Synopses & Reviews
Body insecurity is rampant, and it doesnt have to be.Think for a moment about your attitudes toward weight:
Do you believe that people who are thinner are more healthy and attractive?
Do you think dieting is an effective health strategy?
Do you judge yourself or others because of weight?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, youre not alone. Its much more common for people to feel bad about their bodies than to appreciate themand to judge others by those standards as well. But people dont have to be packaged in a small size to be valuable and attractiveor healthy for that matter. Saying that they do causes more harm than good, and judgments based on size tell us more about our own prejudice than someone elses health or value. Its time to show every body respect.
With the latest findings from the Health at Every Size© (HAES) movement, Body Respect debunks obesity myths, demonstrates the damage of focusing on weight, and explores how social factors impact health: the world is not a level playing field, and that affects ones opportunities as well as ones size, health and sense of self.
Using peer-reviewed evidence and common sense, scientists and nutritionists Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor explain the fall-out of a health agenda based on the concept that thinness is the goal and that ones weight is simply a matter of personal choices. They explore why diets dont work and provide alternative paths to better health and well-being for people of all shapes.
Body Respect is indispensable reading for anyone concerned about widespread body insecurity and size stigma and their many implications.
Review
It is profoundly important to address the shortcomings in health discourse, particularly when misinformation is harming the population.
Body Respect is a ground-breaking, dogma-busting book that will change how you think about health forever.”
Christopher Kennedy Lawford, New York Times bestselling author and former UN Goodwill Ambassador for Drug Treatment and Care
Linda and Lucy have written the rare self-help book that places the personal decisions about how to care for ourselves in the larger context of the world's unequal opportunities, judgment, and bias. Body Respect gives us a way to think about our decisionsespecially the challenge of valuing ourselves in an indifferent or hostile worldand the concrete steps to feeling better in our bodies right now.”
Deb Burgard, PhD, psychologist, eating disorders specialist, and HAES pioneer
In a world where positive, uplifting and scientifically grounded messages about weight are sorely lackingLinda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor have given us a bright light of hope. Body Respect is a must-read book for anyone interested in the complex and timely topic of weight.”
Marc David, M.A., author and founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating
Drs. Bacon and Aphramor have created a smart, engaging and compassionate guide that exposes why the eat less, exercise more weight loss mantra fails so miserably, and how to achieve true health and wellness. Body Respect is transformative for the individual reader, as well as a wakeup call for the real public health crisis America faces: illness and suffering brought on by chronic stress associated with poverty, social inequality, oppression, and stigma.”
Katja Rowell M.D., author of Love Me, Feed Me and childhood feeding specialist, thefeedingdoctor.com
This book is a must-read for those who struggle and who suffer from our cultures pervasively negative attitude towards fat...and for those who want to help them.”
Anita Johnston, Ph.D., author of Eating in the Light of the Moon
With Body Respect Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor build on their impressive contributions to Health At Every Size. Whether you're a seasoned activist or new to the scene, this book will prove an invaluable addition to the literature debunking fatphobic health discourse. Body Respect is an essential tool for those seeking wellbeing without stigma.”
Charlotte Cooper, PhD, psychotherapist
Synopsis
Mainstream health science has let you down.Weight loss is not the key to health, diet and exercise are not effective weight-loss strategies and fatness is not a death sentence.
Youve heard it before: theres a global health crisis, and, unless we make some changes, were in trouble. That much is truebut the epidemic is NOT obesity. The real crisis lies in the toxic stigma placed on certain bodies and the impact of living with inequalitynot the numbers on a scale. In a mad dash to shrink our bodies, many of us get so caught up in searching for the perfect diet, exercise program, or surgical technique that we lose sight of our original goal: improved health and well-being. Popular methods for weight loss dont get us there and lead many people to feel like failures when they cant match unattainable body standards. Its time for a cease-fire in the war against obesity.
Dr. Linda Bacon and Dr. Lucy Aphramors Body Respect debunks common myths about weight, including the misconceptions that BMI can accurately measure health, that fatness necessarily leads to disease, and that dieting will improve health. They also help make sense of how poverty and oppressionsuch as racism, homophobia, and classismaffect life opportunity, self-worth, and even influence metabolism.
Body insecurity is rampant, and it doesnt have to be. Its time to overcome our cultures shame and distress about weight, to get real about inequalities and health, and to show every body respect.
About the Author
Linda Bacon, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized authority on topics related to nutrition, weight, and health. A nutrition professor and researcher, she holds graduate degrees in physiology, psychology, and exercise metabolism, with a specialty in nutrition. She has conducted federally funded studies on diet and health, and is well-published in top scientific journals. Lindas advocacy for Health at Every Size® has generated a large following on social media, health and nutrition listservs and specialty blogs, and the international lecture circuit. She and her work are quoted regularly in national and international publications, with recent appearances in the
New York Times, Londons
Sunday Times,
ABC Nightly News with Diane Sawyer,
Good Morning America, and magazines including
Prevention,
Glamour,
Cooking Light,
Newsweek,
Fitness Magazine, and
National Geographic. Well known for her hard-hitting political and social commentary, Linda writes a regular column on the Health at Every Size blog and frequently guest posts elsewhere. Her first book,
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight was called the Bible” of the alternative health movement by
Prevention Magazine.
Lucy Aphramor, Ph.D., R.D., notably pioneered the use of a health at every size approach in the U.K. National Health Service, developing an eight-week HAES course that is now available internationally through licensed facilitators. She is director of a consultancy dedicated to advancing health at every size theory and practice in and beyond the U.K. through training, research, and community engagement. Dr. Aphramor is also an honorary research fellow at Glyndwr University, Wales, and a visiting lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Surrey University.
Dr. Aphramor is the only U.K. dietitian with publishing and teaching expertise in critical weight science. She is at the forefront of the new international Critical Dietetics movement where her work blending critical thinking and compassionate self-care is enthusiastically received. Her influence extends to coverage in the popular press and her reputation as an outspoken scientist gains her interviews across the board from womens magazines to the broadsheets.