Posts Tagged ‘weight stigma’

“After 24 hours, the participants indicated that they occasionally felt embarrassed, self-conscious, and that life, in general, was less satisfying.” Nonetheless, researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand think they have an “attractive alternative” for weight loss. It’s a dental device with magnets. It attaches to a person’s teeth to prevent them from […]

Writing in the Lancet, Janet Treasure and Suman Ambwani have a simple request. Public health policy should stop promoting weight stigma. The request is simple, but it may not be easy. For decades now, public health has often focused on promoting fear of fat, rather than the pursuit of health. The result is health policy […]

Bias makes us human. It can even help us thrive by recognizing patterns in our lives. But of course, bias is sneaky, reinforcing patterns that keep people down for no good reason. So it is with weight bias – which some people believe causes more harm than obesity itself. One of the ways that weight […]

Health stigma is sneaky. Because of that, it pops up in places where we never expect it. For example, we find the wellness section of the New York Times offering advice to dump friends with depression or obesity. Obesity researchers use stigmatizing cartoons to tell us about their good work. Perhaps these people don’t even […]

Weight stigma is not just a U.S. problem. A whole series of new studies – two of them coming out just today – tell us that weight stigma is common across six countries. Not only do people find it in personal relationships, but they even find it common in healthcare. In fact, two thirds of […]

With the conclusion of #ECO2021 and #COS7, it’s worth reflecting on where the efforts to address obesity will take us. In the 1990s, the concept of a “war on obesity” gained traction. But it was problematic. Not only did it promote weight stigma, it was also ineffective. Medical care for obesity has been mostly inaccessible. […]

Food systems are a key ingredient in the problem we face with obesity. But working toward healthier food systems is a challenge that goes well beyond the cartoonish ideas that surface in some public health campaigns. For example, marketing practices can be a vexing problem. Food security is a dimension of the problem that came […]

Two days into a week of intense meetings about obesity science and policy at #ECO2021 and #COS7, one thing is hard to miss. The quality of research and analysis is strong. But people living with obesity are front and center. In fact, we see strong confident voices for persons living with obesity. Not sad victims. […]

It sounds apocryphal. Yet it’s fresh and real. Da’Shaun Harrison, an author and activist, had just arrived at an Atlanta hospital with COVID-19, was lying on a stretcher, and terrified of dying. A male nurse approached and said, “Wow, you’re big. The first thing we need to do is get this weight off you.” Neither […]

One reason that obesity can be such a difficult topic is because people link it to appearance. Thus we live in a culture where people presume they can diagnose a person’s health based on body image. Looking healthy becomes a surrogate for being healthy. People do very unhealthy things to reach for a healthy appearance. […]