Posts Tagged ‘weight discrimination’

Could it be that Canada is on its way to finding a less stigmatized path for addressing obesity? At the Fourth Canadian Obesity Summit, they are certainly working on it. New data presented here suggest that Canadians, especially French-speaking Canadians, may be ready for it. ConscienHealth founder Ted Kyle and colleagues studied how the public and healthcare professionals view […]

Some bad habits are really hard to shake. All the subtle and overt forms of weight bias and shaming provide good examples. They are particularly persistent because they are so deeply embedded in our culture. And yet, if you look, there are plenty of encouraging signs. Just yesterday, an obnoxious weight loss ad became a […]

Does the zealous pursuit of public health with respect to obesity cause private harm? The Nutrition Resource Center of the Ontario Public Health Association asked some hard questions in a day-long symposium leading up to the opening of the Fourth Canadian Obesity Summit. Messages from the media, industry, and even some health professionals and public […]

“Obesity is a disease that hides in plain sight,” says Harvard’s Lee Kaplan. So perhaps we should not be surprised when the Journal of Public Health publishes a study that asks, “Who are the obese?” The authors propose that there are six types (stereotypes?) of these creatures with obesity. If we can set aside the dehumanizing […]

Weight bias dies hard. One step forward and you can be sure a step or two back will follow. Such is the case as the media obsesses about the weight of candidates for president. Jeb Bush in particular was singled out this week for dieting to be president. He’s lost an estimated 30 pounds on the Paleo diet […]

The opening day of the 2015 Weight Management DPG Symposium found dietitians reaching beyond bias and presumptions about obesity. This meeting is a gem that brings together the top dietitians in the country who focus upon weight management, thanks to the hard work of the Weight Management Dietary Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and […]

Yesterday the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lifted the veil on long-awaited regulations regarding employer wellness programs. These regs back off on the EEOC’s earlier position that excessive penalties in wellness programs make them involuntary and thus a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). EEOC’s original position really ticked off employers who want to impose […]

In the early days of the epidemic, HIV stigma was one of the key barriers to progress on every front against HIV. While stigma remains a challenge, much has been learned and in many ways it has been overcome. The same is not true about dealing obesity stigma. If anything, the stigma and bias that […]

As fat shaming is increasingly being called out and rejected, explicit weight bias might become less common. That begs the question of implicit — unspoken — weight bias. Researchers from UCLA have just published a study with a novel way of measuring such bias. It turns out that weight bias stinks. The researchers asked people […]

He had a cute face, but we won’t miss him. After a change.org petition gathered more than 16,000 signatures, Facebook has reversed itself and removed the feeling fat emoji. Now, if you search through the drop down box to describe how you’re feeling when you post something on Facebook, “feeling fat” is no longer an option. […]