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Check Your Attitude towards Weight & Obesity

Fork surrounded by a stretched out measuring tape

 

Our attitudes towards weight and obesity may be unknowingly biased. This needs to change – not just by primary care health professionals, but also by us.

In a presentation about the new Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines, one of the lead authors Dr. Sean Wharton emphasized the importance of recognizing our internal biases against people who are overweight or living with obesity. Wharton challenges health professionals to check their attitude. I think this exercise is valuable for all of us.

Take a look at the three questions below and answer them honestly. The first step in reframing our attitudes is recognizing our own biases.

  1. Do you assume a person’s health characteristics, behaviours and abilities are based on their body size, weight or shape?
  • Reframe your attitude: People come in different sizes and shapes. Body size, weight and shape are not directly associated with a person’s health, work ethic, willpower, intelligence or skills.
  1. Do you think that everyone with a larger body size or a higher Body Mass Index has obesity and needs to lose weight?
  • Reframe your attitude: Obesity is a chronic disease where abnormal or excess body fat impairs health. Body Mass Index (BMI) is an indicator of body size and not an indicator of health. Not everyone with a large body size or high BMI has obesity.
  1. Do you believe people with obesity are personally responsible for their condition?
  • Reframe your attitude: Obesity management isn’t just about eating healthier and being more active. There are many factors beyond a person’s control – such genetics and environmental factors – that can contribute to obesity.

Let’s work to let go of our attitudes. These new Guidelines are just the beginning.

“Eat Less, Eat Better”…is it that simple? Rethinking our message about healthy eating and obesity

Will we solve the obesity crisis by simply telling people to “eat less and eat better”? A one-day health professional forum was held in Toronto to rethink our messages about food and obesity. The event featured key leaders in obesity research/treatment and health communications: Dr. Ayra Sharma, Ted Kyle and me! Here’s what the experts were saying.


Dr. Ayra Sharma – Chair for Obesity Research and Management, University of Alberta
• Obesity is a complex chronic disease.
• Simplistic messages about obesity are misleading, can promote unhealthy weight obsession and promote bias and discrimination.
• Prevention and intervention strategies should focus on improving health behaviours rather than on just changing body weight.


Ted Kyle – Founder, ConscienHealth
• Use respectful, people-first language that is free of bias and stigma – e.g. “unhealthy weight” or “high BMI” instead of “fat” or “morbidly obese”.
• “Obese” is a harmful label. “Obesity” is a disease.
• Shift the conversation from “being obese” towards health.


Sue Mah – President, Nutrition Solutions
• “Eating better” means cooking, eating together and enjoying food.
• Consumers are bombarded with food/nutrition messages that simply don’t “have the scientific muster to present as fact” (quoting Dr. Oz here!)
• Health and nutrition communications needs to be creative to capture consumers’ attention.
• From celebrities and chefs to dietitians and politicians, everyone has a role in being a champion for change.

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