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Authors: Linda Bacon
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It is also popular to co-opt the vocabulary of the HAES movement to support a weight-centered focus. Some weight-loss programs promote lifestyle change and increased sensitivity to hunger and fullness, claiming that they’re not diets, and then promptly prescribe ways to control your eating or foods that turn off your hunger drive. Also popular are intuitive eating programs (also called non-diet programs) that suggest trusting your body is the best way to lose the weight you want to lose.
Approaching this halfway is undermining and deceptive. Supporting a desire for weight loss or obesity prevention in and of itself promotes weight stigma. It says, “We don’t want anyone to be or to become fat,” sending a message that there is something wrong with fatness and reinforcing the myth that weight is largely a matter of personal control.
Approaching this halfway is also ineffective. While lifestyle change is valuable, it is rarely maintained when driven by weight-loss goals. Tricks to minimize hunger may result in short-term success but are ultimately challenged by long-term weight-regulation mechanisms. And while certain habits may result in weight loss for some individuals, there are no guarantees. Failed attempts at losing weight make people feel like failures, and even those who succeed feel a never-ending pressure to retain that success that will always limit their ability to feel comfortable around food and in their bodies. By putting an emphasis on weight, we also limit our ability to support thin people in adopting healthy behaviors.
Obesity prevention programs are particularly damaging (and ineffective) when applied to kids. Think about the impact of BMI report cards: The fat kids get stigmatized and put on diets and exercise programs; the thin kids—who may have similar health habits or be maintaining their low weights through damaging diets or obsessive exercise—get ignored; and everyone, fat and thin, is saddled with a fear of fat and a bias against fat people. It’s not too difficult to reframe obesity prevention programs as health promotion programs—and health promotion will ultimately be much more successful in instilling healthy habits in kids of all sizes.
Eating disorders and preoccupation with food and weight are in part about trying to avoid being fat, and arise as a side effect of a weight-centered focus. Making the world a safer place for people of all body sizes will go a long way toward preventing these problems.
Perhaps the strongest suggestion I have for health practitioners who struggle with these issues is to find community. Knowing that you are not alone gives you the strength to persevere in unpopular views and supports you in making decisions that you know are right. And though we may not be in the majority, there is a huge community of Health at Every Size practitioners—psychotherapists, dietitians, fitness trainers, physicians, coaches—who have been where you are, can offer support, and can help you define your practice. (Visit
www.HAESCommunity.org
for resources and to get connected.)
www.HAESCommunity.org
for resources and to get connected.)
It’s worthwhile as well to reconsider the power dynamics in the healing relationship. You can’t be as valuable to your patients or clients if you are yet another expert telling them what to do, even if your intent is to encourage HAES. You are more likely to be successful if you exhibit compassion for how difficult it is for all of us to work through our internalized oppression, create a safe environment, and offer education and tools to support the journey.
Let me end on a more personal note. As I neared the completion of an earlier draft of this book, I noticed that I was drawn to richer foods and needed a greater sense of fullness in order to achieve satisfaction. I was also self-conscious about the rounding to my tummy. I share this to make the point that an urge to overeat is part of a healthy relationship with food and my body. It’s a signal from my body that something emotional is going on for me, an opportunity to slow down and consider what is really driving me toward excess eating or body dissatisfaction. We always have a good reason for our feelings and behavior, even if that reason isn’t readily apparent. That’s the gift of the hunger drive—and even feelings of body discontent. They alert you to your needs.
Food is an ongoing metaphor in our search for nourishment and fulfillment. The drive for nourishment never goes away. My life—all of our lives—is a process in which greater fulfillment is possible. I may never actually reach that final stage of true fulfillment, but I—we—can get closer and closer.
What options did I have? I could recognize that I needed nourishment right then, but that the nourishment I needed was a type that food couldn’t provide. By not feeding my appetite physically, by disengaging from the drama of “feeling fat and as if there were something wrong with that,” I gave the feelings space to surface. I realized that as I swung into the final stages of writing this book, I suddenly had to face my fears of vulnerability as I exposed my writing to others.
Once I acknowledge my vulnerability, I can make choices. After I finished that earlier draft, I realized that the fear I was experiencing was strong for good reason: The book was not as accessible as it could have been, and needed better editing. So I used this information to improve the book. I asked my friends to review it and give me the support I needed. My vulnerability decreased and my confidence increased, until I knew the book was ready. My hunger gradually dissipated.
Misplaced attention to weight has resulted in many of us losing that precious connection between hunger and nourishing ourselves. We are taught to view hunger as a manifestation of betrayal of our body, a force to be resisted. We’re taught to view our weight as a sign of our failure—or to believe that failure is imminent if our resistance to hunger falters. But these ideas stand in the way of change. When you free yourself from the damaging weight myths and the “expert” voices that have infiltrated your mind, when you give yourself permission to feel your hunger, you recognize that hunger is not the enemy, but rather, a friendly, helpful force, alerting you to your needs and inviting you to take care of yourself.
Hunger provides an opportunity to honor your humanity. When you stop suppressing or otherwise denying your hunger, you are able to hear your body needs and know how best to physically nourish yourself. You can recognize that there is much you are hungry for, and not all of it can be satisfied by food. You become more attuned to these other hungers, such as your need for emotional connection and a sense of purpose and meaning in your life.
You have the ability to reclaim that connection between hunger and nourishing yourself. Feeling your hunger—and feeding it, in whatever form, is your power and opportunity for growth. You take back ownership of your body and how that precious body manifests and touches the world.
That’s the final encouragement that I’d like to leave you with, the solution for our hungry nation. Free yourself from the limiting cultural biases around eating and weight and challenge them in others. Let go of the rules, the judgments, the “expert” advice. Trust that you know best how to take care of yourself. Respect your hunger and appetite, and let them guide you to better health and fulfillment. Expand that openness to others and celebrate the diversity that makes us human.
Enjoy the Health at Every Size journey.
APPENDIX
Today, I will try to feed myself when I am hungry.
Today, I will try to be attentive to how foods taste and make me feel.
Today, I will try to choose foods that I like and that make me feel good.
Today, I will try to honor my body’s signals of fullness.
Today, I will try to find an enjoyable way to move my body.
Today, I will try to look kindly at my body and to treat it with
love and respect.
Today, I will try to be attentive to how foods taste and make me feel.
Today, I will try to choose foods that I like and that make me feel good.
Today, I will try to honor my body’s signals of fullness.
Today, I will try to find an enjoyable way to move my body.
Today, I will try to look kindly at my body and to treat it with
love and respect.
Signature: ____________________________ Date: ____________
Excerpt from
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth
About Your Weight
© 2010 by Linda Bacon.
May be freely distributed, provided that it remains in its entirety
and this copyright message appears. More info at
www.HAESbook.com
.
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth
About Your Weight
© 2010 by Linda Bacon.
May be freely distributed, provided that it remains in its entirety
and this copyright message appears. More info at
www.HAESbook.com
.
We’re losing the war on obesity. Fighting fat has not made the fat go away. However, extensive “collateral damage” has resulted: Food and body preoccupation, self-hatred, eating disorders, weight cycling, weight discrimination, poor health. . . . Few of us are at peace with our bodies, whether because we’re fat or because we fear becoming fat. It’s time to withdraw the troops. There is a compassionate alternative to the war—Health at Every Size—which has proven to be much more successful at health improvement—and without the unwanted side effects.
1
2
The scientific research consistently shows that common assumptions underlying the war on obesity just don’t stand up to the evidence.
Assumption: “Overweight” and “obese” people die sooner than leaner people.1
2
The scientific research consistently shows that common assumptions underlying the war on obesity just don’t stand up to the evidence.
False! Almost all epidemiologic studies indicate people in the overweight or moderately obese categories live at least as long—or longer—than people in the normal weight category. The most comprehensive review of the research pooled data from 26 studies and found overweight to be associated with greater longevity than normal weight.
3
Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys I, II, and III, which followed the largest nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults, also determined that the “ideal” weight for longevity was in the “overweight” category.
4
3
Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys I, II, and III, which followed the largest nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults, also determined that the “ideal” weight for longevity was in the “overweight” category.
4
Excerpt from
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth
About Your Weight
© 2010 by Linda Bacon.
May be freely distributed, provided that it remains in its entirety
and this copyright message appears. More info at
www.HAESbook.com
.
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth
About Your Weight
© 2010 by Linda Bacon.
May be freely distributed, provided that it remains in its entirety
and this copyright message appears. More info at
www.HAESbook.com
.
False! Epidemiological studies rarely acknowledge factors like fitness, activity, nutrient intake, weight cycling, or socioeconomic status when considering connections between weight and disease. Yet all play a role. When studies
do
control for these factors, increased risk of disease disappears or is significantly reduced.
5
What’s likely going on here is that these other factors increase disease risk at the same time they increase the risk of weight gain.
Assumption: Anyone who is determined can lose weight and keep it off.do
control for these factors, increased risk of disease disappears or is significantly reduced.
5
What’s likely going on here is that these other factors increase disease risk at the same time they increase the risk of weight gain.
False! The vast majority of people who try to lose weight regain it, regardless of whether they maintain their diet or exercise program.
6
7
This occurs in all studies, no matter how many calories or what proportions of fat, protein or carbohydrates are used in the diet, or what types of exercise programs are pursued. Many studies also show that dieting is a strong predictor of future weight gain.
8
-
9
10
11
12
13
14
Assumption: Weight loss will prolong life.6
7
This occurs in all studies, no matter how many calories or what proportions of fat, protein or carbohydrates are used in the diet, or what types of exercise programs are pursued. Many studies also show that dieting is a strong predictor of future weight gain.
8
-
9
10
11
12
13
14
False! No one has ever shown that losing weight prolongs life. Some studies actually indicate that intentional weight loss increases the risk of dying early from certain diseases.
15
16
17
18
19
-
20
Assumption: The only way for “overweight” people to improve health is to lose weight.15
16
17
18
19
-
20
False! Most health indicators can be improved through changing health behaviors, regardless of whether weight is lost.
5
For example,
5
For example,
Excerpt from
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth
About Your Weight
© 2010 by Linda Bacon.
May be freely distributed, provided that it remains in its entirety
and this copyright message appears. More info at
www.HAESbook.com
.
BOOK: Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
8.41Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
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