Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

to whom it may concern,

I’ve been trying to find an expert to email this question too, can you help me ? my question is.does eating to many sunflower seeds cause cellulight? if you could answer that or maybe send me too someone who can .

thanks DANA

Cellulite is a complicated issue, but it’s not directly caused by eating sunflower seeds. Cellulite is not caused by any food eaten in moderation. Here is some more information from Wikipedia:

• Cellulite – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sunflower seeds, or any other food, does not cause cellulite:

“There appears to be a hormonal component to its presentation. It is rarely seen in males. It is seen more commonly in males with androgen-deficient states such as Klinefelter’s syndrome, hypogonadism, post-castration states and in those patients receiving estrogen therapy for prostate cancer. The cellulite becomes more severe as the androgen deficiency worsens in these males.”

In fact, cellulite isn’t even related to being overweight. I remember reading a story about a woman who managed a gym and had seen a wide variety of women from fat to thin. Cellulite resides on all bodies, not just people who are fat. Once again, Wikipedia verifies this:

“Cellulite is not related to being overweight; average and underweight people also get cellulite.”

There is a huge industry trying to make you feel bad about yourself and those dimples on your bottom. Don’t let them make you feel self conscious. Why is it that dimples on baby bottoms are cute and on grown up bottoms aren’t? Who decided that? Whoever they were was wrong. Cellulite is a natural occurence. Embrace it and the rest of your body with love.

I am NOT recommending this as a dieting technique. This looks very dangerous to me and I don’t want anyone thinking that I even approve of this.

I just wonder how she did this. I guess it’s supposed to be erotic, but all I could think about is how does she do that without choking or filling up her stomach to the point of pain. The balloon looked fully inflated, so I’m just shocked.

Does she regurgitate it? Does it come out the other end? Does it make her unable to eat for days? Does it pop within her body? Is it all a hoax and the video editing just makes it look like she swallowed it? There are so many unanswered questions…

On a more serious note, if you were disgusted by this, just imagine what the medical industry has done to overweight people for years. One of the bariatric surgery techniques used to involve inserting a balloon into the patient’s stomach and inflating it to prevent the patient from being able to eat large quantities of food. How is that different from the sideshow you just saw? Next time you’re tempted by some new drug or weight loss surgery, remember this video and how it’s not so different from what the medical industry is doing.

I bought the book Silent Bob Speaks because I enjoyed Kevin Smith’s story about his struggles with Jason Mewes and trying to help him stay off drugs. I thought that it would be more of his writing (since the word writing is in the title) and I expected some entertainment.

I got that, but I didn’t expect a hilarious story about morbid obesity and fat-blocking prescription drugs.

The doctor also discerned that I suffer from what I used to call heartburn, but now call Acid Reflux Disorder.

“How’d I develop this?” I asked, fascinated to learn about the high drama going on in my gut. But I wasn’t prepared for his response.

“It’s often associated with cases of morbid obesity.”

He prescribed me something called Xenical, a pill that prevents 30% of the calories you digest from being stored as fat. What follows is not for the faint of heart…

Kevin learned what everyone who was prescribed Xenical learned. He continues to give you the “official” Xenical descriptions for what might happen and translate them into the unpleasant truths, with humor, of course.

I’ve never laughed so much at the phrase, “oily, fatty stools” in my life!

More importantly, he mentions to his readers that he wants support in his effort to lose weight. He talks about becoming accountable to his wife, parents and friends, but he finally adds all his fans to the list of people he wants to help him in his weight loss journey. He has since lost the extra “baby” weight and is living a much healthier life, hopefully without Xenical.

If you enjoy Kevin Smith’s writings, you can read his weblog here: My Boring Ass Life

This ad was an entry in a Photoshop contest called Worth1000. If fast food industries told this truth, they would sell a lot fewer burgers, don’t you think?

Treatment Online has an article about body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is an obsession with a certain body part that is perceived to be a defect.

• Treatment Online – Body Dysmorphic Disorder and the Cult of Celebrity

Whether it’s a little bump on your nose or a an ample set of thighs, this disorder, afflicts only 0.7 of the population right now. Treatment Online considers the relentless coverage of plastic surgery in tabloids as a risk factor.

While she says that there have been descriptions in medical literature for over 100 years of patients dealing with symptoms that indicated BDD, Dr. Phillips doesn’t let changing societal expectations off the hook:

Appearance has always been important. But I suspect it’s possible that the rate of B.D.D. is increasing, as women get bombarded with media images of perfection. Lots of studies have shown that the more you see images of perfection around you, and the more you compare yourself with those images, the worse you tend to feel about yourself.

If you have been feeling negative about certain aspects of your body, it might be in your best interest to avoid fashion magazine and celebrity tabloids. Enjoy your body as it is and leave perfection to someone else.

I see billboards for weight loss surgery all the time. They make it look so easy to lose weight, but I worry about the mortality rate and complications from the surgery. I just found a medical abstract that researched the complication rates from these surgeries:

• Entrez PubMed – Healthcare Utilization and Outcomes After Bariatric Surgery

Here are the facts. In this study, 21.9% of the patients experience complications during the surgery. Over a fifth of the patients had negative reprecussions DURING the surgery. That number jumps up to 81% after a 180 days.

81% of patients have complications within 180 days of the surgery!

Why would anyone willing have bariatric surgery if they knew these were their odds for health complications? The problem is, people don’t know. No one is telling them that they have an 81% chance that they will be SICK from the this surgery. No wonder health insurance companies don’t want to pay for this procedure.

Bariatric surgery is not good for you.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, July 25, 2006

See also: Expert Blogs Eat Right, Stay Fit – Weight-loss Surgery: Not a Magic Bullet on Yahoo! Health

Another star in the red-hot spotlight right now is Carson Daly. He has lost a substantial amount of weight and the gossip rags are making fun of him using the word “Manorexia.” Not too long ago, they made fun of him saying that he was too fat and now they rail on him for being too thin.

This is how life is if you decide to lose weight to please others. There is no such thing as a happy medium when someone else is obsessed with your weight. If you are dealing with someone who says disparaging comments about your weight, remember what Carson Daly is dealing with. No matter what he does, the gossip mongers will say something bad about his body. There is no pleasing people like that.

Deciding to lose weight to stop the disrespectful comments from negative people around you is the WRONG reason to start eating healthy. Concentrate on surrounding yourself with positive people who make you feel good about your body. Trying to please the negative people will only end up in the “now you’re TOO skinny” backlash.

Via: A Socialite’s Life: Carson Daly and Carson Daly Gallery

The gossip blogs are all a’twitter about Kelly Clarkson. Vitamin Water was in negotiations with her for her own flavor and promotion deal. The catch was she needed to lose some weight in order to seal the deal. This is one of the pictures held up as “proof” that she needs to lose weight.

Does anyone outside of the crazy entertainment industry think that Kelly Clarkson is fat?!

From this point, I REFUSE to drink Vitamin Water and I suggest a similar boycott anyone who is sick of the skeletal standards of beauty that the entertainment industry is so fond of.

Via: Thin or Else By Richard Johnson, Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson – New York Post

This postcard from PostSecret feels vaguely sinister to me. There have been times when I’ve contemplated suicide because of my weight and eating issues. Looking back at those times, it seems ludicrous that I would even think about offing myself just because of fat, but when I was in those dark times, it made perfect sense.

Just seeing this postcard reminds me that there are other people out there who are so desperate to get thin that they would be willing to take harmful drugs, indulge in purging, or even resort to suicide because of the simple shape of their bodies. I KNOW that they are out there because I remember feeling that way myself.

What can I tell you?

Do I have a perfect body now? Nope. Have I ever had that perfect little body? I don’t think so. Do I still want to die because of it?

Hell, no.

What would I tell that Laura from so long ago to keep her from killing herself because she’s not as thin as her popular friends?

Hold on. Don’t do it. Wait a few years and see if you feel better. Plus, if you try to kill yourself and you fail, you might end up horribly scarred, brain damaged or in a position where you won’t have another chance to kill yourself. It’s safer just to muscle through this.

I promise, there will come a day in which you are infinitely grateful you decided that you’d rather be fat than dead.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I found this video on YouTube the other day. This unnamed girl has an online journal. She’s talking to the webcam on the top of her monitor about her day. She is trying to decide whether to take the diet pills, stay up all night and try to burn off the food she ate today.

“I wish there was a magic cure that would make me happy with who I am.”

She talks about wanting to be a photographer, but after looking at the pictures she took, she feels like the pictures were unacceptable. She doubts her photography abilities and it affects her body image.

“So, I’m doubting my ability… I feel fat. I AM fat… I’m ugly. I have no talent…”

How many times have I said this to myself? Because of these feelings, she contemplates taking diet pills. She’s frustrated.

“They don’t do anything. I don’t know why I keep taking them. And then I feel worse because I’m taking them and I don’t lose weight. Then I go bingeing, then I starve myself for a bit, and then I binge again, and then I take diet pills. It just goes ’round and ’round in a circle, and I just want to break out of the circle, and just be better… be happier…”

“Surely it would be better to be thin and not happy than fat and not happy.”

“I just wish that I could do something to make myself feel better. Normally, that thing is taking photos and editing photos, but I can’t even do that…”

In the end, we never find out whether she took the pills or not.

“So, do I take diet pills? Do I not take diet pills? Pros and cons… our choice…”

I just feel like reaching my arms out to her and giving her a huge hug. I want to tell her that it’s okay to feel like crap and that it passes. We all doubt our abilities. We all face the idea that we have no talent, but if we keep on working, we feel better. We still feel like fat and talentless hacks, but our talents grow despite our emotions.

Next time you’re feeling like indulging in destructive behavior, whether it’s taking diet pills, bingeing, starving yourself or purging, remember this girl from Leicester.