Last Friday, I featured part one of my interview with Linda Bacon, Ph.D, author of Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, and nutrition professor and researcher in the Biology Department at City College of San Francisco. She debunked many of the misconceptions we have about weight loss and the obesity epidemic.
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It is so urgent that society start listening to outstanding messages like those in this Q&A between you and Linda Bacon–yet everyone is so brainwashed, and there is so much money to be made in staying on the same misguided course of being obsessed with our weight, it is going to take a long time to bring about the change we need. But change we must. Thanks for publishing these two articles!
Bill Fabrey
Council on Size & Weight Discrimination
http://www.cswd.org
Mt Marion, NY
Thank you so much for this in-depth and intelligent interview with Dr. Bacon! Pulling out the main points with bold text really helps emphasize Dr. Bacon’s responses to some of the most common arguments against HAES. and what a great quote!
“The more we can celebrate and honor our bodies, the better we can take care of them.”
Bravo! As Linda pointed out, a paradigm is a way of thinking, a belief system that you filter everything you think, hear, see, and read through. The filter screens out any information that doesn’t fit the paradigm, so we continually reinforce what we already believe to be true or possible (whether it is or not) and discard new ideas (even when they might be life-changing).
The dominant paradigm about “weight management” today is “eat less, exercise more.” I put those in quotes because they reveal the power of the paradigm. They imply that the goal of eating and exercise is to manage your weight. At the risk of being screened and discarded by your filter, let me ask: Isn’t the fundamental goal of eating to fuel and nourish your life? Isn’t the fundamental goal of exercise to live to our fullest capacity? To have fun and increase your stamina, strength, flexibility, and health—rather than counteracting the food you eat?
The “weight management” paradigm is flawed, yet it is so pervasive that millions of people are trapped in outdated beliefs and behaviors, despite all of the evidence that it is not moving the majority toward healthier, happier, more vibrant lives. Health professionals, the media, the Internet, and friends, spouses, and parents everywhere continually feed the pipeline with biased information that supports the paradigm—not because they are malicious or ignorant, but because it is their paradigm too.
A paradigm shift finally occurs when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change. I believe we are slowly getting to that point so thank you for helping us take a step forward.
Thank you so much to everyone for your comments! I’m also so thankful to Linda for speaking with me.
@ Bill, I agree on the brainwashing. It’s so hard to know what healthy really means in a society where the First Lady announces that she’s put her little girls on a diet and where pediatricians recommend and praise this.
Like, Michelle May noted, health professionals, friends, family, everyone really seem to be spreading these messages. It’s a bad domino effect. But your organization is working toward changing this deeply ingrained paradigm, which is fantastic!!
@ Elizabeth, I love that quote, too! 
I love that HAES, at its core, encourages people to honor their bodies and to take good care of them. I wish we could encourage that as a society, in addition to spreading the message of health for everyone, not a select few – and instead of promoting a fear of fat and disordered eating habits!
By the way, I’m a huge fan of your beautiful blog and illustrations!
@ Michelle, Thank you for your eloquent comment. I had to post a few of your quotes on Twitter, particularly the one about exercise! So true!
I wish health professionals and government officials would take a look at the research before getting swept up by the anti-obesity campaign. Don’t they see that there’s a danger of promoting disordered eating, particularly in children? That they’re encouraging the idea of being thin at all costs, instead of emphasizing healthy habits, regardless of size. Especially during puberty, kids gain weight. That’s a fact. It’s absolutely natural. As if that’s not upsetting enough, now they’ll worry about it ten fold.
You’re so right. The idea that we can control our weight (i.e., we can all be thin if we just work out hard enough; and if we can’t get thin, then clearly we aren’t working hard enough) is soooo pervasive in our society. And many people just further the myth. I’m really happy that we have a fantastic movement like HAES that’s starting to change this paradigm.
And people like you three working to create major changes. Thanks again so much for taking the time to comment!!
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