HealthNotDiets Digest, Issue 14, 2019
April 5 - April 11, 2019
As always, if you like what you read here, please support the original author by liking/sharing/following/up-voting/subscribing directly to their feed.
Happy reading!
Articles & Blogs
6 Scenarios Where Intentionally Changing Your Weight Doesn’t Make Sense – Even If You Think It Does
by Judith Matz
"Here are six common situations where people focus on weight loss – even though the pursuit of weight loss usually worsens, rather than helps, them.“
What to do when your tween daughter calls herself fat
by Ginny Jones
“Fatphobia has been neatly shrouded in the belief that people can criticize other people’s weight if they are concerned about that person’s health.”
Trans Eating Disorders Are All But Ignored by Medical Community
by Jodi Jaspan
"transgender youth are more likely to develop an eating disorder than their cisgender peers.”
More older women are struggling with eating disorders. Here are the warning signs.
by Kristen Sturt
“Increasingly...conditions like anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder (BED) are being diagnosed in adults—including those over 50.”
An Open Letter to Fitness Instructors Who Want to Help Their Clients
By Kathleen Meehan
“It’s...possible there is room to be a bit more thoughtful in your messaging, and consider how it may impact the people in the room."
Strategies for Teaching HAES® to Fat Phobic Physicians
by Lesley Williams
“‘Medical providers are often conditioned to treat the patient’s BMI, rather than the actual patient....This talk seeks to explore innovative ways to engage medical providers who are resistant to utilizing the HAES approach in their practices."
5 Things I Learned In Recovering From An Eating Disorder
by Danielle Lithwick
“recovery is usually not like walking across an open field with a clear sky and an endpoint in sight. It’s more like trekking through a wild jungle, constantly swatting flies away from your face and trying not to step on the snakes that pop up out of nowhere, doing everything you can to stay alive. You are hopeful that it’s possible to find your way out of the jungle, but it’s not always obvious how."
Do Not Snort Sugar: How Studies Can Be Misinterpreted
by Bruce Y. Lee
"Real scientists don't just decide that they are going to solve a problem, go in to a lab with all kinds of technology sitting around unused, work by themselves, and then emerge a few days later with a solution. Most real scientists also don't fly around in an Iron Man suit."
Too much wellbeing is making us sick
by Elizabeth Farrelly
“Wellbeing seems so self-evidently good that it escapes scrutiny, enabling it to slide from useful tool to expectation; of ourselves and of others. In fact, wellbeing has taken the place of morality. Instead of working to improve the world, we work to improve ourselves.”
Is 2019 the Year of the Fat Girl? Living in the Age of Lizzo and Shrill
by Margritte
“It is undeniable that “body positivity” was co-opted from fat activists by corporations eager to exploit the plus size dollar. But I can see clearly how this co-option, along with the decades of activism that preceded it, has led us to where we are today.”
Gillette’s latest ad exposes everything that’s wrong with how we think about health
by Elizabeth Di Filippo
“Weight and health are a far more complex topic than we could have imagined. It takes time to wrap our heads around the idea that what we think we know about health isn’t exactly true.”
'Fat chicks shouldn't wear lycra': The trauma of being heckled while exercising
by Caroline Zielinski
“Exercising to lose weight or for fitness was associated with lower quality of life, while exercising to improve mood or health was associated with higher quality of life.”
The Many Ways Airlines Mistreat Fat Passengers
by Ragen Chastain
“Despite the fact that they knew fat people existed when they built the planes, they are still building them like fat people don’t exist"
Health advice says we should exercise, sleep more and eat better. But it's not an option for all of us
by Patrick Wright
“if you aren’t able to afford or access quality fruit and vegetables for your meals, it can be deflating and isolating to read advice that assumes you can.”
Do you plan your life around your fitness schedule? You could be addicted to exercise
by Katinka van de Ven and Ornella Corazza
“if your workout schedule dictates your life, you may have a problem and need to seek help.”
Note that the behaviours that are problematized here are literally what’s recommended to maintain weight loss (mostly ineffectively): build your life around being active, be constantly, eternally, exhaustingly vigilant and purposefully avoid social situations where your eating and movement goals might be derailed.
Research & Clinical Practice
Mr. Fertility Authority, Tear Down That Weight Wall!
by Richard S. Legro
“these cumulative data suggest that weight limits used to deny women access to fertility care are not only arbitrary, but discriminatory, and clearly not evidence-based”.
Richard S. Legro, Mr. Fertility Authority, Tear Down That Weight Wall!, Human Reproduction, Volume 31, Issue 12, 1 December 2016
Soapbox & Shareables
FAST TRACK TRIAL Academy for Eating Disorders (AED)Research Risk/Benefit Ethics Position Statement
"Research that promises few to no reasonably anticipated benefits alongside serious risks in a vulnerable population, such as appears to be the case in this study, should not proceed.”
Research Risk/Benefit Ethics Position Statement https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Research-Risk-Benefit-E…
Lend your support to stop this trial here: https://www.change.org/p/the-honourable-speaker-and-the-mem…
Unpacking Weight Science Podcast
How about bite-sized podcasts that you can claim as professional development?!?
I've designed the Unpacking Weight Science Podcast to suit health professionals, health science students and anyone who wants to know more about human body weight, health outcomes, interpreting weight related research and the far ranging effects of weight bias.
The 20-30 minute monthly podcasts unpack different elements of weight bias & stigma, weight research, BMI, health behaviours and weight neutral approaches. Paid subscribers (only $5/month!) get instant access to the previous 15 episodes plus full show notes, reference list, self-test quiz and resource materials for use in practice. This equates to an hour of professional development activity each month :-)
Available for subscribers now is:
'Dodgy Definitions:
'cravings', 'overeating', and 'bingeing''
Ep 21: The pathologization of body weight and eating behaviours spills out into well-known, often-used but ultimately meaningless terms. This episode takes you on a trip into the research involving and shaky ground of ‘overeating’, ‘cravings’ and bingeing’.
Subscribe now at: https://www.patreon.com/UnpackingWeightScience
and instantly access 16 episodes before the rest of the world!
Episodes 1-5 are now on iTunes!
Search 'Unpacking Weight Science'
to listen to them for free!
Training Opportunities in 2019
FACE-TO-FACE
Fremantle, Western Australia, 26-27 June
Auckland, New Zealand, 7-8 October
Melbourne, Victoria, 12-13 October
Newcastle, New South Wales, 21-22 November
ALL DISCIPLINES WELCOME
Perth, Western Australia, 28 June
Auckland, New Zealand, 9 October
Melbourne, Victoria, 11 October
Newcastle, New South Wales, 23 November
ONLINE (SELF-PACED)
Want these 'live'? Then follow me on Twitter (@FionaWiller), Facebook (@HealthNotDiets) and Instagram (@FionaWiller)
Want more info about the non-diet approach or unpacking weight science? Resources include books, courses, workshops and handouts: visit www.healthnotdiets.com
See anything you think I'd like to share or comment about? Post in the comments below or email me at fiona@healthnotdiets.com