Yours Toothfully by Dr Chan Joon Yee

Screw Inner Beauty - lessons from the fatosphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.

I thought this book would be a wicked revelation of how superficial modern soceities are. I thought it would show us what really fills the minds of people who emphasise on inner beauty over outer beauty. I expected a funny, honest, candid and sarcastic style. Well, this book turned out to be totally beyond my expectations.

Well, it did start off with some revelation of hypocrisy by magazines that tell you to love yourself the way you are on one page and then carry tons of advertisements telling you how to change your looks for the better. Then, the authors revealed that they are fat and not ashamed of admitting it. That’s fine with me. It’s their own bodies. But the insights and advice that follow show how little they understand nutrition and physiology. It’s true that most people who embark on weight loss programs succeed at first but regain all the weight they lost, but that does not mean that the science behind dieting and nutrition is all wrong. Yes, experts have been paid to endorse programs and products. Some have even written books aimed more at selling than informing, but the science still holds. People become obesed because they take in too much and burn off too little.

Healthy At Every Size (HAES) is an interesting concept. I might even agree with it. No matter how some people exercise, they just can’t get rid of their thick thighs or buttocks. In fact, the majority of people who attend slimming programs aren’t even overweight. These are genuine victims of “media standards”. They should go for counselling instead of extreme weight loss programs if they are healthy in spite of an isolated chunk of stubborn fat that just wouldn’t go away. Perhaps they should even read the more sensible parts of this book.

However, there are many people out there who are indeed overweight and at risk of serious chronic illnesses. It’s factually incorrect for the authors to say that the majority of people will not be able to maintain their weight within healthy limits even if they exercise sufficiently and eat good food. The authors further postulated (wrongly) that there is no such thing as good food and bad food - just eat intuitively. That would be a recipe for disaster.

They seem to have forgotten that very few of our ancestors were fat because there weren’t much junk food, travelators and escalators back then. Malnutrition was a bigger (no pun intended) problem than obesity. We live in very different times and going intuitively with food loaded with trans fats and sodium without any discipline or knowledge to discern is exactly the source of weight problems (with accompanying health issues) in the developed world.

The part about choosing doctors who don’t tell you are obesed and at risk of certain illnesses is preposterous. How about avoiding the doctor who tells you you’ve got a tumour that needs to be investigated? Aren’t they supposed to be confident and in full acceptance of their bodies? Why bother to avoid doctors who comment on their weight? While I admire the authors’ positive outlook in life, I can’t help but conclude that they are people who are happy because they are blissfully ignorant or in denial.

I can’t comment on their advice on social life. I’ve never been fat and if one of them is happily married and other dating successfully, I guess, it’s OK to take some advice from them. Finally, take a look at Kate Harding’s picture below. Does she look that fat to you? Think twice before buying her book.

Anyone who has read the editorials and answers to letters from readers in the late Isaac Asimov’s magazines in his last years would have been struck by one of the world’s greatest sci fi writer’s wit, humour and sheer arrogance. He obviously received literally tons of letters - much more than he could have possibly read - let alone reply. So it would seem that he had picked out a few and replied them in the nastiest ways that only a creative genius like Asimov could have managed. Many people found him cruel and undeserving of the description of humanist he gave himself.

Controversial, but I found it highly entertaining. But Asimov was not always like that. He was one of the world most prolific writers, having at least 500 books to his name. As vice president of Mensa, he often talked openly about his reluctance to be associated with an organisation full of megalomaniacs. Asimov was often described as an approachable man who was pleased to give talks and answered thousands of letters written to him.

Then, the great Soviet-born American writer suffered a heart attack. He had to go for a major bypass in 1983 and though the surgery was a success, Asimov, very unfortunately, received HIV-tainted blood transfusions. The truth of his HIV infection was only revealed to the public recently as his family was afraid they might be ostracised.

If the internet as we know it existed when Asimov was slowly dying, he must have received a lot more electronic mail than letters. He would have been overwhelmed by all the comments, criticisms, suggestions and long, rambling stories. Would you have reacted in the same way that Asimov did? Perhaps not with the same style, but I doubt you would have a lot of patience or compassion to address every single issue, every single individual.

With the internet around, many busy people who depend on it for one reason or another will need to deal with countless comments, suggestions and questions. You may not be a dying man or woman. But what if the comments and questions start to get overwhelming? What if some of them some like a nuisance?

There is a Burmese saying that if someone cheats you once, you blame the cheater. If the same person cheats you three times, you blame yourself. Yet, there are people who insist and demand that you believe them even after they have lied to you 3 times. There may be people who have betrayed you more than 3 times and

“I thought you’re a nice guy.”

yao mo gao chor ah? Must nice guys be foolhardy guys too?

“I thought you’re a nice guy. Why can’t you help me claim from my company by making a fake record?”

“I thought you’re a nice guy. Why can’t you use my Medisave to pay for root canal. I’m sure there is something you can do.”

” I thought you’re a nice guy, why can’t you neglect your family and come do our cases at 9pm?”

It’s audacious, but once you gain some reputation as a nice guy, you keep getting challenged to uphold your reputation by bending over backwards for others. As the feedback, requests, suggestions etc overwhelm us, we will begin to empathise with Isaac Asimov in his final days. Life is never long enough for anybody. Healthy or sick, we are all living on borrowed time. There is so much to do and so much to ignore, so many nasty letters to send so that we can do as much as we would like to with the limited time that we have.

Crescent moon of the 7th month
Beams gently down
On the narrow, wavy path
To Punggol Beach

A string of amber bowls
Hanging from metal branches
Tears a winding path of brightness
Amid scrawny trees
Touched by an icy finger

The drying floor
The vapour of the woods
The cracked rubber seed pods
Under my rapid steps
Crunching in the stillness

The road rises and falls
Teasing my happy feet
Like a concrete sea
That leads to the beach

My pounding heart sinks
At the end of the road
The concrete path is growing into the sea
A natural beach is not beautiful enough
Trucks and diggers will make the cut

Turning back, I head for home
Save for the “good brothers”
I’m all alone.
A car drives past, the driver looks cold
I’m human or spirit, he never will know.