Lindo Bacon

"So before we continue with the science, we want to appeal to you on the basis of emotion."

SCIENCE DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS.

"diet and exercise are not effective weight-loss strategies"

Jesus Christ, are these authors fucking serious??? But then this is Linda Bacon we're talking about - a person who is NOT a medical doctor, and is in no way associated with medicine. Her first book,
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight asserts that obesity has nothing to show more do with health, something that has been disproved MANY times.

The other author, Lucy Aphramor, is also not a medical doctor. These two people need to stop calling themselves doctors, it's an insult to the profession.

"fatness is not a death sentence."

If you're 10-20 pounds overweight, then sure, you can be healthy. The body can handle a bit of extra chonk, no problem. But if you're 100+ pounds overweight, then yes, it IS a death sentence. Morbidly obese people typically do not make it past their 60s, with many dying in their 40s and 50s, so while you may see very old people with a bit of extra weight in their 70s and beyond, there's a reason why it's called 'morbid obesity'.

It is true that the fashion/modeling and diet industries propagate toxic ideals about health and weight, but that doesn't mean that Health At Every Size is any better of an ideal. Obesity IS a crisis, both in the USA and across the globe. Developing countries are seeing an increase in obesity as fast foods and sedentary lifestyles become more easily accessible, and a couple of years ago, Mexico actually exceeded the USA in the percentage of obese people in the population.

Diet and exercise are not four-letter words. They're a vital part of health and well-being, and yes, fad diets should be avoided, and people should not be starving themselves down to a size 0 - which is not healthy for most people, anyway - but Linda Bacon is SO fucking wrong when she claims there's no link between obesity and health. Anyone who denies a link between obesity and health should be regarded as nothing more than a quack, and a dangerous one.

I speak as someone who's watched several relatives die - or suffer - from morbid obesity. Those who lost the weight saw plenty of improvements in their health, and gasp, actually managed to keep the weight off. Those who didn't died from health effects that were directly linked to their obesity and shitty choices (mainly heart issues) so I know from personal experience how wrong Linda Bacon is.

Respecting your body means actually taking care of it, and keeping it at a reasonable weight. Notice I don't say 'thin' weight, but reasonable. If you have a BMI in the upper 20s or lower 30s but have a moderate diet and exercise, and don't drink heavily or smoke, then you go you and that kind of BMI number need not be fretted over. But if you have a BMI over 35, then no, you're not respecting your body. HAES advocates like to slam the BMI, but a number in the upper 30s or higher is absolutely cause for alarm. show less

So that was pretty good. A little more self help-y than I was expecting even with all that the title might imply.

Drs. Bacon and Aphramor are interested in making sure that we all are aware of the actual science around health as it relates to weight. Not the ridiculous idea that you can tell someone's health by their weight, but the truth: that health is complex and certainly can't be reduced to the number on the scale. Plenty of very thin people are extremely unhealthy, but most of society show more doesn't care, because they look the way we expect (want?) people to look. And so we project that this visual must also be associated with what we deem to be good - e.g. health.

It's sort of amazing what we expect from people, and this book is a great reminder of the absurdity involved. We have no comments or scolding of thin people who say 'I can eat whatever I want and not get fat' as they bite into a giant burger. Meanwhile, if a fat person eats literally exactly the same diet as the thin person, society judges them as unhealthy. It's bullshit, and it's super obnoxious. Personally, I think it relates heavily to the need of some people to feel like they are better than others, and this false idea of what equates with health is a great (and by great, I mean shitty) way to do it.

The book provides a whole lot of great evidence to debunk ideas that the diet industry is built on, such as the concept that calories in = calories out, and that everyone is going to process food the exact same way. Eat fewer calories, lose weight, and keep it off. But research shows that's just not the case. One study that was especially vivid in showing this involved a bunch of sets of twins who all ate the exact same food. Within twins there was very little variation, but among sets of twins there were wildly different outcomes. So even though these same people were consuming the exact same number of calories and nutrition, some gained weight and some didn't. And yet this seems SUPER difficult for society as a whole to grasp. People are different, and being fat doesn't mean someone is unhealthy, or eating too much.

The book doesn't, however, pretend that what one consumes doesn't have any affect on one's weight or health. Instead, the authors choose to focus on how food isn't just the sum of its nutrients, and that being mindful about it is what will help us be healthiest. I especially appreciated this idea because it a) disparages the shit notion that any food is objectively 'bad' or 'good' based solely on its nutrition profile and b) recognizes that food actually serves a very valid cultural and social role. Eating a bunch of frozen Jenny Craig dinners might help you lose weight (for a few months before you can it back and then some), but it will also have you missing out on things like sharing some of a beloved family member's dessert that was baked from a recipe passed down from generations. This idea that we should be automatons who just count calories and types of nutrients to get 'healthy' is silly, and it's nice to see it called out as such.

I think this could be a great book for anyone to read, especially one who is tired of seeing the same shit on TV and online about how anyone can (and should) lose weight if they do x, without questioning WHY we expect these folks to lose weight. It's not about their health (because we don't care what thin people eat); it's about having a group to judge and control. And about making money. And that needs to stop. show less

This was a really interesting read. Like all books that go against mainstream science it made me mad. Mostly because I hate seeing how many of our medical professionals are in the pockets of corporations or other big conglomerates.
I enjoyed the expertise the author brought to this. She has a lot of impressive credentials and I enjoyed hearing what her experience and research has found. I thought she had a lot of data and cited sooooo many sources. It did make me change a lot of my show more viewpoints on things which was difficult for me as it goes against a lot of my deep held beliefs.
I took some practical lessons and next steps from this book that I’ve started to put into practice. This has changed my viewpoint on a lot of things and I’m trying to change my perception as well.
I’m glad my therapist recommended this book as I felt it was an important read for me. show less

Despite its subtitle (which screamed "fad diet book" at me, but I may just be paranoid), Health at Every Size is not a diet or weight loss book. Instead, it is a commonsensical guidebook for living healthily in the bodies we have. Bacon proposes that anyone, at any size, can be healthy. Rather than focusing on what we think a scale or mirror is telling us, we should instead focus on eating well and living an active life. As long as our health is good (low cholesterol, blood pressure, and show more glucose readings, etc) why should size matter?

Accepting yourself as you are today doesn't mean giving up. It means learning to live in the present with the body you have. It means facing and acknowledging reality. (169)

You know best how to take care of yourself. Trust that. Let go of the rules, the judgements, the "expert" advice. Respect your hunger and appetite, and let them guide you to better health and fulfillment. (263)

Exhausted and infuriated as I am by society's constant, casual assumption that thin = healthy, I found Health at Every Size quite refreshing.

(Bacon's advice is supported by 29 pages of references to authoritative sources such as the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, New England Journal of Medicine, and Journal of the American Medical Association). show less