No, I am not talking about Britney Spears feeding her young kids Doritos and their rotting teeth.
I am talking about a Nashville special--Gwen Shamblin and her Weigh Down Diet. Nashville is in the Bible Belt, and as you might expect, we have our share of religious good and bad. Part of the bad is her Weigh Down Workshop. Shamblin has a unique schtickt. Her weight loss program appeals to those who can't seem to lose weight any other way. People who have really bad self image. They have these regular meetings in people's homes---they talk about, well , I can't imagine what.
Her weight loss program seems to be to starve yourself. Or that is the practical effect of it. You are not supposed to eat until your stomach growls. Un, hello? Can anyone say "Wierd"???? On top of this, some parents have put their children on this diet. That can't be healthy for children. I think it is going to promote eating disorders in these children as they get older. Shamblin says she is a nutritionist. I wonder if this is advice that nutritionists are supposed to give. According to those who have been part of this group, being overweight is supposed to be a sin; it is greed. I have heard that they say if you are overweight you will go to hell. HELLo! Anyone in there? Put down that doritos bag, you dirty scumbucket sleazepot!
The program preys on people with poor self image and then they can find themselves sucked into her program, which has been equated to a religious cult. Do a search on Weigh Down and read the scary accounts from former members. The ingredients are a diva, a mansion, sexy good looks and a lot of other trappings. She doesn't believe in the Trinity, which got her in hot water with one of the major church denominations in town and they dropped her program like a hot potato. They have built their own church--the Remnant Fellowship, which is a cold, imposing fortress of a building. Wonder where they got the money to build this church?
Trouble and controversy surround this diet and church. A couple that follows her tenets were found guilty of killing their child. Reports of child abuse connected to their followers are out there. She denies that these occurrences have anything to do with her teachings.
Why this post? Because Yahoo News just recently ran an article about this program, and made no mention of its bad sides. Other news outlets are giving the diet positive spin. My personal gripe is that this group got one of my former best friends. Unfortunately she has gotten more gullible as she has gotten older. Yes, she was overweight, and yes on this diet she didn't eat for days. And yes, she had her 12 year old daughter on it too. The last I heard was that she was scary skinny. I hope she is OK and that she has gotten away from these people.
No comments:
Post a Comment