5. What Is “Health at Every Size”?

Burgard, Deb

doi:10.18574/nyu/9780814777435.003.0010

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Intentional pursuit of weight loss often leads to restrictive and compensatory behaviors, when we know dieting ( 53 ) and attempts to control one’s weight are associated with greater risk for developing EDs ( 54 ). As astutely noted by Debora Burgard, fat-positive clinician and activist ( 55 ), “we find it hypocritical to prescribe practices for heavier people that we would diagnose as eating disordered in thin ones.” Indeed, higher-weight individuals are more likely to experience delays in ED diagnosis and treatment and have, on average, lost more weight prior to ED treatment ( 56 , 57 ), worsening the overall ED prognosis ( 58 ). Higher-weight patients may be more prone to delaying or avoiding treatment due to internalized stigma and past negative experiences with physicians ( 59 ).…”

Section: Impact Of the Weight-centric Paradigm On Ed Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling weight stigma in eating disorder treatment: Next steps for the field

2023

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The authors posit current guidelines and treatment for eating disorders (EDs) fail to adequately address, and often perpetuate, weight stigma. The social devaluation and denigration of higher-weight individuals cuts across nearly every life domain and is associated with negative physiological and psychosocial outcomes, mirroring the harms attributed to weight itself. Maintaining focus on weight in ED treatment can intensify weight stigma among patients and providers, leading to increased internalization, shame, and poorer health outcomes. Stigma has been recognized as a fundamental cause of health inequities. With no clear evidence that the proposed mechanisms of ED treatment effectively address internalized weight bias and its association with disordered eating behavior, it is not hard to imagine that providers’ perpetuation of weight bias, however unintentional, may be a key contributor to the suboptimal response to ED treatment. Several reported examples of weight stigma in ED treatment are discussed to illustrate the pervasiveness and insidiousness of this problem. The authors contend weight management inherently perpetuates weight stigma and outline steps for researchers and providers to promote weight-inclusive care (targeting health behavior change rather than weight itself) as an alternative approach capable of addressing some of the many social injustices in the history of this field.

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Section: Impact Of the Weight-centric Paradigm On Ed Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling weight stigma in eating disorder treatment: Next steps for the field

2023

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“…A common objection to the claim that obesity is a disease is the observation that some people with a high BMI do not seem to experience any harm as a result. 10,75,76 Defenders of the idea that excess weight is itself pathological often assert that even if it is not currently harmful, excess body fat eventually causes harm. The WOF, for example, emphasizes that obesity is a "chronic, relapsing disease process."…”

Section: Biology-based Theories: Disease As (Harmful) Dysfunctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophically, is obesity really a disease?

Steele

Finucane

2023

Obesity Reviews

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Summary The question of whether obesity should be regarded as a disease remains controversial. One source of controversy can be addressed by distinguishing between two ways in which the word “obesity” is used. In medicine, the word “obesity” now typically refers to some or all of a set of interrelated dysfunctions of metabolism, adipose tissue, and dietary intake regulation. In other contexts, such as government‐funded public education programs, the word “obesity” refers to a body mass index (BMI) category taken to indicate excess body fat. The result is that when medical experts say, “Obesity is a disease,” the majority of outside medicine inevitably takes this to mean “being fat is a disease.” In order to address this ambiguity, we apply key philosophical accounts of disease to the two different senses of “obesity.” We draw two major conclusions: First, although obesity as understood in clinical medicine meets the criteria to be considered a disease, obesity as defined by BMI does not. Second, adequately addressing this disease requires us to distinguish it clearly and unambiguously from high BMI. Making this distinction would help both the public and policymakers to better understand the disease of obesity, facilitating advances in both prevention and treatment.

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“…Programs like the Health at Every Size (HAES) model can be tailored to this population and adopted in rehabilitation counseling settings to better address their needs without reifying cultural pressures surrounding thinness (Mizock, 2012). HAES promotes size acceptance, positive physical activity, and healthy eating to end weight stigma and redirect focus from weight loss to overall health (Burgard, 2009). Given that women may feel dismissed by others in this area, it is important for rehabilitation counselors to acknowledge size pressures from the broader culture and address their concerns about size, while maintaining a sociocultural perspective of the impact of misogyny on weight concerns.…”

Section: Rehabilitation Counseling Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Themes in the Experience of Gender Among Women With Serious Mental Health Illnesses

Mizock

Brubaker

2020

Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin

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The focus of this article is on women with mental health illness and themes pertaining to issues of gender in their mental health experiences and in their treatment by peers and family. Grounded theory methodology was utilized in the data analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 women with mental health illness. Findings revealed several themes related to gender in the experiences of women with mental health illness. These themes include male leverage, gendered emotions, weight worries, caretaker demands, friendship barriers, higher expectations, and double standard of violence. Implications for rehabilitation counseling will be discussed.

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5. What Is “Health at Every Size”?

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Dismantling weight stigma in eating disorder treatment: Next steps for the field

Dismantling weight stigma in eating disorder treatment: Next steps for the field

Philosophically, is obesity really a disease?

Themes in the Experience of Gender Among Women With Serious Mental Health Illnesses

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