An Evidence‐Based Rationale for Adopting Weight‐Inclusive Health Policy

Abstract

Health policies routinely emphasize weight loss as a target for health promotion. These policies rest upon the assumptions: (1) that higher body weight equals poorer health, (2) that long-term weight loss is widely achievable, and (3) that weight loss results in consistent improvements in physical health. Our review of the literature suggests that these three assumptions underlying the current weightfocused approach are not supported empirically. Complicating this further are the misguided assumptions (4) that weight stigma (i.e., pervasive social devaluation and denigration of higher weight individuals) promotes weight loss and (5) recognizing that one is "overweight" is necessary to spur health-promoting behaviors. We highlight throughout how these assumptions have manifested in current policies and offer suggestions for alternative approaches to health promotion. We conclude by advocating for the broad adoption of a weight-inclusive approach to health policy.There is an obesity crisis in this country. Canadians are paying for it with their wallets-and with their lives.

Separating the Signal from the Noise: How Psychiatric Diagnoses Can Help Discern Food Addiction from Dietary Restraint

“…However, because clinicians who work with patients with EDs often discover that the onset of disordered eating follows the first attempt to diet, many prefer a “do no harm” approach. Additionally, many professionals who work with these populations have abandoned weight loss [ 42 ] in some cases to avoid being targeted (shamed) by colleagues.…”

Lack of guilt, shame, and remorse following weight stigma expression: a real-time assessment pilot study

“…Such models highlight the need for larger societal change to reduce the negative health impact of weight stigma. Despite significant evidence suggesting that weight-centric public health campaigns do not improve health and ironically re-inforce stigmatization of higher-weight individuals, policy-level changes are lacking ( Hunger, Smith & Tomiyama, 2020 ; O’Hara & Taylor, 2018 ). The personal experience of perpetrating weight stigma is poorly understood, which may impede forward progress in changing behavior on an individual level and inform policy-level changes to propagate societal changes.…”

We must do better: Ableism and fatphobia in sociology

“…Similarly, there is a robust body of critical scholarship on fat bodies and “obesity” (e.g., Bacon & Aphramor, 2014; Greenhalgh, 2015; Herndon, 2014; Hunger et al., 2020; J. E. Oliver, 2006; Saguy, 2013; Strings, 2019) that when reading the noncritical articles in our review would imply does not exist. Not only did noncritical articles not engage with this work, they rarely if ever engaged with noncritical medical and public health scholarship that challenges some of their assumptions and generalizations.…”