was black women? Always found that interesting.

Okay,

Well, looking through all the current studies briefly, I guess you can learn a couple of things:

1) people who are overweight are overall more likely to get cardiovascular diseases, etc.

2) when lifestyle is controlled for, weight is a minimal factor in determining who gets diseases

I guess from this you can conclude that:

A) No, there is not necessarily a /direct/ correlation between weight and health. The correlation is between lifestyle and health.

B) The reason there is a higher incidence of certain diseases among heavy people in this country is because they are less likely to be leading a healthy lifestyle than the lower weight people in our society.

So can we all agree that while the problem isn't the weight, it's the lifestyle, many times heavy weight /in this country/ is an indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle? Thus as exercise has gone down and the food industry pushing fast food and sugary food has become more popular (hey, this can be a feminist issue too!), we find ourselves with a country in which more than 1 out of 3 adults is considered obese and that's probably /not/ a good thing? And obesity rates would probably be far lower if every adult lived a healthy lifestyle?

I don't feel like you have to focus on "looks" and "attractiveness" to encourage a healthy lifestyle, as others have obviously pointed out. But I do think that going to far to the side of encouraging people to think that they're okay no matter what their weight, can lead people to underestimate the health problems they'll have later in life (for instance, I have an older aunt who is overweight but believes she lives a healthy lifestyle -I can tell you that at least from observation, it seems to me the woman /does not/ lead what many would call a healthy lifestyle. Not what I'd call a healthy lifestyle, and I'm worse than many people I know.) So how do we strike the balance?

And yeah, diet gimmicks are usually bull.

I hate, hate, hate how the weight thing is turned into this black and white thing, where you either are telling people to starve themselves and be unhealthy or you ride the DNA train straight to no accountability land.

Here's the deal: yes there are some studies that indicate that activity and exercise are far better indicators of health, however this ignores the fact that it's far easier to be active when your BMI is in a safe range in almost every case. I watched my mother's best friend gain plenty of weight over the past decade, have a knee replacement, and is now on the way to hip replacement, all before the age of 60. She can't be all that active now, even if she wants to.

Same thing happened to my father. He was overweight, ate unhealthily, and was generally sedentary until they found out that one of his main heart arteries was 99% blocked. They angioplastied that thing up immediately, and he subsequently hit the gym like Floyd Mayweather. Now he's 155 pounds and more active than he has ever been in my lifetime.

Heart disease sneaks up on a lot of people, because gradual declines in activity and gradual increases in weight rarely seem like a big deal. So you take one less walk a month, or you put on five pounds. It never seems like a big deal because individually none of those things are, but taken as a whole they end up killing a lot of people.

Seriously, people don't go to bed healthy and wake up obese. In many cases it's a gradual process, and goes unnoticed many times, or gets ignored as "aging". If we really want to go strictly by biology and nothing else, then humans should die at 40, but we all agree we should take precautionary measures to extend our lives. Maintaining a healthy weight and being active are great ways to do so.

So yes, some overweight people are very active, but the broad picture in America suggests that this is not true in general. If nothing else, losing weight can help those who are overweight be more active, because carrying extra pounds is the equivalent of carrying that weight on your body all day every day. Being forty pounds overweight is like wearing a heavy backpack everywhere you go, and activity becomes MUCH easier when you lighten the load on your joints.

Not this argument again ...

Look, some thin people are unhealthy. The obvious cases would be where they're just skin and bones, the same way someone who's 300 pounds and in a wheelchair because of their weight is probably unhealthy too. There are obvious cases.

I think most people who are considerably overweight (but not obese) could benefit from slight weight loss. No one is saying you have to be a size 2. Just that you would feel a little better (let's say, a woman at 5'2") at 160 than you do at 170. When I was younger, I was put in a situation where my eating habits, diet, and activity levels because quite different, and I lost a lot of weight. I wasn't eating less (more, actually), but the foods were different, I had to walk more to get where I was going, I wasn't drinking soda anymore, and I felt so much better. I had always been healthy, even for my size, but by losing that weight, I felt even better. Why do some of you think this idea is ludicrous?
It's obvious that if you're 95 pounds you shouldn't lose more weight, but if you're a short woman and 150, then getting down to 140 is going to feel better. And it's a goal that's fairly easy to maintain if you truly do have a healthy lifestyle.

I'm sure there are "overweight" people who are healthy. But many aren't. My mother has chronic back pain because she's overweight and carrying all of it in her stomach, which affects her posture. But she subscribes to that, "The problem is the culture, not me!" attitude, making fun of my small chest, or my dad for exercising every day, or coworkers who diet, or the thin celebrities on TV ... and then complaining about her high blood pressure and back pain and how sizes "got smaller" when they actually got bigger. I'm her daughter, so I know her physical problems (she tells me), but her attitude toward her weight is the one I see all over the internet. And I wonder how many of those people who complain about how the culture should change (not them!) are writing off warning signs of weight-related complications. Or ignoring family histories. (My grandmother had diabetes and my grandfather died of a stroke.) For some reason, I don't think my mom's case is unique.

This is just an observation. If you disagree with what I think, that doesn't make me a concern troll. I know this is a touchy subject, but that doesn't give people license to completely disregard the opinion of anyone who's not currently overweight.

BeezNeez, complete ditto for my father. He never considered himself to be that overweight until he finally lost the weight. Now his chronic knee problems have all but vanished, and he can go for long walks no problem.

It's not just about length of life, but quality. I dunno, but whenever I gain a significant amount of weight I can feel it. I remember one year running the mile for school when I was eating garbage and being generally lazy, and I had trouble breaking eight minutes. The experience stuck with me, and by the next year I was hitting 6 and a half minutes and feeling so much better.

When I was younger, I was put in a situation where my eating habits, diet, and activity levels because quite different, and I lost a lot of weight. I wasn't eating less (more, actually), but the foods were different, I had to walk more to get where I was going, I wasn't drinking soda anymore, and I felt so much better. I had always been healthy, even for my size, but by losing that weight, I felt even better. Why do some of you think this idea is ludicrous?

I don't think it's in the least bit ludicrous that you felt better. I just think it's odd that you believe that was entirely due to the loss of adipose tissue, when you've just said you were eating better and exercising more. Wouldn't you have felt better whether or not you lost weight, because you were a) fitter and b) getting better nutrition?

The problem with the weightloss message is that so many people are made to feel like failures because they haven't lost weight, or haven't lost enough weight, and thus they stop trying to be healthy because they've tried, often over and over, to lose weight and failed. When will we let people enjoy a normal, balanced lifestyle without guilt that they could be thinner, if only they starved themselves and exercised even more? When feeling healthy becomes the goal in and of itself, people might start enjoying exercise. As long as the goal is often impossible permanent weightloss, the sense of failure is too overwhelming for most people.

And I'd love to believe that Jenny Craig was emphasising health over weightloss, but ... yeah right.

downside-up, exactly! You phrased that beautifully.

On another note, just to people in general, whatever your personal beliefs on weight and health, please be considerate of what you're saying, and how it comes across to other people. My body and my state of health are NOT for you to judge. Simply being female makes your body public property to a lot of people, and being a fat woman only makes it more so. Whether it's "Wow, you're so hot, I love big women." or "You're so going to die of teh diabeetus!" Just shut up. My body, my business. Get out of it.

It has taken a lot of fat people a lot of time and effort to stop beating the crap out of ourselves for our bodies, and a lot are still trying to stop. Shame and judgement from other people, even if it's out of "concern" for our "health" is just not helpful or constructive.

Sorry to be blunt, but I like to feel like this is a place where bodily autonomy, even of fat bodies, is valued.