Wednesday, November 9, 2011

You're Fat

I’m reading two really cool books right now – “Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture” by Professor Amy Erdman Farrell, and “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight” by Professor Linda Bacon. Both of these books are helping me to understand the hugely significant issue of body size in our culture. But, I’ll get to that in a minute… First, I want to explain what prompted the title and purpose of this blog:

A couple of months ago I got into an unfortunate altercation about driving with someone in another car. Actually, a man and his wife were altercating and I was trying to keep my calm while explaining that they were going 65 mph in 45 mph zone around a blind curve, and thus I couldn’t see their car when legally turning right on red. Anyway, long story short, this guy was so mad at me (probably because I refused to get mad and would only calmly reply to him) that he screamed, “YOU’RE FAT” and gunned his engine, running a red light in order to get away from me. Here’s the interesting part: He could only see my head and shoulders. Take a look at my picture on this website’s homepage. I definitely do not look fat from the shoulders up. Those of you who know me can attest that if he had seen my posterior he may in fact have been within reason calling me fat J The point was though that he used body size – specifically the idea of being fat – as the ultimate derogatory statement.

While infuriating to me at the time, the use of the word fat as a demeaning statement was also very, very intriguing. Think about the supposedly comedic trash talking we hear on TV about being fat – “you’re momma’s so fat…” In that case, fat is funny and demeaning. But it’s not only being used to demean the person’s mother, but also the person to whom the comment is directed, who may or may not be fat. We are so prejudiced against fat people in our society that we have allowed airlines to double-ticket fat people for their seats. We allow comedians to joke about it as if it’s just another funny topic. And, in my opinion, the worst offense of all, is that we have allowed a multi-billion dollar “diet-industrial complex” to develop that manipulates people into believing that they MUST spend money in order to be THIN, THIN, THIN.

The research on this topic has shown that being fat is not the key to good health. This is especially true for women. In fact, women who are what even the medical community considers to be overweight, are actually more likely to live longer, healthier lives than their skinny counterparts. I’ll write more on the research baking this up in a later blog – or you can read one of the aforementioned books. In the meantime, I’m hoping that we can start a dialogue about what it truly means to be fat in this country. Is it really such a horrible thing that an angry man should scream it as an insult from his car? We truly need to think about what I call “fat bigotry” and how it is hurting many, many people.

In Peace,

Jennifer

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

SUPER COOL & HEALTHY MACARONI & CHEESE

Following from requests from my yoga students here is a recipe for a super healthy & yummy Macaroni and Cheese that even my picky kids will eat:

First, I have to give credit where credit is due. This recipe is derived from a recipe from my Mette Crabill. I believe that she derived it from Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook Deceptively Delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1 box elbow macaroni

Roughly 1.5 cups cubed butternut squash

1 can cannellini beans

1 Tbs butter or butter substitute (I actually believe the real thing is healthier in small amounts)

1 Tbs flour

½ cup milk (again, the whole variety is healthy, but you can use 2% if you must)

½ cup cheddar cheese shredded

Place the butternut squash in a microwave safe bowl, add about ¼ cup of water, microwave on high for 5 minutes. Start the macaroni boiling. Mac will boil for 8 minutes – just before al dente stage. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a small sauce pan. Add flour and whisk into a smooth roux. Slowly pour in milk, whisking the entire time so as to avoid lumps. When the milk is fully integrated with the roux, add the cheddar cheese, little bits at a time. Again, whisk the entire time until the cheese is fully melted and the sauce is smooth and creamy. This just takes a few minutes. Set aside. When the butternut squash is smooshy when mashed with a fork, put it and the cannellini beans into a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. You may need to add a little water. When the beans and squash are smooth add them to the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Remove the macaroni from the stove-top and drain. Put drained macaroni into a baking dish, pour the sauce over the macaroni, add breadcrumbs to the top (if you like). Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool before serving.

*An easier version of this is to use an organic instant macaroni and cheese box. Follow the directions on the box + make your butternut squash and cannellini bean puree. Add the cheese packet from the box to your puree and then just pour the puree over the macaroni from the box.


Enjoy!

Jennifer