As I looked at Star Jones moderating a panel on how to lose weight during the Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage, one word kept creeping to the front of my mind:
Sickly.
Star Jones, the former co-host of the ulra-popular daytime talk show “The View,” famously had secret surgery in order to shed hundreds of pounds a few years ago that riled her former fans and led to her unofficial ouster from the show.
As the other star guests — Donna Richardson Joyner, comedian Kim Whitley, former basketball great Alonzo Mourning, and Dr. Hilda Hutcherson — gave advice and testimonies on the panel, “When Fat is no Longer Phat,” in the fight to obliterate obesity in the black community, Star Jones was the only person on the panel that seemed out of place.
Since her gastric bypass surgery shed hundreds of pounds off her rotund frame — doubtlessly saving her life — she now appears just as unhealthy, only in the opposite direction. Her frame looks incongruent, as if her body was put together with parts from different people. Her rather slender arms hung alongside a full gut that was parked atop skinny legs.
Certainly, obesity is one of the most important issues facing the black community in America, so much so that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have undertaken separate campaigns to rein in this health monster. Yet, is Star Jones the best person to offer advice on the subject, a woman who, for whatever reason, chose to endure a risky and very expensive procedure to lose weight that is far out of the price range of the average African American man and woman?
And is Jones the best example to parade in front of a mostly overweight audience, when we should be adopting non-medicinal and non-surgical options — like incorporating exercise and sensible diets to shed excess pounds?
Like Alonzo Mourning attested to yesterday, he only takes his prescription pills twice a day in order to stay alive and raise his children. But he said there is a cost to taking drugs to fix one bodily organ, because eventually it has an adverse effect on another organ or two. And that’s why he implores his fellow athletes not to depend on drugs to heal, to sleep, to wake up, and to get that extra jolt before a game. Mourning said the same stance should be taken when trying to lose weight. There is a penalty to pay 10, 20 or 30 years down the road for using most drugs, legal or otherwise, he said. –terry shropshire
