It seems that every other week there is news of a celebrity gaining or losing weight. Pictures surface and people marvel at how much weight some celebrity has lost or gained in a short amount of time. Oddly enough, the media is never satisfied, and despite which direction the scale tilts, the feedback is usually negative.
Unfortunately, Christina Aguilera is making headlines for gaining a significant amount of weight. The pounds were noticed when Christina recently performed at a Michael Jackson tribute concert and appeared in a tight corset and fishnet stockings. Her choice of outfit brought a lot of attention to her figure, which was curvier than it has been in the past. As you can imagine, the blogs exploded. Although Christina received high praise for her vocals in the performance, her physical appearance got much more buzz.
Something that is often not considered when it comes to celebrities and weight fluctuations is that they, too, deal with issues in their personal lives. Just like the rest of us, Christina has to deal with struggles of everyday life, although hers are much more public. Aguilera is recently divorced and has been battling alcohol problems, so the fact that she may be turning to food to cope shouldn’t come as a big shock.
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Parenting is the most difficult, most important job you are ever going to have. While there are many happy, feel-good moments, there are also painful and uncomfortable moments; it’s all part of being a parent. Traditionally, one of the most uncomfortable moments for a parent was thought to be the discussion of “the birds and the bees”. While talking to your kids about where babies come from may be difficult, a recent study has revealed that there is another conversation that parents dread more.
The idea of talking to your kids about maintaining a healthy weight is so frightening for parents that more than 20 percent admit to never broaching the subject at all, according to research from the Raising Fit Kids study, a partnership between webMD and Stanford University. Compare that to 5 percent who are uncomfortable discussing alcohol, drugs, and smoking; 10 percent of parents who are uncomfortable discussing sex; and nearly 25 percent of parents who are uncomfortable discussing weight and health. It is probably the same 20 percent of parents that seem to believe that the pediatrician should be the one responsible for discussing health and weight with their children.
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Six pounds of weight gain will strip you of a pageant crown. At least, this is the claim Cynthia De La Vega, former Miss Mexico, is making.
La Vega, a model, was crowned Miss Mexico in September at the Nuestra Belleza Mundo pageant. La Vega placed second in the pageant, qualifying her to represent Mexico in the Miss World contest. However, she will no longer be doing so as she was officially withdrawn last month. Pageant organizers claim the 19-year-old had a “lack of dedication and discipline.”
La Vega voiced a different opinion as she was interviewed on Good Morning America recently. She explained that her weight gain of six pounds is what lead to her dismissal. La Vega further explained in a press conference how her coach has had her on a specific diet during this season. The entire ordeal has left the model very upset and she admits to feeling deceived.
This isn’t the first time pageant contestants have made these claims. Recently, 17-year-old Domonique Ramirez’s crown was revoked too. Ramirez was a sash bearer for Bexar County, Texas. Ramirez also claims that she was dismissed due to weight gain. Again, the pageant officials stated other reasons for their decision.
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Bryant McKinnie was a professional football player for the Minnesota Vikings. An offensive lineman, McKinnie signed a contract extension in 2006 that was worth almost $50 million dollars. It looked like McKinnie would be a long-term Viking, but he was recently cut from the team’s roster after he showed up to training camp, weighing almost 400 pounds. This is 65 pounds more than he weighed last year, and evidently, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Judd Zugland, a reporter at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, said that McKinnie’s weight gain was the “final straw” that allowed the team to dismiss him from their ranks. In the past, McKinnie has had several off-field issues such as being involved in a brawl in 2008 and was a key player in the infamous “Love Boat incident”, a sex party on a rented boat involving many members of the team, which was very embarrassing for the franchise.
In a sport where the players have to be big enough to clear the field for their teammates to score touchdowns and have to stop the other team from rushing the ball, shouldn’t bigger always be better? Surprisingly, no. These NFL linemen have to walk a thin line between being big but still athletic, and so overweight that it slows them down. It seems that the Vikings determined that McKinnie had finally gotten too big, and was no longer an asset to the football team.
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By Steven V. Joyal, MD, VP of Medical & Scientific Affairs at Life Extension.
The simplistic “eat less, move around more” solution for weight loss cannot explain the sharp increase in the rise of obesity over the past 30 years. The disturbing fact is that toxins in our environment are hidden causes of weight gain.
Our children represent the future. Yet their future may be irrevocably mortgaged by toxic chemicals that seep into our food supply, lying in wait to trigger damaging effects. The startling truth is that infant obesity rates have skyrocketed 73% over the past 30 years (since 1980), and an important, yet under-recognized culprit, is the presence of special types of environmental toxins in our food supply.
Certain hormone-mimicking chemical toxins in our foods act on genes during development that literally create more fat cells. These toxic endocrine disruptor chemicals change our metabolism to hoard calories as body fat. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that mimic the effects of certain types of hormones in your body to promote weight gain.
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