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Early childhood and early elementary are key times when children develop internal and external antifat attitudes; thus, it is necessary to better understand the available children’s literature around fatness.This paper aims to examine children's picture books with fat protagonists to better understand the current landscape of children's literature. Drawing on relevant literature around fat characters and the fat studies movement, this critical content analysis considers five children’s books featuring fat protagonists.

This study uses critical content analysis to analyze texts featuring fat protagonists, including two rounds of initial reading and analysis. Using lenses of critical literacy and critical multicultural analysis, the author looks for common themes, silences and absences in the texts, images and peritext.

This paper identifies themes of characters initially internalizing antifatness, then pushing back against antifat bias toward existing with joy and without stigma. Several of these texts even draw on the history of fat activism, highlighting societal critique and a potential activist component of children’s literature with fat protagonists.

The study has a small number of books, due to the limited number of texts that fit the study parameters.

The paper concludes with examples of scaffolding for teachers and parents to have conversations with young children about antifat bias while also acknowledging notable absences, particularly boy protagonists.

These themes illustrate the power of young children to push back against antifat bias and critique oppressive social structures.

There have been very few studies looking at antifatness in children’s picture books. With more books with fat protagonists coming out in the 2020s, this study offers an understanding of the themes present, while also emphasizing the need for an intersectional approach to literature with fat protagonists.

Excessive fat intake is a problem in the UK and other European countries. Looks at the relationship between dietary fat and body fat and the body′s physiological responses to fatty food. Discusses experimental studies on fat and satiety and high fat hyperphagia.

Emerging evidence indicates that there may be a link between calcium intake and body composition . However, few review papers to date appear to collate this information. This paper aims to fill this gap.

All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and large observational studies published between 1998 and 2009 were identified using Medline scientific database. Studies had a minimum duration of 30 days and included all sources of calcium (dairy and supplemental).

Twenty‐one studies were identified; including 14 RCTs and seven large observational studies. Twelve studies (seven of the RCTs) reported that regular consumption of dietary or dairy calcium may reduce fat mass in adults. Nine studies (seven of the RCTs) found no association between calcium intake and body composition. Two studies reported that fat loss was augmented when a calcium‐rich diet was combined with energy restriction. Overall, results from reviewed studies yield conflicting findings. Further intervention studies are needed to “separate out” the effects of habitual, supplemental and dairy calcium. More studies also need to investigate the combined effects of a calcium‐rich diet and energy restriction. Only then can calcium‐rich diets be used alongside conventional treatments for obesity.

This paper gives a concise, up‐to‐date review of literature investigating the link between calcium intake and adult body composition.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the nutritional value of chicken nuggets by partial substitution of animal fat with palm stearin. Three nugget formulations with the fat level of 10.3 per cent palm fats consisted of blends from Olein: Stearin at ratios of 30:70, 50:50, 70:30 were used to replace chicken skin (control). Palm fat treatments resulted in a significant decrease of cholesterol content.

Four nugget formulations with the fat level of 10.3 per cent palm fats consisting of blends from Olein: Stearin at ratio of 30:70, 50:50, 70:30 and a commercial shortening, Socfat 36 are studied. The same formulation using chicken skin as a control and a commercial brand of nugget is used as a comparison. Proximate analysis of raw and cooked palm fat nuggets showed a decrease in the protein content and an increase of the fat content. The cholesterol content were reduced up to 45.9 per cent through the addition of palm fat, when compared against the control treatment. Fatty acid composition of palm fats in the palm substituted formulations increased the level of C16:0 and decreased C16:1, C18:1, C18:2, compared with fat from chicken skin.

The cholesterol content was reduced by 45.9 per cent when chicken skin and fat were substituted with palm fats. The texture of chicken nugget increased when added with palm fats. Palmitic acid (C16:0) content increased while palmitoleic acid (C16:1), oleic (C18:1) and linoleic acid (C18:2) decreased in palm fat treated nuggets.

The paper is of value in showing how palm stearin and olein usage in chicken nuggets helps reduce the product's cholesterol content.

The prevalence of obesity in China is currently one of the lowest in the world, but it is increasing, particularly in urban areas. The incidence of obesity in China is approximately four to five times lower than in the UK and USA respectively. Several dietary studies have found that dietary fat consumption in China is lower than in Western countries, but is currently increasing. In addition, Chinese in more affluent countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, and Chinese immigrants in the USA are consuming greater amounts of dietary fat than Chinese in China. This increased intake of fat in Chinese is probably due to transition from the traditional Chinese eating patterns to those typical of Westerners. The change in overall dietary intake is likely to have an impact on obesity, health and economy of these nations. This is an appropriate time to examine the relationship between diet and obesity with special reference to Chinese communities in different parts of the world.

This paper aims to investigate how narrative is constructed to create connections with fat readers, how books function to envision spaces of fat liberation for young readers and to highlight the incredible importance of providing bigger mirrors (Bishop, 1990) for fat representation in children’s literature.

This paper analyzes and reflects on two texts that contain counternarratives of fatness: The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce edited by Angie Manfredi (2019) and Big by Vashti Harrison (2023) to interrogate how these two narratives intentionally disrupt anti-fat bias.

Body size and fatness are identities that need to be included in diversity efforts within education. Books like The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce (Manfredi, 2019) and Big (Harrison, 2023) offer positive representations of fatness, disrupt biases around body size and provide spaces that allow fat students to find joy, hope, connection and, more than anything, imagine a way toward liberation.

This paper highlights the need to include more narratives of positive fat representation within children’s literature and calls for educators to interrogate their own anti-fat biases and practices.

There is a lack of research on fat representation specifically within children and young adult literature. This paper provides an analysis of two pieces of literature with fat representation that brings attention to the need for this type of future research.

Purpose: To understand how lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and asexual (LBTQA+) young women interpret the social construction of “lesbian obesity” in the context of their lived experiences and membership in the LGBTQ+ community.

Methodology: Individual, in-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 25 LBTQA+ women, ages 18–24, to explore how participants perceive and experience dominant discourses about gender, sexuality, and weight. Interviews were analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive coding approaches.

Findings: Participants resisted public health discourse that frames obesity as a disease and the implication that their sexual identities put their health at risk. Many participants viewed their sexual identities and membership in the LGBTQ+ community as protective factors for their health statuses in general and their body image in particular.

Implications: Our findings suggest a need to reconsider the utility of the concept of “lesbian obesity” to characterize the significance of elevated rates of overweight and obesity in this population. Public health and clinical interventions guided by body positive approaches may be of greater relevance for sexual minority women.

Originality: This study centers the perceptions and experiences of LBTQA+ young women in order to examine how the intersections of sexual minority identity, dominant cultural ideals about weight, and obesity discourse inform their health.

Market trend data show a growing popularity of discount food stores and of cheaper food products as opposed to more expensive leading brands (LB). Unexpectedly little is known about how these economic food choices affect diet quality and/or health. The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in nutrient content and cost of daily food intake data modeled to contain food exclusively from either LB, generic brands (GB) or discount brands (DB).

This study analyzed nutrition information of 430 food products that were selected based on dietary intake data from a sub-sample of the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study. Data were collected in Dutch supermarkets, where information was copied from back-of-pack nutrition tables.

Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the LB, GB or DB daily intake models in energy (kJ), protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fatty acids, fiber or added sugar contents. However, there were significant differences in sodium content where LB had significant less sodium compared to GB and DB. Also, there were significant price differences: LB vs GB+2.75/day; LB vs DB+7.17/day; GB vs DB+4.42/day.

To the knowledge, this is the first study analyzing differences in nutrient content and price of leading, generic and discount food brand formats on a diet level. The analysis revealed that there is little reason to suggest that dietary nutrient quality is negatively affected by an increased consumption of DB products. Indeed, the substantial price difference between leading and DB suggests that discount products provide a reasonable alternative to LB.

This paper aims to in the modern world, possessing an attractive appearance is often considered a highly valued attribute. As such, the perceptions and satisfaction with one’s body are shaped by dominant cultural norms. Adolescents, women in particular, who are heavily influenced by media representations, may tend to have a distorted body image (BI), including adopting extreme dieting methods. This study reviews the adverse effects of excessive weight loss associated with this.

The authors searched journals and the internet for relevant literature using the keywords “eating disorders”, “body image” and “weight stigma”. In the case study field, they added papers that considered “nutrition” to identify the link between dieting behaviour and nutrition. From these reviews, the authors ultimately selected 190 articles that appeared to meet their research objectives. The papers cover a range of studies published between 1995 and 2023.

Among adolescent girls and young women in their early 20s, there is a social media-driven culture of being extremely thin and petite. Weight stigma puts more pressure on them and makes strange behaviours like pro-ana syndrome a part of the culture. The authors have seen that modern BI standards leave young women vulnerable to eating disorders caused by excessive dieting.

Adolescence is a time of continuous growth, so balanced nutrition is essential. However, biased societal standards of beauty can push adolescent girls who are sensitive to external gaze into excessive dieting and make eating disorders a culture. This review provides a perspective on the behaviours that should be pursued for a healthy BI.

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.