Mother's Day Doesn't Make You Fat

Mother’s Day and Women’s Obesity

-- Anti-Obesity Advocate MeMe Roth Lists

Top 3 Lies Mothers Tell About Their Weight --

As women across the U.S. celebrate Mothers Day, anti-obesity advocate MeMe Roth draws attention to obesity’s continued threat to women and their families. Today, MeMe Roth announces the Top Three Lies mothers tell about their weight:

1- “Pregnancy Made Me Fat.”

While the effects of a healthy pregnancy may include bulging veins, stretch marks and a host of other physical mementos, it does not leave a woman obese. Yale-New Haven Hospital and other medical professionals advise that a healthy pregnancy, on average, leaves behind five to ten pounds of additional fat. Unfortunately more than half the women of childbearing age in the U.S. are overweight or obese, leading to an increased risk of birth defects as well as pregnancy and delivery complications. If a woman is abusing her body with excessive or poor-quality food and lack of exercise, her child is likely to suffer the consequences of health risks and obesity. Ideally, women should demonstrate a healthy lifestyle well in advance of conceiving, which includes wholesome foods and ample exercise. Additionally, an overweight or obese woman should gain far less weight during pregnancy than a healthy-weight mother-to-be. The most important factor is following guidelines prescribed by an attending OB/GYN.

Anti-obesity advocate, MeMe Roth said, “We should no more glorify getting fat as a rite of passage to ‘Momdom’ than any other self-respecting institution. Women must stop scapegoating their pregnancies as sources of obesity.”

2- “Genetics Made Me Fat.”

Fact: genetics plays a role in the propensity for obesity. However, “propensity” is not an immutable sentence; it’s a gift of advance warning. Having the knowledge that one comes from a legacy of obesity is ample reason to avoid the “obesity axis-of-evil,” which comprises junk food, soda and sitting around.

Roth said, “It’s true there is what I call ‘Second-Hand Obesity.’ If your parents are obese, studies show you’re 15 times more likely to be obese—so work 15 times harder to clear a healthy life path.”

3- “Middle-Age Spread Made Me Fat.”

Time is no friend to metabolism. Each year—life’s cruel joke—metabolism takes another dive. Combine the natural decline of metabolism with the hormonal cocktail of menopause and the result for most women is extra fat, especially around the middle. Nutritionists and personal trainers alike advise a decrease in calories and increase in exercise. Particularly effective is weight-training, which increases muscle mass--which in-turn--increases metabolism. Studies project that in the course of a woman’s life, 70% will become overweight or obese. Post-menopausal weight gain is riskier due to its link to breast cancer and other health complications.

“There’s a popular country song that sings ‘…live like you were dyin’...’ If you’re a woman facing ‘middle age spread’ and you have not been given a terminal diagnosis, it’s more important than ever to live like you are living. That means facing up to a slowing metabolism and eliminating the food choices and sedentary lapses contributing to extra weight gain,” Roth advises.

“One in every three women is obese. Two in every three women is overweight or obese. Women make more than 90% of food-buying decisions in the U.S. Studies show that only a modest weight gain of 10-20 pounds after age 18 materially compromises a woman’s health. If there is to be a resistance to the obesity epidemic, it will come from mothers. So on Mother’s Day, let’s stop telling lies about our weight. Why are these lies so dangerous? Blaming pregnancy, genetics and middle-age spread for obesity only ushers in a new generation of obesity. Lying to our families is one thing, but it’s far more damaging for a woman to lie to herself,” Roth concluded.

About MeMe Roth
MeMe Roth is host and organizer of the Wedding Gown Challenge--Friday, August 4, 2006-- where women enter into marriage at a healthy weight and maintain it for a lifetime. As an anti-obesity advocate, Ms. Roth's efforts to eliminate junk food from schools, eradicate Secondhand Obesity™ (obesity handed down from one generation to the next, as well as from citizen to citizen), and to celebrate women committed to remaining fit have been featured on FOXNews’ The O’Reilly Factor w/ Bill O’Reilly, Your World with Neil Cavuto, CBS’s The Early Show, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Post, Playboy Magazine, The New Jersey Star-Ledger, TimeOut New York, Big Apple Parent, WABCRadio, 106.7 LiteFM, Q104.3, Parents Magazine, Vicinity Magazine, Suburban Essex Magazine, School Administrator, American School Board Journal, The Winnipeg Sun, UPN Channel 9 News, News Target, Baristanet.com, The Item, WCRN Boston, BigFatBlog, Nippon TV, The Associated Press and Health Magazine. Ms. Roth’s agenda: Brain/Body/Libido. “Let’s re-tool the image of ‘mom’ and live a lifestyle free of excuses.”

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Boycott REDBOOK Magazine - Obesity Is Not Fashion

Redbook Magazine Boycott Called by Anti-Obesity Advocate MeMe Roth

-- Hearst’s Redbook and Editor-in-Chief Stacy Morrison Called “Reckless in Age of Obesity” --

New York, NY – March 6, 2006 – In response to Redbook Magazine’s March 2006 Issue and cover story, “We Love Your Body From Size 2 to 20,” anti-obesity advocate MeMe Roth calls for a boycott of the magazine citing its piece as “reckless in the age of obesity.”

March’s issue, with rocker Sheryl Crow on the cover, features a seven-page spread of women of varying sizes, many of whom are Redbook employees. Half the women are visibly overweight and some “plus sized.” Height and Body Mass Index (BMI) are excluded.

In her opening letter, editor-in-chief Stacy Morrison bemoans the fact that many of her favorite fashions are not made larger than size 12, while also heralding that she is “quite proud” to be a size 14. Later within the article, it is pointed out the average American woman is a size 14. Noticeably absent are facts that the average size 14 woman is 5’ 4”, overweight and at risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as a host of additional medical complications.

“Redbook always has had a friendly tone, but don’t let that friendliness lull you into comfortable obesity,” said anti-obesity advocate MeMe Roth. “If you’re post MarieClaire and Glamour but not ready for AARP, I’d suggest reading Shape or SELF and getting your nutrition information from consumer watchdog, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI.) The CSPI takes no corporate or political money and publishes the exceptional Nutrition Action Healthletter. Until Redbook Magazine gets real about the risks associated with extra heft rather than parading health-compromised, plus-sized women in its pages, boycott it.”

Redbook Magazine, a Hearst Magazines title, reaches an audience of 2,350,000 each year, 90% women the average age of 44. The magazine’s tag line is “The Married Girl’s Guide to Life.”

“Redbook is a popular title and certainly knows its audience and advertisers. It’s quick to point out the “W” in plus-sized clothing stands for ‘woman.’ I wonder if that’s what Gloria Steinem and her contemporaries had in mind?” said MeMe Roth. “In Manhattan there’s a window etching that reads, ‘Life equals outrunning lesser versions of yourself.’ I couldn’t agree more. Name one men’s magazine that would parade its overweight employees? Redbook needs the courage to be honest with its readers and stop the patronizing articles. Instead of extolling the virtues of loving your body at any size, let’s ask women to love their bodies by keeping them healthy—and certainly offering advice that women become physically fit well before having children.”

Fast Facts:

• Women are at the center of the obesity epidemic. More than 90% of family food-buying decisions are made by women.
• 65% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.
• A child of overweight parents is 15 times more likely to become overweight.
• Today’s generation of children is the first to be given a lesser life expectancy than their parents.
• This due to obesity related health complications: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
• The Wedding Gown Challenge encourages women to focus on being fit for life—maintaining a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI)—well before, during and long after their wedding day.

About MeMe Roth
MeMe Roth is host and organizer of the Wedding Gown Challenge. As an anti-obesity advocate, Ms. Roth's efforts to eliminate junk food from schools, eradicate Secondhand Obesity™ (obesity handed down from one generation to the next, as well as from citizen to citizen), and to celebrate women committed to remaining fit have been featured on Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto, CBS’s The Early Show, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Post, Playboy Magazine, The New Jersey Star-Ledger, TimeOut New York, Big Apple Parent, WABCRadio, 106.7 LiteFM, Q104.3, Parents Magazine, Vicinity Magazine, Suburban Essex Magazine, School Administrator, American School Board Journal, The Winnipeg Sun, UPN Channel 9 News, News Target, Baristanet.com, The Item, WCRN Boston, BigFatBlog, Nippon TV, The Associated Press and Health Magazine. Ms. Roth’s agenda: Brain/Body/Libido. “Let’s re-tool the image of ‘mom’ and live a lifestyle free of excuses.”

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