Your Fat Was Never the Problem. It Was Doing Its Job.
A comment thread taught me something. Body fat percentage is one of the things that decides when a girl gets her first period, and that same tissue does not retire once your ovaries start slowing down decades later. Here is the physiology of what fat is actually doing at both ends of a woman's reproductive life, and what Chinese medicine has called it for centuries.
Your Body Started This When You Were Eight
You were eight or nine when your body started changing, and you remember exactly what came with it. A 2013 study found Black girls reach puberty at a median age of 8.8, nearly a full year before white and Asian girls. Here's what the research actually says drives it, and why Chinese medicine says the organ that opened your cycle then is the same one trying to close it at perimenopause.
Even the Clothesline Got Whitewashed
The wellness industry takes what poor folks and Black folks did to survive, repackages it, and sells it back as discovery. Here is what that actually costs Black women's bodies, and what the research confirms.
I Watch Brilliant Black Women Speak. And I Keep Noticing Their Tongues.
As an acupuncturist, I watch a lot of brilliant Black women — and I keep noticing their tongues. A pale, thick tongue with a white coating tells a very specific clinical story. Here's what it means.