 Abstract
Obesity is associated with chronic diseases that may negatively affect individuals’ health and the sustainability of the health care system. Despite increasing emphasis on obesity as a major health care issue, little progress has been made in its treatment or prevention. Individual approaches to obesity treatment, largely composed of weight-loss dieting, have not proven effective. Little direct evidence supports the notion of reforms to the “obesogenic environment.” Both these individualistic and environmental approaches to obesity have important limitations and ethical implications. The low levels of success associated with these approaches may necessitate a new non–weight-centric public health strategy. Evidence is accumulating that a weight-neutral, nutrition- and physical activity–based, Health at Every Size (HAES) approach may be a promising chronic disease-prevention strategy. Continue to study here
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 Over half of surveyed overweight adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the United States say they have experienced fat-shaming from doctors, family, friends, classmates and coworkers that led to self-blame and an avoidance of health care, new research finds.
Weight stigma is so prevalent and so detrimental to a person's self-worth and willingness to seek health care, that it has become a matter of "social injustice and a significant public health issue," said Rebecca Puhl, the lead author of two new studies on the topic."Stigma is an enemy to health," said Puhl, who is deputy director at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. "And just like mental health, weight stigma is a legitimate public health issue, and we need to legitimize it in a way that really hasn't been done yet." **Continue to article here  Chrystal Bougon cried after the needle went into her arm. Not because her first dose of the Moderna vaccine hurt. But because, finally, being fat actually paid off.
The 53-year-old was inoculated in the parking lot of Kaiser Permanente in San José on a rainy Friday in March, four days after eligibility in California was broadened to include people with underlying conditions. Among them, a body mass index of 40 or more — 233 pounds for an adult who is 5 feet 4 inches tall. Bougon’s medical record at Kaiser shows she is morbidly obese; as an activist, she prefers the word “fat.” Her experience with medical providers has been one incident of size stigma after another, she said, like the time she went in with a scratched cornea and was told to lose weight. She fears being hospitalized with COVID-19 and unable to advocate for herself. “For that reason I decided, you know what, I’m not going to feel guilty about [being vaccinated]. I’m going to do it,” she said. “And I’m not going to apologize for it. I’ve been in fear the whole flipping time, staying home, avoiding everybody. I couldn’t do my job. I’m an electrologist. I remove facial hair. I couldn’t come to work. I couldn’t make money.” Continue to article here |
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