Posts Tagged ‘weight bias’

Promoting Stigma for Seeking Obesity Care

March 25, 2023 — New research in BMC Public Health raises important questions. Does news media frame obesity care for young persons in a way that promotes stigma? Does this reflect the bias of the media itself? Or does it play to the bias of the public that consumes this reporting? Thematic Analysis of Reporting from 2014 to 2022 […]

Anecdotes and Studies of Lived Experiences with Obesity

March 19, 2023 — People want to be seen and heard. To feel like they matter. But in research and policy related to obesity, this fact was long neglected for many reasons. The principal reasons have much to do with stigma and the explicit dehumanization of people with this disease. With explicit efforts to overcome these issues, we see […]

Brendan Fraser Wins an Oscar for The Whale

March 13, 2023 — It was nothing short of cathartic for many people toiling in the tricky space of advocacy for people living with obesity. Brendan Fraser last night won an Oscar, Best Actor, for his portrayal of Charlie in The Whale. His character, Charlie, is dying from complications of obesity and the movie depicts him as a very […]

Three Threads in Public Discourse on Obesity

March 10, 2023 — Anyone who doesn’t think a major shift in public perceptions about obesity is not underway has simply not been paying attention. Public discourse about this complex chronic disease is more intense (albeit sometimes frustrating) than we have seen in more than two decades of work on obesity. We see a pattern of three threads in […]

The World’s Most (Implicitly) Stigmatized Disease

February 25, 2023 — Justin Ryder is quite plain about obesity and the stigma attached to it. “It’s the most stigmatized disease in the world. In America, we view obesity as a personal behavior problem and not as a disease.” Ryder should know. He is a pediatric obesity scientist and a vice-chair of research at Lurie Children’s Hospital in […]

Is It Possible to Fix the Hate in Literature?

February 23, 2023 — It’s interesting to watch people get riled up about the censorship of Roald Dahl. The Roald Dahl Story Company owns the rights to his books and has worked with Puffin Books to edit out offensive words so “Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today.” In collaboration with Inclusive Minds, […]

Climbing the Learning Curve in Obesity Medicine

February 1, 2023 — After years of having not much to offer people suffering from the health effects of obesity, healthcare providers find themselves climbing a learning curve in obesity medicine. The pressure is here because the options for medical care of obesity have leapt forward recently. Minimally invasive bariatric surgery can offer dramatic improvements in health. Advanced medicines […]

Did Anti-Obesity Campaigns Poison the Well?

January 29, 2023 — Reading about the heated and not terribly well-reasoned arguments people are having about obesity prompts a sad conclusion. A history of ineffective and, at times, harmful anti-obesity campaigns may have poisoned the well of public sentiment about obesity. People have such strong feelings that facts and reason become irrelevant. Aggrieved Advocates for People with Eating […]

Competing Lies About Obesity Fall Apart

January 16, 2023 — We are living in a pivotal moment for the public understanding of a common and complex chronic disease. It is a moment when two competing, but very different, lies about obesity are falling apart. Simply Bad Choices On one hand, the big lie about obesity for decades has been that it is a simple matter […]

Obesity Guideline for Youth Draws Global Interest

January 12, 2023 — The new obesity care guideline for youth from the American Academy of Pediatrics is drawing global interest. On BBC World News, Geeta Guru-Murthy asked ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle about this guideline and the need for medical care in young persons with obesity. Click here or on the image above for this brief video. The response to […]