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Hi there PureJeevan readers! We wanted to let you know that Jim's new novel CHROO is available on Amazon. It's a crazy adventure involving a billionaire heiress, her Chihuahua BFF ("Chroo") and a host of human and animal characters. Find out more on Amazon! Here are some links:




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Thanks to Bitt, yesterday, for pointing out that one possible misinterpretation of yesterday's post (on celebrity weight loss) could be that "thin = healthy." I'm sure that, while there are countless wonderful benefits to being a famous actor, one of the less wonderful aspects of that life must be the pressure to remain young, thin, attractive, etc. It would seem realistic to me to assert that, additionally, women are held to even more objectified standards than are the men out there (although, in fairness, note that 6 of the 11 stars profiled in the Yahoo feature linked to yesterday were in fact men).

In any case, the post's intention was never to imply that one's weight is necessarily the best indication of one's overall health. After all, we all know thin people afflicted with serious health challenges.

A few additional points: (1) There is certainly such a thing as being underweight, and even dangerously so -- and we've all witnessed some of the more glaring, horrific examples, especially in the professional modeling world and certainly in Hollywood; and (2) it's impossible for anyone to truly, meaningfully, assess another's overall health based solely on that person's weight or BMI.

Whether a thin version of a given celebrity is overall more healthy than that person's formerly overweight self is something that perhaps no one but a qualified health practitioner (with access to that person's full health data) could say with absolute certainty. This is true because there are many ways a person can lose weight -- some healthy, some risky, and others outright dangerous.

If you take an overweight person and put him or her on some unhealthy (yet weight-loss-effective) regimen, and then that person loses weight, then how would anyone go about commenting on that from a health perspective? ?Has that person traded one health challenge for another? And, if so, which one is preferable or better?

Complicating matters is the reality that, when someone famous loses weight via *any* means, it naturally creates a buzz for that regimen -- whether it's diet pills, Atkins, or whatever. Imagine how such misinformation, spread like wildfire, absolutely complicates the world of legitimate natural health practitioners.

On the other hand, fitness really does seem like an intuitive thing, right? It may not in fact be as easily judged as we think, I'll concede, as we're all familiar with famous ways in which society defines beauty (for example, the past historical view that one's weight had a correlation to one's position in society -- that one could literally afford to not be starving -- and, thus, extra weight was in fact considered attractive).

Still, we often talk of "the glow" in raw circles (or, at least, many used to use this term). And, it was meant to indicate something a little special -- a vitality and vivaciousness that one imagines can only come with genuine fitness on some idealistic level.

So, yes, we need to use caution when getting into that grey area that lies between social commentary and judgment of others' health. And, needless to say, our convictions here at Pure Jeevan should be clear: We believe that a diet rich in raw, organic, pant-based foods (along with a holistic approach that includes non-dietary measures such as exercise, meditation, managing stress, maintaining emotional health, and other time-honored best practices) constitutes one exceedingly healthy (backed by our own experiences with improved testing and bloodwork), generally very low-risk, highly eco-friendly, and conscious approach toward optimal health.

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Photo by Charlotte Astrid on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Original Comments

Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.

On July 18, 2011, Gena wrote:

So glad that Bitt made this point -- as much as I think we all believe that healthy foods can bring us to our ideal body weight, there's no saying that that weight is a tiny number for everyone. Bodies vary dramatically, and it's wrong for us to assume that the Hollywood one-size-fits-all body type is at all laudable.

On July 18, 2011, bitt wrote:

Greta follow up! Thanks for listening and responding. Whenever I think of Hollywood weight loss I tend to think UNHEALTHY but I am sure there are a variety of approaches. You did point out a few stars that were popular before their weight loss so perhaps true health not just career was their goal. Thanks as always for the though-provoking posts!

On July 25, 2011, Wendi wrote:

Yes, Gena. It's so very true and I'm glad Bitt brought up the point, also. :-) It's so sad what media has done to our minds about what is and isn't healthy, beautiful, desirable, etc. :-/

Lots of love to you,

Wendi

XOXOXO

On July 25, 2011, Wendi wrote:

Thanks again for commenting, Bitt. I'm so glad you brought up the original point. I hope one day we no longer need to focus on what is healthy, because we'll all be living naturally and health will be a byproduct! That's my dream, anyway!

Lots of love to you,

Wendi

XOXOXO