September 1, 2024 — How is the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement coping with advances in obesity science? The need for fighting weight bias is as great as ever. But relevance of the anti-science dimension of HAES – suggesting that obesity is not a valid health concern – is fading. It simply doesn’t hold up well in light […]
August 26, 2024 — New research reminds us of something that just about any person living with obesity can tell you. The prevailing bias against people living with obesity favors medical neglect. Especially for someone living with significant obesity, it is all too common to have providers dismiss medical complaints or blame them on obesity and simply instruct the […]
August 8, 2024 — New survey research from YouGov serves up a timely reminder of the problem with weight bias in healthcare. The research, fielded in late June, found that most American adults (53%) have an unfavorable view of the U.S. healthcare system. About one in three persons report negative treatment because of their identity. And weight is the […]
August 6, 2024 — “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Ancient texts remind us there is nothing new about stigma and bias toward people living with illness and disability. But still, it is jarring to encounter such expressions of weight bias as the Telegraph published not long ago. William Sitwell wrote: “Fat people are costing us all billions. […]
July 21, 2024 — Richard Simmons died last week at the age of 76 after a lifetime of making people smile and never letting the perfect be an enemy of the good. Fat Youth with Curly Hair Simmons had a distinctive body image from an early age. He was a heavy child at the age of four and knew […]
July 14, 2024 — It is hard not to think we are seeing a subtle shift in prevailing bias about obesity. Almost a decade ago, Health Affairs saw merit in publishing projections to say that taxes and other restrictions on unhealthy foods and beverages were more important than providing medical care for children with obesity. The argument was that […]
July 7, 2024 — Letting go is hard. But there is a bright line between persistence and stubbornness. Persistence is absolutely necessary to advance a cause. But persistence gives way to stubbornness when facts line up to define serious limitations and people press on with a futile effort. Such is the case with the DiRECT obsession for “curing” type […]
July 3, 2024 — Nope, says Dr. Alissa Chen. Medicare shouldn’t start covering obesity medicines. Her dad, 72, has obesity that began when he was in grad school and has persisted throughout his life. Now he has the cardiovascular disease that often results from untreated obesity. But no, she doesn’t want him to receive treatment with advanced medicines proven […]
June 5, 2024 — Big change sometimes happens very quietly. For example, on April 5, the AP Stylebook added a new entry on “obesity, obese, overweight.” It goes into a great deal of detail about language for writing about obesity. But here is the heart of the matter, in the words of the Associated Press stylebook editors: “The phrasing […]
May 29, 2024 — Progress comes in surprising ways. Proving this point, we now have a crude cartoon – South Park – telling the world that fat jokes are too offensive and stupid to be funny. One of the primary characters, Kyle, delivers this new enlightenment in a speech to his school cafeteria: “I was wrong. I used to […]
