Fat-phobia everywhere

[Guest guest]

I have a neighbor who works with me on coordinating block club events

and trying to clean up our neighborhood. She's a real go-getter but

in the last 6 months, she has developed all kinds of health issues,

many of them stress-related b/c she pushes herself so hard. But from

a conversation I had with her today, I am beginning to suspect it is

more diet-related than stress. She fainted in January for no apparent

reason, and has been having tests ever since to determine the cause

and rule out specific diseases. Today, I found out that everything

else has been ruled out, and that she has a genetic condition that is

causing her leg arteries to mysteriously become thinner and narrower,

leading to less blood circulation in her lower extremities, and she

has developed a limp and burning pains in her legs.

Today, she told me proudly that " I don't eat any of the bad stuff. I

don't eat butter, or red meat. "

I thought to myself, " Genetics or no genetics, there's your problem

right there. " That, and because she also smokes a few cigarettes

daily and drinks coffee.

I debated letting her in on the big secret, as she is a nurse and is

knowledgeable about all kinds of medical things. But I didn't have

the energy to argue with her all night, because she WILL argue from

being brainwashed like everyone else. Some days you just don't have

what it takes to educate people...

~Joe