January 4, 2022 — “Healthy eating” is the catchphrase of the moment. This moment – in case you’re living under a rock – is January, when many people think about losing the excess pounds they picked up over the holidays. But there’s a problem this year. Diet culture is unhealthy and immoral, says moral philosopher Kate Manne. So talking […]
December 25, 2021 — OK, I admit it. This has been a rough year for me, so the filter is off. I’ve had enough with the so-called health concerns for Santa that keep coming at me from anonymous trolls. Some of you don’t seem to approve of my lifestyle, my body composition, or my enjoyment of milk and cookies. […]
December 16, 2021 — Stages of Change is is a concept deeply embedded in our thinking about health behaviors and obesity. “How ready are you to change?” is the core question. But when applied to obesity care, it is a model with shameful power to promote implicit bias. A new perspective today in the New England Journal of Medicine […]
November 6, 2021 — It’s all over – except for the replays and reviews. ObesityWeek® 2021 wrapped up yesterday and with any luck (we’re looking at you, COVID) this will be the last purely online week of obesity research, policy, and practice for a while. Next year, the plan is for a hybrid meeting. So now it’s time to […]
November 4, 2021 — A major thread running through ObesityWeek® is weight stigma, bias, and discrimination. Today at the Obesity Journal Symposium, the first paper presented will be a new study by a collection of distinguished weight bias researchers led by Rebecca Puhl. It is unique because it tells us that the public supports policy to stop weight discrimination […]
November 1, 2021 — Today marks the opening of ObesityWeek (OW2021) and the one thing you won’t want to miss is the Presidential Plenary. That’s because it packs a fabulous inventory of the hottest topics at ObesityWeek into just two hours. The premier is at 10:00 am (East) today, with an encore at 9:30 pm tonight. But the most […]
October 23, 2021 — Jessica Nordell describes something like a quest in her new book, The End of Bias. “When I began this book, I thought I was writing a work of science. My plan was to read, study, synthesize the best evidence, and share what I found. The journey would be straightforward; it would be scientific and outward-facing […]
October 19, 2021 — FNCE is winding up today after four days of this virtual conference. For information on weight, health, and obesity, the agenda offered some bright spots – most especially content on the lived experience of obesity. But one subject was almost completely absent. Rigorous discussion about weight neutral care, including Health at Every Size, could not […]
October 18, 2021 — All too often, the healthcare experiences of people living with obesity are appalling. And the reason is simple. For many professionals, all they can see is a fat person. More often than not, the answer to every health problem is “you should lose some weight” – irrespective of any consideration of the whole person. So […]
October 12, 2021 — Progress is all around us but it’s not always obvious. Explicit weight bias is getting better, but implicit bias is as bad as ever – perhaps worse. So when people catch themselves and walk back from implicit expressions of bias, we find cause for celebration. Making errors is easy, but to correct errors – especially […]
