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"  With the holidays on the horizon, we&amp;#039;ll all shortly be faced with the dilemma of whether to indulge in calorie-laden desserts\u2014and risk the heavy consequences. When deciding which decadent treats are worth the waistline damage, consider the strategy of MeMe Roth, a controversial antiobesity activist we interviewed (&amp;quot;MeMe Roth&amp;#039;s War&amp;quot;) for the January issue of ELLE who got us thinking about weight, health, and the nature-versus-nurture debate: &amp;quot;I allow myself my `tens,&amp;#039; &amp;quot; she says. She consistently shuns sweets such as birthday cake and ice cream, &amp;quot;sixes, sevens&amp;quot; on her scale of desirability, things she can do without, so that once or twice a year, she can indulge in the things she absolutely adores, her &amp;quot;tens,&amp;quot; such as tiramisu, or her favorite handmade chocolate-coconut Easter eggs, or even, gasp, a Coke. (Photo courtesy of National Action Against Obesity) Here&amp;#039;s what else we learned about Roth&amp;#039;s views:  The crux of Roth&amp;#039;s campaign is that obesity is a health issue\u2014&amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m tired of debating it; being overweight is bad,&amp;quot; she says\u2014and in that regard, Roth certainly isn&amp;#039;t the only person freaking out about our nation&amp;#039;s expanding waistline.  &amp;quot;The average couple puts on 25 pounds each in the first five years of marriage. Now, you can choose to grow old and fat together, but women pay a higher price,&amp;quot; she cautions. Last year on Fox News, after Jordin Sparks won American Idol, Roth called the size 12 teenager overweight and a bad role model. When photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt&amp;#039;s dimpled butt in a bikini appeared in the tabloids, Roth proclaimed it a wake-up call for American women\u2014if Love Hewitt has cellulite, imagine how bad the rest of us look! Overweight and obesity exist on a continuum, and one of the problems, Roth believes, is that women are in denial. &amp;quot;Unless they&amp;#039;re morbidly obese, most people don&amp;#039;t think they&amp;#039;re in trouble,&amp;quot; she says. In an age when it&amp;#039;s politically correct to celebrate &amp;quot;real women&amp;quot; who &amp;quot;have real curves,&amp;quot; to quote the Dove campaign, Roth breaks through the media&amp;#039;s feel-good-about-your-shape mantra and calls a pound a pound. \u2014Erin Clements "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/beauty/news/a1128/weighty-matters-3348/>