By Liz Hasseld, BA
APHA was exhausting and wonderful. I made so many connections and realized public health is exactly where I want to be. I attended mostly Maternal and Child Health themed sessions, but on the last day on a whim, I went to something different. This was a session outside of my normal area of interest but it really opened my mind to the stressor that is ‘Stigma.’ The panelists presented their work which looked at the compounding risk ‘weight stigma’ adds to weight loss programs. Our society is fixated on the ‘obesity epidemic.’ Obesity is linked to countless health problems — so everyone needs to lose 50 pounds, right?? Wrong.
Their work showed that the fixation on weight loss in interventions leads to increased feelings of stigma and stress (also linked to poor health outcomes) and yo-yo dieting. Fluctuating weight can be worse for your health than staying at a stable weight-even it is high. Their main takeaway was that public health needs to shift away from ‘weight loss’ and focus on eating right and exercising. ‘Fighting fat’ leads to eating disorders, discrimination, and poorer health for individuals who are obese. People should not feel shamed for being overweight – not only are they human beings and automatically deserve respect and dignity – but shame doesn’t work to improve health outcomes.
In the future, I plan to be vocal about what language is used in public health when addressing these issues. It has to be about adopting healthy behaviors, not ‘fighting fat’ and cultivating self-hatred. We have all seen the maps of the United States from the CDC and our increasing rates of obesity. This will affect nearly everyone in the coming decades so public health needs to get it right to really achieve its goals.
Check out this link below to sign the ‘health at every size’ pledge:
Liz Hasseld will be graduating in Summer 2015 with an MPH concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. Her interests include migrant and refugee health, reproductive health, and achieving health equity through policy. As an ESFJ, she loves to travel and meet new people and is slowly teaching herself Spanish.
