The Herald is running a weight loss story on a young woman who lost 45 kgs. What was the secret to her dieting 'success?' Drinking nothing but 10 to 14 cans of Red Bull, a heart attack and other ongoing health concerns.
FYI Hearald subbies, drinking only red bulls isn't a diet it's an eating disorder.
Argh.
11 comments:
we both read that in disgust.... even last night Hubby was saying, cant believe that woman drunk so much red bull...
45kg at what cost....
I don't think it was particularly ethical to report this - other women and girls are bound to try it. Using stimulants to diet are about as old as stimulants themselves.
To me, the sad thing about this is the circumstances that led the woman to start this diet - had a baby, exhausted, feeling stink about her body. Plenty of us have been there...
Brooke Robertson is a friend of mine. She agreed to be interviewed because she was told that the HoS was researching a story on the dangers of energy drinks, and she wanted her story to be helpful.
What instead happened was the reporter turned the whole thing into a hatchet job on her. I suppose the HoS thinks the impact of their bullshit headline made it all OK. All she wanted to do was to help by telling her story. Instead, those dishonest pricks at the HoS used the interview with her to get a story that dogwhistles a whole of lazy prejudices, so their readers feeling all superior and tut tutting their Sunday museli. Only they don't have to see someone crying her eyes out over all the vicious comments from the credulous readers of the HoS.
A few grammatical errors above sorry, but I am angry. I don't expect anything from a tabloid shithole paper like the HoS.
But the lazy, judgmental and smug comments from a lot of people who should know better have sickened me.
Hi Tom
No offence meant to Brooke at all. As I said earlier, many of us have been in her position as new mums, and can feel empathy. I hope Brooke's health gets better, and that the Herald's reporting (and people's reaction to it) haven't caused her too much upset.
Her son has the same name as mine, so she clearly has good taste. ;-)
Anna
Tom,
Like Anna my comments weren't actually directed at the woman in question but obviously at the journalist. The way that it was reported zeroing in on the 'weight loss' and the health of the woman was seen as of secondary consideration.
The fact that the initial pitch was the dangers of energy drinks actually makes it far, far worse.
Your value as a person is inversely proportional to your waist line.
tom, that's just awful and i hope that brooke knows there are plenty of us who have struggled after having a baby. we can understand how she feels & like anna, she certainly has my empathy.
i'm sure she won't much feel like it after this experience, but if she wants the opportunity to get the message she originally intended out to the public, she is most welcome to have a guest post put up here.
I would also welcome a guest post from Brooke if she wanted to write one.
I feel really disturbed that she was mislead by the Herald - obviously she was trying to provide comment on a serious public health issue, and that's been lost in bullshit sensationalist journalism.
The energy drink phenomenon is actually pretty important - heaps of people use stimulants of various sorts, including diet pills, to get through the day. It's even more tempting when you've got kids and there's not much time to rest. I think it's an interesting issue and discussion around it would be useful.
Your value as a person is inversely proportional to your waist line.
Can we agree instead that waistline has absolutely no association with one's value as a person?!
What a sad story. Brooke sounds like a strong person, and I'm sorry to hear she got played by the HoS
Dunno if that's even a good way to go about losing weight. Red bull is full of sugar - poor lady!
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