Bessey, M., M.ScA.H.N.(c), & Lordly, D., D.E.D. (2020). Weight inclusive practice: Shifting the focus from weight to social justice. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 81(3), 127-131. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2019-034
This journal article discusses that obesity is commonly framed as an epidemic that is harmful to the public’s health and that health practitioners often hold biased attitudes against obese patients. For fat patients weight stigma and weight normative approaches frequently have negative health implications including not going to the doctor when they need to, disordered eating and subsequent weight gain and negative self-image. The authors of the article state they reject obesity as a disease, and conclude that the problem is the way fatness is viewed within society and by health professionals. I chose this article because it is fairly recent, was easy to read although scholarly and bolstered my thesis.
Bombak, A., Monaghan, L. F., & Rich, E. (2019). Dietary approaches to weight-loss, Health At Every Size® and beyond: rethinking the war on obesity. Social Theory & Health, 17(1), 89–108. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-018-0070-9
This article discusses the common frame of “fat as fatal” and that overweight people must change their ways. Previous literature regarding dietary approaches to losing weight is discussed and questioned. Health at Every Size (trademarked) is a weight-inclusive intervention and an overview of the principles of the movement are considered along with controversies within the proponents of the movement. The authors of the article state it is imperative to repudiate the idea that overweight people have ways of life that are unhealthy and their weight is their own fault. I thought this article had a passionate tone (especially for an academic article), provided a lot of information regarding how being overweight is seen as something people are personally responsible for and helped me to understand more about HAES and the fractiousness within the movement
Brown, A., Flint, S. W., & Batterham, R. L. (2022). Pervasiveness, impact and implications of weight stigma. EClinicalMedicine, 47, 101408–101408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101408
This journal article discusses how the authors reviewed health policy and analyzed research evidence showing how widespread weight stigma is. They state there is a growing accumulation of evidence regarding the prevalence and significance of weight stigma. Discrimination due to weight stigma is apparent within health care settings, public policy, workplaces, education and the media and needs to be focused on in a targeted way. Both physical and mental health are known to be negatively impacted by weight stigma, and its continuation imperils community values of “equality, diversity, and inclusion.” The authors make recommendations to deal with weight stigma and point out ending weight stigma and discrimination will take society’s effort. I chose this article for its clear connection to my topic. This article provided a plethora of examples of the negative health outcomes associated with weight stigma; gave an overview of “The Obesity Strategy” which is to spur people to change their behaviors with the main message of The Big Two -eat less and exercise more; and supplied information about weight stigmas pervasiveness and impact. The article was a medium length and fairly easy to read and understand.
Clarke, F., Archibald, D., MacDonald, V., Huc, S., & Ellwood, C. (2021). The Well Now course: A service evaluation of a health gain approach to weight management. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1–892. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06836-z
This article covers the evaluation of outcomes of a course called Well Now in the UK. The course teaches respecting all bodies and improving health for everyone. The focus of the course is on using body signals like hunger, feelings and levels of energy and assists participants by pointing to factors other than weight loss pertaining to their well-being and health. The evaluation used data from before and after the course and paired it with phone interviews. There were significant improvements in multiple areas for participants, and the course upholds non-maleficence and beneficence. I chose this article because the components of the Well Now course are similar to the values of HAES and this study showed that weight inclusive approaches can be beneficial. The scholarly tone of this article was interspersed with quotations from the participants which made it somewhat easier to digest.
Hagan, S., & Nelson, K. (2023). Are current guidelines perpetuating weight stigma? A weight-skeptical approach to the care of patients with obesity. Journal of General Internal Medicine : JGIM, 38(3), 793–798. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07821-w
This article talks about how weight-normative guidelines such as those of the United States Preventative Task Force that recommend losing weight for all people living with obesity may cause an increase in weight stigma and in weight cycling (repeatedly losing weight and gaining it back). The authors acknowledge there is noteworthy debate on whether the benefits of weight loss interventions outweigh the risks. What constitutes a “healthy weight” is discussed, along with how ineffective weight loss interventions (aside from bariatric surgery) actually are. The authors give evidence that losing weight may not improve health and doctors recommending dieting for losing weight could be causing harm. The authors provide a third option in addition to the two approaches to weight (normative and inclusive) of “weight-skeptical” that acknowledges bariatric surgery as an option for super obese patients while moving away from recommending dieting as a solution for every issue and towards a more weight-inclusive approach. This article was chosen because of its suitability to my topic; the information about why recommending dieting can be harmful was especially helpful to me. I really liked the way it was organized as well with clickable headings of each section of the article.
Hall, K. D., & Kahan, S. (2018). Maintenance of lost weight and long-term management of obesity. The Medical clinics of North America, 102(1), 183–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.012
This article discusses the way that keeping lost weight off is a challenge. Environmental factors, human activity and choices, and biological reasons collude to make losing weight difficult and regaining weight almost a given. I was only able to actually read the abstract and the 1st page of this article but was able to get a few good nuggets of information! I chose this article for its brevity and the confirmation of weight loss being difficult to maintain.
Kersbergen, I., & Robinson, E. (2019). Blatant dehumanization of people with obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 27(6), 1005–1012. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22460
This This study described how people of heavier weights are seen as less than human. They are described in more animal-like terms and depicted as headless bodies in media portrayal. I chose this source because there is scientific proof of weight-stigma and discrimination in this study. Although this is scholarly and written unemotionally I believe the findings of this study would bring outrage to any sensitive person.
Kwan, S., & Graves, J. (2013). Framing fat : competing constructions in contemporary culture. Rutgers University Press.
This book describes the Frames of fat; how fatness is perceived in the world. There is the aesthetic frame of Fat as Frightful and the health frame of Fat as Fatal. Included are chapters about fat and food politics which discusses issues of personal responsibility and choices (Choice and Responsibility Frame) and the Social Justice Frame (combatting sizeism.) I spent way too much time reading and taking notes on this book which is over a decade old, however it is one of the first books to articulate these “Frames” and is cited in many articles about Health at Every Size, and therefore could be considered a seminal work.
Mazurkiewicz, N., Lipowski, M., Krefta, J., & Lipowska, M. (2021). “Better if they laugh with me than at me”: The role of humor in coping with obesity-related stigma in women. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 7974-7988. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18157974
This was a review of a study done on Polish women and how they coped with weight stigma using humor and the relationship between those things. Women are more often overweight and therefore more often experience weight stigma. Overfat women more often use humor to cope with stressful situations. The results of the study pointed towards obese women using maladaptive styles of humor for example deprecating themselves and also by being aggressive and snide to others. This was a somewhat difficult read; possibly because it was translated from another language so the writing was just a bit different. The article did provide consensus to other articles on the idea of weight-stigma not helping people to lose weight.
Mensinger, J. L., & Meadows, A. (2017). Internalized weight stigma mediates and moderates physical activity outcomes during a healthy living program for women with high body mass index. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 30, 64–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.01.010
This article said self-stigmatization is when people take on society’s view of overweight/obese/fat people and internalize it. When people have internalized weight stigma it causes a “why try” attitude in the realm of physical activity. An experiment found that when exercise is framed as fun and pleasurable participants felt better about exercising and adhered to an exercise program more frequently than a control group. I chose this article because it was a scholarly article about weight stigma. It develops the idea of how weight-stigma leads to internalized weight-stigma and how internalized weight stigma makes people exercise less.
O’Hara, L., Ahmed, H., & Elashie, S. (2021). Evaluating the impact of a brief Health at Every Size®-informed health promotion activity on body positivity and internalized weight-based oppression. Body Image, 37, 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.02.006
This article discussed how a brief HAES informed activity impacted female students on body positivity and internalized weight stigma. There were improvements to the participants self-image and acceptance of their bodies that were sustained at the 10 week follow up. The authors said weight-based oppression is common and leads to poor outcomes of health and well-being. I chose this article because it the activity they used was interesting to me, The Yay! Scale was part of it, where instead of a number on the scale people using it receive a positive word such as “Amazing” or “Beautiful.” The data collection methods were written at a fairly high level and were therefore a bit more difficult to read but the articles abstract, conclusion and recounting of the activity were easier to understand.
Pausè, C. (2017). Borderline: The ethics of fat stigma in public health. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45(4), 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110517750585
This article from the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics provides a definition of fat stigma, lists contributors to fat stigma, discusses the prevalence and experience of weight stigma and discrimination. It states fat stigma negatively impacts physical and mental health leading to weight gain; and that using stigmatizing images in anti-obesity campaigns violates non-maleficence. I chose this source for several reasons, the first being the quality of the information. In the first paragraph alone Pausè provides a compelling definition for fat stigma and almost an appeal to emotion with her use of quotations. The article is of a medium length, 5 pages and not especially hard. to read, relatively free of jargon.
Penney, T. L., & Kirk, S. F. (2015). The Health at Every Size paradigm and obesity: missing empirical evidence may help push the reframing obesity debate forward. American Journal of Public Health, 105(5), e38–e42. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302552
This article presents strengths and limitations of available evidence of HAES. The main idea is that HAES challenges key assumptions of traditional approaches to weight management. The article reiterates a need for social change related to acceptance of people regardless of body size and states more evidence for HAES is needed. Even though this article was on the older side of a source we should be used I chose it because it provided good background on the earlier stages of the HAES movement, was easy to understand while still being scholarly and had been cited in other scholarly sources that I found.
Tylka, T. L., Annunziato, R. A., Burgard, D., Daníelsdóttir, S., Shuman, E., Davis, C., & Calogero, R. M. (2014). The weight-inclusive versus weight-normative approach to health: Evaluating the evidence for prioritizing well-being over weight loss. Journal of Obesity, 2014(2014), 983495–18. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/983495
This article in the Journal of Obesity is a review of the two methods of approaches to health: Weight Inclusive versus Weight Normative. There are wonderful explanations of both approaches. The weight normative approach focuses on weight loss and dieting, and the weight inclusive approach views health as more plastic, with the focus being on improving health and reducing weight stigma. I chose this article because of the length, that it was scholarly (cited over 160 sources) and although it was a scholarly article it was still written in an easy to understand way.
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