Episode 125 Transcript

You're listening to the first fatty podcast episode 125, Food, Faith, MLMs, and Cults. I'm your host Vinny Welsby. Let's do it

I'm Vinny Welsby TEDx speaker, Best Selling Author, and fat activist. I have transformed my life from hating my body with desperately low self esteem to being a courageous and confident fierce fatty who loves every inch of this jelly. Society teaches us living with a fat body is bad. But what if we spent less time, money, and energy on the pursuit of thinness and instead focused on the things that actually matter? Like if pineapple on pizza should be outlawed? Or if the mullet was the greatest haircut of the 20th century? So how do you stop negative beliefs about your fat body controlling your life? It's the Fierce Fatty Podcast Let's begin.

Am I sweating? I have older friends. How are you? How's life? You feeling? Good? I'm feeling good. Looking for my glasses. Don't need him. Don't need them. Now that you know that I'm looking at my glasses. We've got a wild ride for you today. I don't know about you. But I just love. Love learning about scams. And in fact, less my favorite genre is a scammer is a scammer. And anyway, and so true crime and anything kind of comes off of that. And I spotted an article from Jezebel, which is what started this whole thing. And I realized that I want to do an up to date version of this episode. Not that I've done this episode specifically, but I've done kind of, I've talked about cults and diet culture and how it's related. I don't think I've ever spoken about MLMs. Specifically, I've said that they're dogshit. But yeah, and also these wacky religious groups that wouldn't necessarily be classed as a cult. But they've got some pretty interesting beliefs. And this one article really kind of put me into the rabbit hole, and it's called from Nexium to the way down. Cults really love a dangerous diet culture. That should read really love a dangerous diet. Maybe. Did I write it down though? That's what the that's what the title is. Yeah. That's what the title is. Anyway, yeah. So don't worry if you don't know what I'm saying. When I say Nexium, or the way down, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you all of the details. And so we're talking about who, okay, so the way down is a documentary series. Well, where is it on? Where's it on? Was it on Amazon? Amazon, I think is on Amazon. And that came out a few weeks ago, a few months ago, maybe all about GWEN SHAMBLIN GWEN SHAMBLIN created a program called the way down, which is so she is was a leader of a religious group who taught that people should be thin to be to get into heaven. Okay, so we're talking about GWEN SHAMBLIN we're talking about Nexium so Nexium is a MLM that turned into a cult that then had Oh sorts of of stuff. And Keith Ranieri, the leader was sentenced to I think, 120 years in prison. So spoiler spoiler alert, like spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the way down and you want to see it and you don't want to know what happens. If you want to learn about Nexium and watch the documentaries and it's on your list and you don't want to you don't want any spoilers. Then probably skip this episode because it's just it's filled with it, or go on watch the go and watch the things and then come back and be like, Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we're talking about Gwen Shamblin, Nexium, LuLaRoe LuLaRoe, the MLM login company breatharians. And talking about Stephen hasanz Bite model in regards to describing cults, Minnesota starvation experiment talking about what dieting does to our brains, and wrapping it all up in Why do some cults MLMs and religious groups, coerce them members to die and become thin. So here's the, here's the thread with all of this is these groups really kind of leading the way in, you better be fair, and you better diet, you better not eat food, because then you are going to get salvation, then you're going to get promotions, then you're going to get all the riches in the world, then you're going to be re your consciousness is going to be raised to a higher plane.

Unknown Speaker 6:15

And just like a, an FYI, we're not saying that all religious groups do this. Or that, you know, for example, Lent in the Catholic faith, or Ramadan, where there is a expectation of eating less, or changing the way you eat, or fasting is necessarily evil or bad, or, you know, that those religions are awful. I mean, I was brought up Catholic and so still, you know, it's not a sweeping statement of all faith is, is bad. And, you know, well, the thing is worth, you know, like, growing up Catholic, if you didn't do the things for Len in my family anyway, then no one would say anything, cuz no one did it anyways, it wasn't a big deal. And, and so I guess it's about the coercion and the control and the messages in regards to if you don't do it, then you're a bad person, and you're gonna see terrible consequences in your life. And so I want to just make that differentiation there before we get into it. And a huge giant trigger warning today because we're going to be talking about a lot of shit, which includes starvation, abuse, coercion, child abuse, and death, eating disorders, and mention of specific foods. General shitty human behavior, and power dynamics. Just a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff with mental health stuff. In regards to the effects of, of being on a diet, yeah, so because it's, this is so filled with so much stuff, I won't be able to give specific trigger warnings before each instant because it's, it's just everywhere. And so if that's not feeling good for you today, then I'll see you in the next episode, but if it is, let's go into it. And there's no by the way, there's no gratuitous mentions of any of these things. As in we don't go into detail, but

Unknown Speaker 8:59

if you kind of not feeling good, then I'd say just skip it. Just skip it just all right. Okay, let's start with Gwen Shamblin. And so what I'm going to be doing is I've I've done a ton of research, GSO research, all of the stuff that I've talked about today, I've like watched the documentaries and the different versions of the documentaries. I haven't seen the new episodes of, there's a the GWEN SHAMBLIN one is the way down. I haven't seen the new I think there's two or three episodes have just been released. I haven't seen that yet. But I will be but I've seen everything else. Yeah, so and read read the things. And I want to give you excerpts from different articles and what not and the basis like I mentioned for this episode is from Nexium to the way down cults really love a dangerous diet culture from Jezebel links, whatever thing in the shownotes as always fist fatty.com forward slash one to five. Okay, so I'm gonna give you kind of a little overview of this stuff by reading from this article. Okay. GWEN SHAMBLIN by the way, you should do some Googling to see what these people look like. GWEN SHAMBLIN is very interesting book when Shamblin is big innovation. Besides that signature, towering hairdo was a new kind of divine dieting to her. The Bible was littered with evidence that God doesn't just care about the state of our souls. He's also worried about our love handles the fatted calf in the story of the prodigal son, an indication that the Lord is a fan of filet mignon. Shamblin reading of Exodus revealed, however, that God frowns upon the greasy Tupperware containers, containers in most of our fridges. Someone who sets aside leftovers apparently lacks faith that God will provide their next meal. Above all, human body fat is a physical embodiment of sin, an indicator of insufficient piety and a departure from God's grace, by the way, also another kind of trigger warning of some of these links, not this one, but some of the links I'm sharing might have diet culture type statements in there. So just a heads up there. Alright, continuing the way down the HBO Max documentary series about Shamblin Remnant Fellowship Church, so it's not Amazon. It's HBO returns on Thursday with two new episodes. And though the story of the church is filled with its own unique peculiarities, oh my God, there's so much scandal and so the diet thing is just one thing. There's so much choosy shit uses yet to watch. Because I'm picky. materialities a weight loss theme echoes other entries in the cult media boom, particularly the vowel, which reported on the starvation diets that Nexium urged on some of its female members. So why do these groups which purport to be concerned with FAR loftier matters, like God, eternity, self actualization and spiritual and emotional fulfillment often see more concerned with how much their members weigh and what they're eating? Food says University of Pennsylvania lecture or travel, who teaches a course on cults and new religious movements is a very rudimentary basic way to control.

Unknown Speaker 12:46

The new episodes also feature interviews with women who left Shambles church and describe just what it was like to be part of a community that placed explicit moral judgments on food and dieting, and reportedly punished those who did not meet the leadership's weight loss demands. When were describing told that they were too fat to be admitted to heaven, and warned that if they left the group, they would face divine retribution in form of a regained pounds. A featured quote expert accurately points out that the vast majority of people who lose large amounts of weight gain it all back within five years. Those who left or were kicked out of the church however, were taught to believe that their almost inevitable weight gain was the result of their fall from grace. Notice how how that really echoes the the big things that diets diet companies, diet culture says that they like deny the reality they gaslight you and say, Oh no, no, it's not. It's not our diet and dieting in general. That's failed. It's you. And so GWEN SHAMBLIN ins group of besties are like, Oh, yes, you and you know, we told you so God is mad at you, girl. So you better stick with the group because when you put on weight, because we know you will, because diets don't work. That's God mad at you. One former member describes being told to eat only 10 bites of food a day to achieve the weight loss goal, the leadership set for her and to partake in extreme fasting regimens. The starvation she experienced left her with holes in her kidneys. I mean, shit, wouldn't you like if you believe in God or whatever? I don't, in case that wasn't obvious. And you thought that there was this place heaven were eternal. Whatever happens in heaven parties or whatever happen And then if you're not in there, then you're missing out on the the really cool party and then you're gonna go to hell or whatever if that's what you believe in or not just die. But anyway, one time say the stakes seem really high. I don't know, wouldn't you if you knew that it was kind of a matter of internal damn eternal damnation or not follow the starvation diets. I mean, shit if that's not motivation because, you know, normal diets, normal diets, it's kind of like, well, you're gonna die if you don't become thin. And then with the religious stuff on top, you're gonna die. And you return all life. You're gonna fuck with that. Because if you're a fatty, you ain't gonna get into heaven. Because God doesn't like fat chicks. And hey, even though in the Bible, it says, I think it must, I think it says we love everyone doesn't matter in the Bible. I mean, I did study theology, what a waste of an education there, studied, studied religious education for

Unknown Speaker 16:07

up until 750 16, and then from 16, to 18, studied theology at higher level level of education, a levels of fucking water, waste of my time and brain space. And then the, the teacher who was an ex priest was like, oh, yeah, the Bible is made up, right? We all know, but we have faith and I was like, Bitch, what do you mean the Bible's May, but we have faith. I don't know how faith I thought it was real. Anyway, side note. So if you do believe in that stuff, then if it means that you're gonna have to talk partaking eating only 10 bytes of food a day, you probably do it right. Because eternal damnation or not getting into heaven or whatever. Doesn't sound fun, even though it kind of goes against what's in the Bible. You know? And, you know, you know, I'm talking shit about religion, but I think anyone can read the Bible and pick out anything that they like, right? And so, this GWEN SHAMBLIN is like, Oh, God says he doesn't like he, whereas someone else could read the Bible and say, Actually, God says, that is amazing, you know? So I think you can literally just read it in any way that you want it and to make it into what you want it to say. And I you know, the people who say, Oh, God loves a fight, I'm down with that. Okay. Yeah, if God loves a fat Yeah, that's cool. Love it. This, this whole kind of you need to be doing certain things to get into heaven. And so certain things are like, don't be a dick. Hmm, probably not that helpful to lead a happy life. So. GWEN SHAMBLIN she's all like, divorce is the worst. Don't ever get divorced. If you divorce, then you know, you're, you're obviously going to hell. What does she do? Golf Course. She divorces her her husband, and she gets with a handsome former. Was he like, I can't remember what he was in like, not be watch, but something kind of cheesy 80s Maybe some nameless thing. But anyway, so she gets with this guy. And his name was Joe Lara. That's it. Yeah. Joe, Laura. And there's like scandal around that as well. I think he was younger than her as well, I think by a lot or something. There was some type of discrepancy there where it was kind of like, oh, this is a bit scandalous, obviously, and then she's getting married to some guy that

Unknown Speaker 19:04

you know, she said getting divorced is bad. And she gets divorced. And then and then in the, in the documentary they show they're like, engagement video when it's like hilarious, like, almost looks like satire. It's so cheesy. Yeah. And so anyway, long story short, he and other congregation members get in a plane, he was flying, and the plane crashed and they all died. And that happened a few years ago. But Gwen Shamblin is still her legacy lives on. Her daughter is now running the church or the programs you know, the way down programs are way down workshops. And so here's a here's a bustle wrote to this, which is GWEN SHAMBLIN is way down workshops are unfortunately still active. And so quote from that article Brentwood, Tennessee seems to Have a church on every corner but one church in particular looms larger than most Remnant Fellowship, a religious sect that serves as a subject of HBO Max's new Docu series a way down. remnant was founded in 1999 by Gwen Shamblin Laura, who created a controversial diet program called the work called the way down and way by the way is spelled W E IG H Ombria Solu bit of a pun in their power and all the way down in 1986, intended to quote teach people how to stop bowing down to the refrigerator, and how to bounce back down to God. Laura, because her name was then GWEN SHAMBLIN Laura after she married this this fellow, Laura died in May 2021. Okay, it's only like a year ago in a plane crash that also killed her husband Joe Lara and five other remnant leaders, but the way down programs remain popular. As detailed in the way down, Shamblin was raised in the church of Christ, and used her religious knowledge and training as a dietitian to devise the way down. The program consists of seminars and guided videos and audio tapes created by Shamblin who believe that being thin is a reflection of purity. According to her teachings, those who are able to lose weight and keep a lose, lose and keep off weight quickly are holier, and closer to God. Though experts express concern that the way down died, eliminated exercise and did not include guidance about food selection. People were intrigued by the fact that it did not require calorie counting or restricting foods instead. By the way, don't don't get interested in this diet, it's bullshit. Instead, Shamblin encouraged her followers to eat only when they feel hunger pains, and preached to quote run to God every time you want to go to food. The program was introduced in the midst of the 80s diet culture. It's of 80s diet culture and quickly took off according to the way down it at one point spread to more than 250,000 people in over 1400 congregations and 70 countries. The target for the workshops were women that felt they had great needs in life that weren't being spoken to by the traditional church that they were in. Reverend Raphael Martinez a cult interventionist explains in the way down, quote, therefore the workshop becomes an outlet for these women. In 1999, Shamblin decided to break from the Church of Christ and found Remnant Fellowship under her leadership with the way down diet as its focus. She believed that the Christian church had been corrupted and that it was her duty to create a place of worship for quote, true believers. However, former members claim in the Docu series that remnant was really a way for Shamblin to accumulate wealth, and power for herself and foster complete obedience to her. As a former member, Autumn Williams explains in the show, The workshops are all about selling chandeliers, brand, journals, DVDs, workbooks, and tote bags were among the goods required to take the classes. Former Member Rachel Phillips also says that the members have to be enrolled in way down class at all times, and that they paid for the classes themselves. Furthermore, many former members detail abusive practices within the church, including women's complete obedience to their husbands and violence against children.

Unknown Speaker 23:53

Yeah, so the violence against children. In the documentary you can see there is a recording where congregation members they're like, oh, they talk about how should we deal with discipline children, and they were like, you know, you should hit them. And they were talking about, you know, his congregation members saying, We've been hitting our kid and like Gwen, and someone else or Awesome. Yeah, is like, cool, that's great. And then then these people who were hitting their kids hit the kid and the child died. So continuing, after Shamblin is death, her daughter Elizabeth Sharon, Hannah assumed the primary leadership role in the church. The way down workshops are still available, including classes about basic weight loss, and others that delve deeper into the meaning between hunger and loving God. Though the website boasts hours of free content content, a subscription to Weigh Down TV is 9099 a month, while a single class is 6999. Quote, God did not put chocolate or lasagna or real blue cheese dressing on Earth to torture us but rather for our enjoyment that were at work. sight reads, however, he wants us to learn how to rise above the magnetic pole of the refrigerator so that food does not consume our lives. Which sounds kind of reasonable, right and unloving, a lot of people would would, would not be ahead when they read that saying, We don't want food to consume our lives. And you know, even the work that I do is we don't want food to consume our lives. But this program will not do the opposite for will consume your life. If you're not eating it, if you are turning to God, every time that you feel hunger, pain, not as hungry, but you have to get so hungry that you're in pain and then turn to God instead, instead of, quote, bowing down to the refrigerator. Yeah, so you know, it's kind of like that bait and switch of a lot of cults, a lot of dodgy religious communities, they really prey on people who are struggling, who are looking for something. And these people are are intelligent that people who go into into cults and religious sects are not stupid. Reading that sentence, God did not put such chocolate or lasagna on Earth to torture us, but rather for our enjoyment, you'd say yes. However, we want to rise above the magnetic pole. Yes, you know, if I had read that, however, many years ago, 10 years ago, I'd be like, yes. Sign me up. And if you're like, if you're searching for something, you know, and if you're religious, and you're searching for kind of, to be thin, and, and that really strong desire, and I don't know what the desire is to be pious to be in God's good graces, I don't know what that feeling is. But I can imagine it might be something similar might involve a lot of guilt, maybe. And something that's powerful and something that's kind of maybe filled with dread if you think, oh, maybe I'm not getting into the heaven party. We're all the thin we're all the thin bitches are, you know? So, I mean, shit. That's good marketing. If I was religious, if I was religious, and read that when I was in diet culture, I'll be like, Fuck, yeah, take my money. 1990 and 1990 99 a month to get into heaven. And be thin, double whammy. Take my money. But then what you're getting is, oh, your husband's in charge. And you are a greedy motherfucker. And you need to be in pain before you consider eating and instead of eating, you need to do a prayer or whatever. And yeah, and would give you just a shit ton of disordered eating and how much shame would you feel if you left? Because you're turning your back on? God. Right? Wow. That must be hard. What are you going to do?

Unknown Speaker 28:27

Alright, let's move on to Nexium Nexium is spelt. And XIV M Nov. X ray, indigo, Victor, Mike. And next year, um, oh, you know what I feel? I feel like I feel like an affinity for next year. I'm not like I want to join. But I can imagine like, how many years ago I was. I was I probably knew people, you know, friends of friends who were in Nexium because it was in Vancouver as well as other places. But they had a an office in Vancouver. And it was all about kind of women's empowerment and becoming the best version of yourself and executive leadership and attractive people who are thin and and there was some celebrities in it. And so when I worked, I worked for an organic food company. I tell you what that was, I feels like That was so close to all of this shit. And I feel like I could have easily been in that coal. Like easily, probably not actually because I was poor. So it is. It's so expensive. Nexium is also an MLM. So if you don't know what MLM is, it's a bit of a tongue twister. Isn't it? MLM MLM MLM It's not a multi level marketing, multi level marketing is a great way to take money from poor people who hope that they can have an independent working arrangement. They have been cleared of not not being a pyramid scheme. By the I don't know, if it's FDA, some governing body in the US looked into, what's that one big one, that's football players. And it's green Nutri neutral cents or something like that anyway, big lawsuit because basically, the idea behind an MLM, if you're, if you're not familiar with them, is that you Well, there's a product, right. And this is what gets let's install legally can carry on is that there's a there's a product, that's, that's like a thing, if there's no product, then it's very clearly a pyramid scheme, even though it's a pyramid scheme, there's a product and you will start selling the product. And you'll make a little bit of money. But where your big money comes in, is recruiting your mates, to also sell the product. And when you recruit someone, you get, like a bonus sometimes, but you also get a cut of their commission. And that commission is from setting a little bit of product, but not really, most of the commission comes from recruiting new people, and so on and so forth. And so you're if you're first in on a new MLM, you might be at the top of the tree. And be making tons of money, because you'll have like your downline, which is, however many people long and so if you've got 10 people reporting directly to you, and they both have, they, those 10 people will have three people reporting to them, then that's like 30 people under them, and then 10 people there. So then you've got you've got 40, people's commission coming in. And if those three people each all recruit two people, etc, etc. But I'm not turning you on to MLMs. Don't do it, don't do it. Don't start one there another girl.

Unknown Speaker 32:27

The stats around MLMs is something like 9099 plus people, percent of people who join in MLM, lose money. And it's like, point 1% of people make more than 50k. And they marketed as, oh, join this MLM. And you're going to be buying a fancy car or going on vacations, and dah dah, dah, dah, dah. And that is true for a tiny percentage. Is this sounding familiar? Is it sounding like diets? Yes. And so you're kind of looking at that look into those people who are making a lot of money. And saying all the people who have lost weight, which are the unicorns and saying, Well, if they can do it, I can do it too, all I need to do is hustle, all I need to do is get my head down and lose weight, just do it, it's a matter of mind, mind over matter. And I'm the only one responsible for my success or failure. The truth is, if you're in an MLM you are 99% chance that you're going to fail and lose money. Because it's just designed like that. And because there is a little bit of product selling and so maybe you know a small percentage of what you're selling. And anyway, even if you got 100% of 100% of your revenue came from selling stuff, you get a tiny, tiny percent of like, selling you know, say if you're selling a legging and the legging is let's be generous 50 bucks, and you get let's be generous. Let's say you get 25 bucks for selling a legging. I mean to make a living wage, you are going to be have to have to be selling a ton of them. And once you've gone through your personal network, unless you're an influencer at once you've asked your friends and your mum and you know your your long lost, you know, people that you went to school with, which is we're all very familiar with those emails that we get, you know from your high school bully. He's like, Will you buy my Tupperware and you're like, fuck off Michelle, Michelle Smith, she was such a bitch. And yeah, once you've done that, then it's kind of like, well, you know, people buy stuff out Gil and then that's it. And then it's kind of like, oh, well, the only way I'm really gonna make money is if I recruit other people to sell this shit. And really the only way they're gonna make money is if they recruit people to sell their shit. And often the products are subpar and overpriced. Just it's just, I feel terrible for the people who are involved. Here. Whew. It's like all of this stuff, they're sold a faulty bill of goods, right? They see influences online, and they see them being like, Oh my God, this isn't my day, I wake up and I go to the pool, and I'm in Mexico and look at my fancy car. And, you know, and it's not real. And, and even in the, they tell them, show your like, show your fancy lifestyle, show them how great it is to be a part of this program, blah, blah, blah. And so they're making shit up and, like, buying so that they can't afford to promote this lifestyle so that other people can then sign up under them, so that they can make money. And it's like a desperate situation for everyone. And it's so like sunk cost fallacy of, you have to have a certain amount of inventory for some of these MLMs. And, and so you're in for and then when you sign up, you have to pay a signup fee. And it could be, you know, a small fee, it could be a huge fee. And you need to have a certain amount of different types of products on hand. And, and so you've already spent, let's say, 10 grand to get enrolled in this business, and you're a quote, business owner now. And so, are you going to give up? No, you're going to keep going and you're going to keep doing and hustling. And eventually, after, you've kind of realized that there's, there's no way to make this sustainable. Then people start you know, leaving and and feeling very sad about it and very embarrassed and feeling like if only they worked harder, but that's not true. It doesn't matter how hard they work. They are setup to fail. And yeah, anyway, so next em was an lm n LM LM LM L M. N. M, started by Keith Ranieri, the creepiest motherfucker piece of shit. Just Google watching him, I hate him so much. He's just he's awful in every way that human can be awful. And including everything you can imagine that an awful person could do. Allegedly, he

Unknown Speaker 37:28

so what Nexium turned into was kind of like self development that you take the first course and then you take the next course and then you know, get other people in and blah, blah, blah. Okay, so there's quoting from the same Jezebel article that started all of this is, quote, Nexium, by contrast, wasn't a religious group, but a self help multi level marketing scheme. Still, like the Remnant Fellowship, weight loss, see weight loss. Often, weight loss seems often to have been placed at the forefront of members minds. Women who left the group have described being put on diets that restricted them to just 800 calories per day, less than half of blah, blah, blah. In this group, women's body fat wasn't an affront to God, but a personal affront to the cults founder, Keith Ranieri, who has been accused of sexual abuse, he's been accused and convicted of it. Extreme dietary restrictions pop up again and again in stories of cults, high control groups, Jim Jones, wired people's temple members mouth shut when he deemed them fat. And Michelle Pfeiffer wants describe falling in with a controlling group of breatharians people who believe they can survive purely on light without eating food or water. And surprisingly, the ideology has been linked to several deaths. So here's a quote from a different article which is by insider who says ex members of Nexium say leader Keith Ranieri brainwash women into starving themselves. Quote during ordinaries lifetime prison sentence hearing on October 27 Former members talked about about renewing these request for diet restriction among multiple women members including those in Nexium secret sorority das das stands for I want to go to Dominus a secret to them some something dos Nexium in xv I am meaning. So there was this like subgroup that he siloed women that he wanted to have sex with in in an EN so it was kind of basically he felt he founded a group but it was like a Oh we founded it the women but you didn't because I called it DOS and it was basically dos means master over slave something like that. Let me see. Come on Google put it right in front of me so I don't have to search and click things. Dos. Here we go. Let's click on to dos. Oh, no, it just goes to Keith Ranieri annoying. Anyway, watch the documentaries that I'm going to mention and you'll see is is like Greek or something Dominus syncretism, blah, blah, blah. DOS, bear with me color. Okay, so stands for Dominus oats, ob SIG cuius cerium, which according to one member means master over slave women. And so that's what he was doing is he was like, the puppet master and Allison Mack who is an actor from small Ville, I think from the top of my head. She was the like, quote, leader, but really, it was Keith behind the scenes. And it was all about, like, fucked up, but all of it swept up. But this is like extra fucked up of basically coercion coercion, getting them to eventually have sex with Keith, and getting them into a really kind of submissive state and really controlled state because they had to eat a tiny amount of food, they had to constantly be in contact with their, quote, Master. And so for some people, it was Allison Mac, and then other people then have people reporting to them. And and so Allison Mac would be like, show me an image of what you're eating. And if you've eaten too much, then you're you're you have to

Unknown Speaker 41:51

you have to be punished for that. And also, they would have these things called readiness drills where where someone where Allison Mack or whoever is your your, your master would send a text anytime of the day and night and within an X amount of minutes, you have to respond. And so she would send a text saying ready and then you'd have to respond ready with an X amount of minutes. And if you didn't, and so these people were sleep deprived, they were starved, and then they were branded and they were branded with this was this what they thought was something to represent like the earth and the sea or whatever. But actually it was key through an Aries initials. And also, maybe Allison Max initials into this like symbol, which when he turned it around, and he had them branded close to the evolvers. And yeah, so lots of fun. Let me continue. According to India, Oxenberg, India was in Davos, who executive produced the Docu series seduced about her seven years in the cult, and two years as a das sex slave, renewing framed diet restriction as the ultimate show of self improvement, and convinced some followers to believe that in reality renewably restricted women's diets to make them look more childlike Oxenberg said during her victim impact statement at the sentencing and that is something as well he's been accused of raping underage women raping children. And yeah, so it lines up and as well, I'm thinking about this about, you know, men's obsession with women looking like children and, and how fucking creepy that is. And in regards to size, too, and, and the idea that, you know, sometimes you can look back and be like, Oh, when I was in the prom, I was only this size. And now I'm 30 and I'm this size, and I've put on so much weight and I was so much better looking then and it's like you were a child. Like why? Why do we want to look like children? And the reason is, is because a lot of you know patriarchy and sexism and all that type of stuff teaches us that teachers men, that is what is attractive, and teachers, everyone else if they want to attract men that they better look like children basically. Let's continue during an appearance on Dr. Oz that airs October 29. Former Member Tammy Chapman said renewably falsely told her diet restriction was a useful tool for self improvement. I was originally food restricted because because Keith had everyone convinced that the fastest way to work on your issues will still work on your relationship with food. She said she often wondered how eating fewer calories would lead to her business success, but continue to eat between 509 100 calories daily as renewably requested, renew Erie 60 was sentenced to 120 years in prison after being found guilty of child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Yes, and I really, I really this person who's saying this to me, Chapman, she was confused how eating calories would lead her business success, eating fewer calories would lead to a business's success. I can really see that thinking, because I would think that really, I mean, and the reality is, if you do have a smaller body, you probably will have more success in business, as we know that people are hired less and paid less. And so there is truth to it. But these people, all of them were thin to start with. They were not letting in fact, ease into this inner circle dos. I don't know if they let that ease into even the just a basic Nexium groups. So these are people who are already thin. Right? So and really, so he's, he's like, I can see that, like, I can see myself falling for that being like, yeah, if I if I fix my relationship with food, because clearly I have a fucked up relationship with food because I'm fat. And the reality was, I had a fucked up relationship with food, because I had restricted so much in my life. And yeah, not because I was I was fat. But being fat obviously mean that I'm like, well, that's why I need to restrict because I need to show to the world that I've got my shit together. And a big part of before I started getting into

Unknown Speaker 46:45

wanting to be and wanted to, you know, be a career coach, because I was in recruitment for a number of years is a big hesitation of mine was like, Well, how can I be a career coach, if I am fat, because clearly, I don't know shit about shit, because I'm fat. So I can totally understand how people could get sucked up into that sort out your relationship with food become thin, and then you're going to be a millionaire. I mean, there is some truth in that. But Keith was using it as I not necessarily he wants them to have success. He probably did. Because they they all were free labor for him. He didn't pay anyone. And everyone gave him tons of donations. And so he used it, I think, you know, a little bit for that, but also these to get them looking in a certain way that was more pleasing to his sensibilities, which were fogged up. And also because they became so pliable. We're going to talk about later exactly what happens when you don't eat enough food. And so, if these women were like, starving, sleep deprived, and then they had the chance to win their leaders, affections by having sex with him? I mean, they would, I mean, you know, it's easier for him to, it's easier for him to get that type of person who has been groomed into having sex with him, versus just some random person off the street, you know, if the if if he just grabbed some random person who had had enough sleep who had had not had been eating who had not been brainwashed for all of these years, and it was like, Hey, have sex with me, they'd be like, fuck off. And I want it to, you know, but these these people were so because of the state that he put them in because of what he had done to them. More likely to do anything that he wants, which also included because he would, he would he would draft in people who were rich, giving him millions of dollars. Yeah, so if you want to learn more about Nexium go and watch, there's two there might even be three documentaries. The two that I know of is the vow and seduced and I listened to a podcast from CBC called uncover. That was where I first learned about this stuff. And then the two documentaries came out close to each other. Allison Mack, I don't know if she was sentenced yet but she I think she was found guilty. Allison Mack. And I mean, it's just wild and I may think she's she's a big victim of that although she did perpetrate a lot of thanks to Max sentencing let's see sin tense Okay, sentenced to three years in prison for sex slavery. Okay, so hopefully she can go she can continue with her life. So I don't I don't think Allison Mack was like she's wasn't Keith Ranieri? You know, she did some fucked up things, but hopefully she's able to do heal from all that stuff and everyone else who were who were who's in it able to heal. Okay, so let's move to LuLaRoe LuLaRoe is another m l m, not as extreme as Nexium. But LuLaRoe I think they've shut down now because of all the scandal LuLaRoe is it still going? LuLaRoe let's have a look. Do so they sell leggings, right? I am still going still going. Don't get into it. Don't get please don't get into an MLM. Milan. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah moleben them because you will lose your money and even buying stuff from the thing. A lot of times the stuff is really low quality. I mean, not always. Who knows. Maybe there are other places that have nice stuff, but yeah, okay. So Luna RO, founder.

Unknown Speaker 51:40

This is a an article written by our friend Regan Chasteen LuLaRoe founder profits from sending consultants to Mexico for weight loss surgery of course sheet. Okay, article from Robert Schlee links in the bio facebook.com forward slash when we add one to five. If you always forget the episode number you can always go to facebook.com forward slash podcast for the latest and greatest. Okay, so Luna rohu. This is from the article. So Reagan talks about you know what they do for business and blah, blah, blah. But it turns out that the business owner and her sister were quietly developing a another stream of income, aside from scamming people into selling their leggings and recruiting people, for consultants interviewed by Bloomberg reported that they were pressured by founder Deanne Brady or her sister Renee to go to Tijuana Mexico to have so cold weight loss surgery. Sam Schultz The Sisters nephew explained Lenay charges $5,000 But it costs $4,000 You pay her through PayPal, she gets a cut then takes you to Mexico. Consultant Courtney says the sisters refer to themselves as the Tijuana skinnies. Stacy Stacy Christina, a LuLaRoe consultant told Bloomberg I was told by Deanne herself that she likes her leaders to be a size small or medium. Let's be clear about what's going on here. Not happy enough with cheating fat consultants out of their money through her pyramid scheme. Lulu rose leader was making $1,000 a pop for sending fat independent consultants to Mexico to have a surgery that may leave them thin or maimed or dead. The quote skinny sisters work with a clinic called I'm not even kidding you. Obesity not for me the number four. If the name alone doesn't convince you that this place is totally legit. Try these quotes from their website. In bypass surgery the patient may have have small diarrhea when they eat too much or they eat food that contains too much fat when they what they are talking about is called dumping syndrome. And as the name may have already implied there's nothing small about it and cause nausea vomiting diarrhea rapid or irregular heartbeat hyperglycemia glycaemia And it can require surgical intervention. They claim that quote the complications of these procedures are similar to any other abdominal surgery. I mean, if you listen to that our surgery episode a few episodes or episodes ago you know how fucking false that is. Regan says that massive that's massively misleading since other abdominal surgeries seek to cure disease for health and this one seeks to take healthy organs and create a disease state in them for weight loss. People are allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies, including amputating this their stomachs. The point here is that the founder of Lulu row is not just encouraging but profiting from pushing her workforce to go to a questionable clinic clinic that is not honest about the potential dangers of the surgery. While the leadership seems to Have a quote no fat chicks policy when it comes to upper level consultants, they're willing to take fat people's money. LuLaRoe sizing can be complicated, but they do claim to have sizes up to 3x. So they seem to be comfortable taking fat people's money while engaging in active fat phobia when it comes to their workforce. It's true that fat people get hired less and paid less and thin people. Sadly, companies like Lula row are often touted as a way to escape this discrimination by creating one's own business. The actual solution would be to end fat phobia, but that's a subject for another article. So it's extra disappointing that a company that is built around the idea of empowering women is in fact, leveraging the damage to income potential created by fat phobia as a way to profit from that same fat phobia. All the while putting fat people at risk. Yes, very good. Slam Dunk. Can you imagine? I mean, your workplace and your manager says, Oh, we're going to go and going down to Mexico to get our stomachs amputated. Come on, borrow your fat and ugly and go borrow?

Unknown Speaker 56:10

Yeah, okay, here's another article 1000s of women say Lulu Lulu rose legging Empire is a scam. This is from Bloomberg. This is the article that Reagan was quoting. But another little quote in here is it wasn't the first time. First time things that LuLaRoe had gotten word for her. In November 2016, Harwood had traveled with Deanne to a handful of conventions to talk about her success at the company. At a dinner in Detroit one evening, Deanna asked if she could get any if she had any interest in getting gastric surgery. She's like, Courtney. Oh my God, you have got to go get it. I'll have my sister call you next week. Howard says for people I spoke to with for their stories say that they been approached by either Deanne or her sister, Lynn a nap who offered to take them to do on a fun fan firm. And we're not even talking about this. I mean, this is a fucking legging company. It's not a fitness company. You know? We're not even talking about all of the absolute dogshit MLMs that are. There's one what's it called? It works and Beachbody Beachbody my gold. And so imagine that if you a word for one of those MLMs Oh, Nellie. I mean, I was gonna say would they even let you join? Fuck yeah, they're gonna let you join. They're going to take fat people's money. Are they? Imagine the amount of bullshit that you're gonna be hearing? Oh, I don't even want to think about it. Oh God and all the lies and all the scams. I've been to a few like anti MLM accounts and seeing all of the the scams that these motherfuckers Paul like, stealing people's photos, there was this one person who was stealing photos of someone who had had a tummy tuck and saying, This is the results if you eat my whatever it is, if you drink my juices, or if you follow my program, and it's like, they had fucking surgery. And people are like calling them out. And they're like, oh, no, no, not me. I'm not telling lies. I mean, they've got they've got to if they're going to have to try and have a business because they're not going to have people's pictures to show of the results. Because as we know, does that work? Well, they work temporarily right? Let's move on to the breath areas. So you know, you've got vegetarian and you've got pescatarian and we've got breath Aryans. Which is is what you think it is? People who think that they can survive just by breathing and not by eating or drinking water. If you're curious if that's a thing and it works and no people die, people die. And the people who are leaders in this in this arena, allying basically they eat food, you know, because if they didn't, maybe dad and yeah, so Okay, so here's an article quote from an article from G q. And this is it's called the people who think air is food. They call themselves breath areas and new ish kind of spirit spirituality that is dubiously believed that dubiously believes that the human body can and should sustain itself Not all food, but on air and quote, universal energy. Are these people really not eating Brina? Curry spent seven days at a breatharian retreat in North Carolina to find out. Yeah, so it's a it's a long article. Go read. It's interesting.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:19

So it starts do you need to eat to live? Most people would say yes. But as a small group of people self proclaimed prilocaine breatharians who might say? No, not necessarily. By the way, big disclaimer, you need to eat food to live. Okay? There's no kind of way around this. There's no There's no, they've not found out some system or trick or whatever. Please eat food. Okay, don't what I'm reading here is a ton of bullshit. And is very dangerous. Okay, eat food. All right, we need food and can't survive by breathing. I mean, you need to breathe but you need to breathe and eat food. Okay, so through the fringe philosophy, though, though the fringe philosophy has existed in its modern modern incarnation since at least the 1970s and is modeled after religious aesthetics of old. I hadn't heard of breatharians until a New York Post article that went viral in early June. The title like most tabloid headlines is a complete sentence that reads like a fact for vetted discovery. breatharians couple survives breatharian couple survives on the universe's energy instead of food. That couple a life coaching duo name. A car he Ricardo and Camilla Castillo belong to a community of people who believe you don't need food to live that surviving on non food substance like sunlight. And prana allows people to live more evolved healthily spiritual lives. I wonder as well, like how much of this is, is people stealing from other cultures and their ideas kind of like how people are taking from the Bible and it's like, the Bible says that you have to do this and it's not true and and these presumably white people, I bet you they're white. Let me google it. Camilla Castillo Yeah, taking things like concepts like prana and then being like, oh, okay, yeah, she's white. Maybe there's just lots of good there's different Camilla Castillo. Anyway, whatever. No matter who they are.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:39

No matter who they are the teaching bullshit, right? That's how I look. Okay, here's the New York Post thing. Okay, so

Unknown Speaker 1:02:47

who knows? Who knows? Anyway? Moving on. Moving on. Moving on. Yeah, so they're taking concepts probably that aren't theirs to take and, and just making it into a ton of bullshit. Okay, so all the retreat goers intend to complete the suggested fast no food or water for three days, and only juice for another fall. game without water is something that most doctors consider dangerous. But for breath Aryans, a, an initiation fast is essential for being beginning a life where food is optional. There will be no doctors present at the retreat, then the only thing remotely resembling medical oversight will be a white box called a bio Well, that is supposedly measures the human energy field and chakra alignment. And that ends up having broken in transit on its way to the retreat. Yeah, so no, no medical oversight, not sure that this this box would have done anything anyway. Later, I asked Ricardo Why do this? Why give up a central part of human life go against medical advice when there are so many spiritual practices out there that don't require you to give up food? His answers surprises me. When I started this, I felt cleaner. I felt sharper. He tells me pausing I felt fearless. Yeah, that word cleaner. Sharper. What does that? What does that sharper? Angular? Not fat, cleaner. Clean, makes you think of food is dirty fatness is dirty. Driving back to the breatharian house two days later, I feel a mounting sense of dread. It's been two and a half days since the participants had food or water and I can't stop thinking about Verity Lynn, the woman who died emaciated alone on a remote shore in the Scottish Highlands in 1999. Among her belongings was a diary that current chronicled her food and water free spiritual cleanse and a copy of the book living on light written by preeminent breatharian Ellen jazz mu Hien grieve so this person very Ritalin died seven days into a 21 day fast. And she was following this, this person who was obviously a scammer who wrote a book living on lights. And she claimed she didn't eat anything, didn't drink anything. And there was a documentary, which I was able to find a snippet of. And it's an old documentary, right? So this person died in 1999. And the documentary I think, was made near there were 60 minutes, which is an Australian show, met with jazz mu heen, which is the person who wrote living online and confronted her. And then she did, they said, Well, what if we locked you up and said, you know, you can't eat or drink for 21 days? You would die? And she was like, No, I'd happily do it. It'd be a vacation for me. And so they said, Okay, let's do it. And so they, they did it and we've got this kind of snippet from the program of, you know, within within a day, she is not doing well. And they have to end the experiment because they were worried that she was going to die, but she was like, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, even though she was slurring her words and was so dangerously dehydrated that the medical professional was like, you know, this is really unethical to continue because she's gonna die. But okay, continuing with this article. breatharian leaders have often been undressed in public. Jazz Maheen was humiliated by a 60 minutes episode in which she started to fail and slurred during a monitor dry fast. An early breath Aryan leader Wiley Brooks, who claims that all foods and liquids are poisonous so many of his followers dispatch in 1983 after he was spotted grabbing takeout including allegedly a chicken pot pie and biscuits at a hotel and groceries from 711. I just love it. Like a chicken foot by because obviously they can't be alive if they don't eat and I think that's what it's like with these breath. Aryans, that is the worst is when they're just like, I literally don't eat and then you have people who and this person Verity Lin who died. She's not the only one. Lots of people have died because of it, because they believe what these people are saying. And they follow them and they die and the leaders are like, Yeah, but like lol secretly I'm going to 711 and I mean, no chicken potpie and which they should because they're human and they need to eat. Yeah, if you want to see that snippet from the documentary, it's not very good quality, but it's in the show notes as well.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:46

But I have to wonder this is continuing the article is all this in a piece just a symptom of starvation because you know, all these people on the retreat and like I feel amazing. And so the the the documentarian, the reporter is saying, is that inner peace or is that starvation? Dr. Perry G fine. A preset professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah has worked with terminally ill patients who decide to stop eating as a way of peacefully ending their lives. Patients often quote from him, patients have oftentimes described themselves as entering a transient, transcendental blissful or euphoric state. After they stop eating. He tells me though, painkilling drugs exaggerate the phenomenon in some, but that doesn't mean it's a positive thing. If the brain is being starved of nutrition and hydration, you may have a sense of well being, but you might be doing harm to yourself, he says, might be doing harm to yourself. He says, I think definitely you're doing harm to yourself. And let's look at the well known Minnesota starvation studies. To know what dieting not eating or eating, eating less food than we need. And even not even that less does to our minds. And we I have a whole episode on the psychology of hunger, which is episode 94. And it's called the psychology of hunger where we go into the Minnesota starvation experiment, and also the Warsaw the Chava. Study which Jewish people when they were in the ghettos, they studied what starvation did to their fellow fellow inmates or fellow people in the ghetto, which is pretty incredible that they were thinking about science when they were literally being murdered. So let's look at this. The Minnesota starvation study quickly is we're looking at a study that was conducted in around second world War 1944. And so keys wanted to study the effects of starvation to help with the war effort, because there was a ton of starvation going on. They got 36, white men aged 22 to 33. And they were conscientious objectors. And so they really wanted to help with a war effort without violence. And so they were they were very eager participation participants. And they were assessed to make sure that they were physically and psychologically well, they had to be able to get along with the other people and be very resilient. And so these were very kind of robust. Men who were doing this. And so they did six months of semi starvation at 15 170 calories a day. Let me just repeat that, in this starvation experiment, the men were given 15 170 calories a day. How many diets do we know of that the amount of calories that are prescribed are less than that?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:08

NuMe 1200 calories. A, I mean, many of them, right. And so this is this is their starvation diet of 1570 calories. And the foods that they were given were foods that are common common foods, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, bread, macaroni, cabbage, and meat and dairy products. So there's a photo I saw of a really thin man licking his plate at the dinner table, which was apparently common alongside other behaviors. So quote, they diluted potatoes with water held bytes in their mouths for a long time without swallowing, or labored over combining the food on the plate, making weird and seemingly distasteful concoctions. So at 15 170 calories for six months, they were becoming obsessed with their food, quote, standing in line at the diet kitchen before being served with a source of explosive conduct. At the table, they often turned on one another annoyed by each other's voices and the increasingly strange habits that other that many men developed. They would cuddle the food like a baby or handle it and look over it as if they would, if they would some gold they played with it like, like kids making mud pies. Food became the sole source of fascination and motivation. Many men became obsessively collecting recipes stayed up until 5am. Last night studying cookbooks wrote one they found themselves distracted by constant daydreams of food some sublimated their cravings by purchasing or stealing food. One man began stealing cups from coffee shops that guzzled water seeking fullness. Some took up smoking to stave off hunger and others chewed up to 30 packs of gum a day until the bar oratory banned it. Meanwhile, all other elements of life seem to fade into mere background noise. Over and over again the researchers reported indifference and boredom when it came to personal development, and basic socializing, social socializing, budding romance is collapsed and sexual desire evaporated at parties or subjects found conversation both difficult and pointless. They all preferred a solitary trip to the movies, adding that while they could recognize comedy they felt they never felt compelled to laugh anymore. In a store when shopping they were easily pushed around by the crowd. The research team reported their usual reaction was resignation sometimes his permeate permeating donors gave way to moments of inexplicable inexplicable euphoria followed by an emotional crash. One subject was eventually eliminated from the project for sneaking unauthorized food in town. After doing so he found himself so high that he stopped at 17 Soda shops on the walk home. He kidded with the fountain girls thought the lights were more beautiful and then then ever felt that the world was a very happy place. The researchers reported this degenerated into a period of extreme pessimism and remorse. He felt he had nothing to live for. And the he had failed miserably to keep his commitment of staying on reduced rations.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:20

And during the rehabilitation period, and so rehabilitation, they were increased their calories to I think 2000 or something. So a surprising finding was that even though they weren't now allowed food, their mental health continued to decline. The results of this is that there were significant increases in depression hysteria, hypo Condrey SS as measures using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Most of the subjects experienced periods of severe emotional distress and depression, as well as significant decreases in their strength and stamina, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive and a gaunt appearance. The cycle logical effects are significant as well hunger made the men obsessed with food they would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day. They were given they reported fatigue irritability, depression, apathy. Interestingly, the man also reported decreases in mental ability, signs of social withdrawal and isolation or declining concentration, comprehension and judgment, judgment capabilities. Some of the X subjects exhibited edema in extremities, presumably due to increased levels of plasma proteins giving that the body's ability to construct key proteins like an album is based on available energy sources. During the rehab phase, which was said to be the most difficult phase one man Sam leg chopped off three of his fingers with an axe. Let me repeat that, during the rehab phase, which is said to be the most difficult this is when they've had about 2000 calories, I think, or more, Sam leg chopped off three of his fingers with an axe. Sam said he didn't know if he did it deliberately or not. I meant to I admit to being crazy mixed up at the time leg later explained, I am not ready to say I did it on purpose, I am not ready to say I didn't, quote, deprivation itself drove these men to the threshold of insanity. Even after the study ended, there were reports of men still being incredibly fixated on food. One man even had to go to hospital for seven days after having his stomach pumped. Others said that they ate constantly. So that is six months of 15 170 calories. And these were people who were allegedly seemingly robust, physically and psychologically. And they were very, very motivated because they were conscientious objectors, they there was a lot of shame around that, that these people were not in the war, they were not fighting for their country. And so they had the opportunity to redeem themselves by being good participants in this study. And so there was a lot of pressure that they'd put on themselves, maybe society as well. And this was important work to see how starvation affected people and how the refeeding stage might go. And so that's what that is what it does. I mean, ethically now, I'm not sure how, if they could repeat this study, especially now with what we know, I mean, could you repeat a study where you know, a man cut off his fingers? And I would love to know what happened to these men afterwards, long term. And, you know, all of this stuff is extreme. But it's, it's at a, quote, normal amount of calorie restriction that we'd see for an average diet. Not even a fad diet, you know, when the fad is, you know, I'm big quotations around fat, because all diets are fat diets. But, you know, the diets where it's kind of like, extra extreme. I mean, it's not even an extra extreme diet, and that is what it's doing to the participants. Okay, so I have another episode, which is episode 41 is diet culture, a cult and I just want to talk about the model that Steven Hassan developed called the bite model, which describes the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people and bite stands for behavior information, thought and emotional control. Now the episode goes deep into this stuff and I'm just going to pick out certain things from the bite model just to to illustrate them for you. So you can be like Ah ha, okay, and so if you're thinking is something a cult, where you would use the bite model to say okay, well it has this this this this

Unknown Speaker 1:19:18

and yeah, so let's have a look so behavior control. So these are the warning signs right like this is it says a co regulate Diet, Food, drink hunger and or fasting Well, thinking. So we'll be talking about today. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and all self indoctrination including the internet, rewards and punishes punishments used to modify behavior, both positive and negative. Well, you know, rewards like getting into heaven. rewards like getting a promotion with LuLaRoe. Impose rigid rules and regulations instill dependency and obedience. So that's behavior. It obviously is a lot more but I'm just picking out things. Information control. So there's deception. So deliberately withhold information distort information to make it more accessible. Okay, withholding information like with the whole thing about even dieting that it is not something that is you know, losing weight it's not achievable. That's the being thing is gonna get you into heaven. Heaven. That with lm n LM LM M's LM Eminem m&ms, just call them m&ms With m&ms, that you're going to make tons of money and become rich and you're going to be successful if you get stomach amputation surgery because you're going to be taken into a leadership role. compartmentalize information into outside of us insider doctrine. So you see this a lot with m&ms. That they'll be like, Oh, the haters say that you can't make money from an lmm but they are just they're just haters, they don't know anything. They they say that we're a pyramid scheme. But we're not any company is a pyramid scheme because there's a CEO on top. And there's employees on the bottom there the real pyramid scheme. And also, you know, like with Nexium and stuff, it's kind of like very kind of suspicious of outsiders. extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda including newsletters, magazines, videos, YouTube, misquoting statements or using them out of context from non cult sources. Okay, so let's move to tea in the baits model thought control, require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth. Adopting the group's map of reality, instead of black and white thinking decide between good and evil, organize people into us versus them insiders versus outsiders. Teaching thought stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts including denying reality of hunger and misery being on a diet and as well if we think about with m&ms, the idea of your you feel like you're doing bad because you're you're letting negativity into positive vibes only. Like just hustle, hustle, hustle and you'll you'll see success. Rejection of rational analysis Critical Thinking constructive criticism Yeah, so you know, you see a lot of people. If anyone criticizes the leader of anyone could criticize his organization they are ostracized they are told that you can't do that. Forbid critical questions about leader doctrine or policy allowed labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate evil or not useful? instill a new map of reality if you become thin, then XYZ magical thinking will happen. And finally emotional control. So manipulative manipulated, narrow, the range of feelings, some emotions, and our needs are seemed as deemed as evil wrong or selfish. Yeah, so feeling hungry, needing food is wrong. Fear that the diet doesn't work. That's wrong. Yeah, making the person feel that the problem is always their own fault. Nevertheless, leader or the group's fault, it's not that the diet failed, you failed. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness. instill fear. Yeah, so it's not safe as food as unhealthy. We don't know how many calories certain things contain the hope that you will be good if you're thin. Extremes have emotional highs and lows. Yeah. So when you lose weight, how good do you feel if you put on weight? How bad do you feel? And the praise you get from the group if you lose weight, and then how bad you feel if you've put on weight? What they're thinking about, you

Unknown Speaker 1:24:11

know, when I was a Weight Watchers, I used to weigh people on Weight Watchers. And I would be judging people so bad when they put on weight and they'd like I don't know how this happened. I didn't eat anything all week. And I'd be thinking and I'm sure you didn't. Okay, so no happiness offer for milk filament possible outside of the group, and terrible consequences if you leave. So especially with the getting into heaven if you're thin, death, and lovable, not able to play with your kids. If you leave the diet partner thinks your ugly family will redirect you reject you if you're fat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's the bite model. So wrapping it all up. Why do some cults, m&ms and religious groups coerce their members to die and become thing? Well let's let's wrap up with reading a little bit more from this Jezebel article. Who this is I think this is going to turn into the longest episode ever. So from Jezebel article, this sort of dangerous dieting dieting can serve paradoxical purposes. Making followers feel that they have power over their lives and bodies. While they're actually relinquishing their autonomy. It gives a believer a sense of control over their own destiny. I'm only going to eat these types of food I'm only I'm going to abstain from that type of food since Tuffle. But it also allows a group to control the individual. The Remnant fellowships may represent a dangerous extreme but religious and spiritual movements have always constructed dietary mandates. Food is a powerful determiner of group identities and rules surrounding it are deployed across cultures and faiths faiths it's like clothes that says Teva, which, what why is a certain type of clothes or hairstyle is such an integral part of religious identity? Because it's very, it's a very easy marker to demarcate and ingroup and differentiate them selves from outsiders. However, keeping kosher fasting for Ramadan, or opting for vegetarian dinner on Fridays are all compatible with meeting nutritional needs. And in most mainstream religious communities, believers can pick and choose which dietary restrictions to follow without fear of being ostracized. People can live perfectly healthy lives never eating a piece of pork says Gillespie. But when it's like don't eat the things that you want to eat or that your body is telling you you should eat. That's when it starts to get more risky in terms of developing disorders. The preferred diets of religious groups also have a history of working their way into secular culture. Early Seventh Day Adventist Adventists event Seventh Day Adventists helped create the wellness industry and advocated for vegetarianism and abstaining from sex and alcohol in pursuit of physical health and spiritual purity. Leaders of the church so table really popularized the idea of this pure, almost vegan diet that was supposed to detox your you spiritually and physically. Sylvester Graham motherfucker who helped the that's me adding that, who helped popularize vegetarianism in the US was a Presbyterian minister, who issued dietary guidelines that he believed would stave off moral decay. Eating the graham cracker he invented he promised would help prevent kids from masturbating. That's right. Campfire smalls were initially supposed to stop you from heading back to the tent and jerking it. That's why I hate this guy so much. Sylvester Graham is a piece of shit because he was basically like, everything that you do as a human as bad. And he really popularized circles circumcision. And that circumcision means that you can't wank is his thoughts. And so, if you really believed in God, you would circumcise your children, says that they cannot masturbate, therefore, they're more likely to get into heaven. And circumcision is all kinds of fucked up and an awful act that happily is falling out of fashion, in a lot of cultures. And as a British person, like circumcision is, you know, a very small percentage of babies are circumcised. I think in Canada, it's around about the 30% Nowadays, which is obviously still too much.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:51

So the contemporary American health food industry has roots in 60s counterculture embrace of new religious movements. As devotees started brands and shops selling their preferred varieties of grew up. This historical melding of food and faith can be seen in the moralizing way we still talk about nutrition with foods labeled as good or bad, natural, unnatural or clean. Also, this is me talking now, also, we don't talk about in this article, like where did selvedge Sylvester Graham get his ideas from? And if we think about the racist origins of all of this stuff, and the ideas that that black folks were only interested in food and fornication, which also links that you know, Sylvester Graham, wanting people to eat his graham crackers and not masturbate and getting the four skins amputated in order so that they can't masturbate aligns up with those racist ideas that to be white is to be not interested in food and sex because that is a quote black trait, which is obviously wrong. And obviously fucked up. So In summary, why do some cults MLMs and religious groups, coerce them coerce their members to diet and become thin? Well, I think you know, it's three reasons. First is, is fat phobia. That's the, that's the, the underlying belief that phobia the belief that a fat body or a body that isn't thin, is bad, immoral, a sign of sin, a bad representation for the group. The second thing is sacrifice and piety, to show that you're really dedicated to the cause, there is an expectation that you will modify your behavior. And having a body that is thin is a walking billboard, of your devotion to the cause to the company. And finally, control. So weight loss can have devastating effects on our bodies and our minds, making us pliable, exhausted, confused, obsessed with food, weak, unstable, and desperate for salvation. Through our efforts, perhaps the leader will notice us and we will be anointed as redeemable and good. So how much of this ties into what diet culture does to us? I mean, I think a lot a basis of fat phobia, the idea that you're good if you diet and being controlled by a force that you are seeking approval from, and that approval will probably never come. In this case, society and oppressive systems that are designed to to keep you distracted. So I've made a Venn diagram, which I'm still working on, but the Venn diagram has diet, culture, MLMs, and cults. All overlapping, overlapping. So it's three circles all overlapping. And in that I've got you know how diet culture is related to MLMs. How MLMs are related to cults and how cults are related to diet culture. And the thing that ties them all together is fat phobia. And, and so I'm going to have that on my my Instagram. By the time this episode comes out, and so if you want to share these ideas about how they're all interconnected, and now in the core of all of it is fat phobia and the belief that fatness is bad and thinness will get you to heaven. Thinness will mean that you're, you're a better person, that you're more devoted, that you're more more presentable and someone that the company or the cult wants to have in their community. So okay, so we're at 90 minutes, you know, what is fuckin 2pm My time now and I'm, I'm fucking starving. After listening to all of this while I was talking about it, but also it's past my lunchtime. I mean, oh, my goodness, how much this is I'm feeling this right now. I am hungry. And I am my skin is hot. And I feel like electric feelings over my skin. This is what hunger feels like for me. My tummy is rumbling. Luckily, I have food ready to go. So I won't, I won't. I won't, I won't die. So

Unknown Speaker 1:33:42

all right, this has been a kind of intense episode. So go and go and have a deep breath and do some relaxing. And if you're like me, you're probably gonna go and watch everything and read everything that's related to this stuff because I find it super interesting. Again, you can go to the show notes. First of all.com forward slash one to five if you liked this episode, and if you liked the podcast in general, go to Apple podcasts and leave a review I will be eternally grateful it would make me so happy and it means that other people can find the podcast so yeah. All right. Well, I find you on the next episode stay face fatty See you in a while like a to goodbye

Unknown Speaker 1:34:26

thanks for listening to the episode and if you feel ready to get serious about this work and wants to know when the doors open to fears fatti Academy which is my signature program, where I teach all about how to overcome your fat phobic beliefs and learn to love your fat body. Then go to first party.com forward slash waitlist again that is fierce fatty.com forward slash waitlist to get your name on the way Wait List for when first party Academy my signature program opens.