Aaron Ferguson, a former accountant for Rachael Ray's TV cooking show, has filed a $1 million lawsuit after being fired. Ferguson has battled anorexia for about six years. While employed on Rachael Ray's show, Ferguson says others treated him with hostility because of his condition. He says that his supervisor made "vile, discriminatory, and hurtful comments."

Ferguson, who began working for CBS Television Distributions, Inc. in July 2007, says that he complained about the discriminatory language regarding people with anorexia, but the situation didn't improve. He was fired in October 2007. Ferguson feels he was terminated because he complained about wrongful treatment. Rachael Ray is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

If you know someone who is battling anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorder, they need your support and understanding. HelpGuide has some information on eating disorders and how to best support loved ones who are battling the condition.

Source

The American Diabetes Association has put a shout out on the advocacy front and I'm passing it on. According to the announcement, the U.S. House of Representatives is about to consider one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation for people with diabetes.

A vote on the ADA Amendments Act (formerly called the ADA Restoration Act) could happen as early as today.

This bill makes it clear that when Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, they intended the coverage to protect anyone who faces unfair discrimination because of a disability. The bill confirms for the courts that people should not lose their civil rights protections because they may have a disease that may be manageable with mediation.

It's not too late to send your letter of support to your representative. Please take a moment to do so on behalf of all people with diabetes.

Source

Health and fitness are big topics nowadays and because they're important to us in our everyday lives, they're also important to us in our work lives -- we spend too many waking hours at work to not worry about how our jobs are impacting our healthy living goals.

But what about thinking the reverse: how is your health affecting the success and happiness of your work life? Namely, do you think your weight is affecting your career?

Source

As I sit down to work in the afternoon, I often have the TV blaring away in the background, and while most people would find it impossible to work in such conditions, I don't really like TV (especially daytime TV) so I find it easy to tune out. Over the past few weeks, I've listened with mild amusement to some old episodes of The Dr. Phil House, where opposites are pitted against one another in a blatant attempt at ratings. If you haven't seen it, it's a reality TV-style house that contains a fat guy who hates skinny people and a skinny girl who hates fat people, plus an array of other colorful combinations.

I do have a point here. A study shows that the skinny girl who hates fat people might not just be prejudiced -- it might be an evolved response. According to The Independent in Britain, when a slim person sees an obese person, their immune system is triggered because the brain relates site of the obese person to a fear of infection. Moreover, in a series of questions given to subjects, the people who exhibited disgust toward germs and bad hygiene were more likely to discriminate against someone based on their weight.

But regardless of whether it's a "natural" reaction, discrimination is still wrong, and I think being prejudiced is ultimately a learned behavior. What do you think?

Source