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For a one-year hard copy subscription, sent through the U.S. mail, send $18 to Healthy Choices for Mind and Body, P.O. Box 19938, Sacramento, CA 95819. All email subscriptions and downloads from the website are free.


DrG's Healthy Choices for Mind and Body is a registered non-profit charitable organization established to promote a world in which all people practice healthy lifestyles. Your contributions are tax deductable.

History of Healthy Choices for Mind & Body

Women Insist on Natural Shapes (WINS) was founded in 1994 by Ann Gerhardt, MD and four adult eating disorder patients. Its mission was to be dedicated to:

  1. Educating children and adults about what normal, healthy, body shapes are and the dangers of eating disorders and excessive dieting; &

  2. Changing physical images in the media and advertising to those that are natural and attainable with healthy lifestyles.


The organization produced a quarterly newsletter about body image, nutrition, exercise and eating disorders. Monthly meetings addressing various subjects and occasional community lectures were well attended. Dr. Gerhardt and members gave talks in schools and community groups. Various members staffed booths at community events, like the annual Healthy Schools, Healthy People Conferences. The Sierra Health Foundation awarded WINS a $10,000 grant in 1995 to produce a set of lessons and video for middle and high school girls addressing the societal pressure to be thin, psychological problems of adolescence that lead to disordered eating, medical consequences of eating disorders, healthy nutrition and exercise.


In 1998 the name was changed to We Insist on Natural Shapes, to be more inclusive of men, who seemed to more fully understand the "thin is not necessarily better" idea than women. The Sierra Health Foundation awarded a 1998 grant of $74,500 to produce sets of lessons and videos for each of three levels of grade school students. These lessons address healthful eating, physical activity, self-esteem, media image vs. reality, and natural body shape acceptance. WINS held a multi-school poster contest to get students to think about healthy body-care and self-image issues.


Recognizing that obesity has become an equally dangerous health condition in children and the general population, in 2002 WINS changed its mission to;

  1. Changing standards of beauty to those that do not define us by our weight and do not promote eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and compulsive overeating that may lead to obesity;

  2. Educating children and adults to recognize that the shape of one's body is determined by one's genes. Genetic makeup determines healthy weight, whether it be thin or heavy, and a moderate amount of balanced food, with a moderate amount of exercise will allow one to achieve her/his natural, healthy shape; &

  3. Changing body images in the media and advertising to those that are natural and attainable with healthy life-styles.


In 2005 Dr. Gerhardt began the free, email-based DrG'sMediSense Newsletter. This newsletter discusses all of the WINS themes, as well as general and controversial health issues, herbs and supplements, and doctor-patient relationships.


In 2007, the WINS Board and general membership voted to merge WINS and DrG'sMediSense to form Healthy Choices for Mind and Body, creating an organization with a broad mission of health education for all, with special emphasis on preventing childhood obesity and eating disorders.


The WINS name, with its various products, is retained to embody that arm of Healthy Choices for Mind and Body's mission. DrG'sMediSense newsletter serves as the primary education tool and mouthpiece of the organization.