And another Leaden Fork award goes to . . .

Apple, for the revolting tagline promoting the new iMac:

You can't be too thin. Or too powerful.

News flash to Steve Jobs and his marketing department: You sure as hell can be too thin. Your hair can fall out. You can be cold all the time. Your heart can slow down. You can become psychotic on the subject of food. In fact, you can be possessed by an illness so powerful that it actually causes you to violate the most basic human instinct: self-preservation. You can be so thin that you actually commit suicide by starving yourself, while in the grip of a delusion so powerful that neither reason nor logic nor love and empathy from others can touch it.

If you want to step inside the mind of someone who is too thin, read this. I hope you weep.


**Thanks to Cynthia for the link.

And yet another Leaden Fork award goes to . . .

Reader's Digest, for its well-meaning but shamefully one-sided advice on how to avoid compulsive overeating. In fact, this could be a primer for how to induce an eating disorder.

Blog reader Deborah Lee brought this to my attention, and points out a couple of items on this top 10 list that really bugged her:

"3. Never, ever buy a snack at gas stations, drugstores, or discount chains.

4. Never, ever stop at a food store just to buy a snack."

Writes Lee, "While I understand the sentiment in these statements, and it may be sound advice in principle, this sort of black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking is what eating disorders thrive on, and is completely unnecessary."

I'm with you on this, Deborah. Of course Reader's Digest is just one of many media outlets that get this way wrong. Especially in this season, when the default assumption is that we're all trying to lose weight and need "tips" like these. Open just about any women's magazine right now and you'll see headlines like "How to Stick to Your Diet,""Want to lose weight? Be sure not to skip breakfast," and a host of other ridiculous headlines.

I'm looking forward to a year that started without a lot of advice on how to lose weight--and focused instead on creating a healthy and joyful relationship with food, exercise, love, work, and all the other pleasures of being a human being.

How about it?