July 25, 2021 — Healthcare and policies on obesity serve people with wealth and privilege. The disparities are great in the U.S. But they exist everywhere. Just look at childhood obesity in the U.K. Consider the ten percent of children with the most social and economic deprivation. They have three times higher rates of obesity compared to the ten […]
July 20, 2021 — . Lazy. Unmotivated. No self-discipline. No willpower. These are just a few of the widespread stereotypes ingrained in American society about people who have a higher body weight or larger body size. Known as weight stigma, these attitudes result in many Americans being blamed, teased, bullied, mistreated, and discriminated against. There is nowhere to hide […]
June 30, 2021 — “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 […]
June 28, 2021 — For state employees in Louisiana, this might seem like a big step forward. Or it might be so small that it doesn’t amount to much. Last week, the Governor of Louisiana signed a bill into law that requires the state employee health plan to cover bariatric surgery. However, it comes with some serious limitations. Thousands […]
June 20, 2021 — We have a problem in healthcare. It’s really quite simple. Health systems have grown better at delivering health services than they are at delivering health care. It’s worse for people living with obesity, because prevailing bias leads health professionals to care even less for people with obesity. Add in racism and the problem grows larger […]
June 15, 2021 — 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 […]
June 6, 2021 — 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 […]
June 1, 2021 — 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 […]
May 28, 2021 — At AACE2021 yesterday, Fatima Cody Stanford, Patty Nece, and Ted Kyle drove a simple point home. It’s time to take weight bias out of healthcare. It harms health, amplifies health disparities, and gets in the way whenever someone living with obesity needs care. But solutions are within reach. Proper training for healthcare professionals can do […]
May 12, 2021 — 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. […]
