Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight

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 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 show more 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 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

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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

There is a lot of good information in here -- covering the science that shows that dieting is usually not successful long-term, that the health risks of obesity are overstated, and that self-acceptance supports health better than dieting does. There's also advice and support for moving one's own life to an acceptance model, and that's where, for me, she falls down a bit. I found her tone overly personal and cheerleader-ish. I could do with fewer sentiments along the lines of "I know how it is" and "You can do it, sister!" Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book to people who are not at peace with their body size and try to control it through what they eat (or spend time feeling bad because they are not controlling their food intake show more as a way to reshape their bodies). show less

The book has some good information, backed by research, about it is better to focus on health than on dieting, and provides a lot of good ways to do that. Unfortunately, the author spent way too much of the book complaining about and blaming various industries and government agencies for our misconceptions about food and dieting and health, which turned me off, but the book has some good information in spite of that.

The book has some good information, backed by research, about it is better to focus on health than on dieting, and provides a lot of good ways to do that. Unfortunately, the author spent way too much of the book complaining about and blaming various industries and government agencies for our misconceptions about food and dieting and health, which turned me off, but the book has some good information in spite of that.

This book was not written by a medical doctor. (I also find the name Bacon to be deliciously ironic)

It's easy to be impressed by someone who says 'I have a PhD' but keep in mind that a PhD is NOT the same as a MD. Not only that, but Bacon's degree is in physiology, not medicine, and she (as of 2020) is an associate nutritionist at the same college she got her degree from (University of California)

Calling oneself is a nutritionist is an automatic strike against that person. ANYONE can call themselves a nutritionist - you don't need certification for that. Dietitians are the ones who need to get certified, and you will find dietitians in hospitals and clinics to advise patients on diets, usually for health issues (i.e. low-sugar diets for show more diabetics, low-sodium diets for heart patients, etc) but since Bacon doesn't believe in diets, it makes sense that she is using the word nutritionist. Sheer fucking quackery.

Bacon says several times through the book that obesity is not related to health, that obesity has no negative impact on health, that if anything is hurting one's health, it's other stuff such as diabetes or arthritis, etc etc. Wrong. When it comes to type 2 diabetes, 80-85 percent of these cases are obese people. Coincidence? I think not.

I have never come across an MD that says obesity is ever healthy. (I even outright asked my doctor, and she said that while 10 or 20 pounds overweight on an adult is fine if their diet is moderate, but the body has limits) So yes, you can be overweight and healthy, but your body can only carry so much extra weight before that excess takes a toll on the body, so there really is no such thing as HAES, despite what this author, and so many Fat Acceptance proponents say. (Not to mention the extreme hypocrisy I see from so many FA/HAES advocates when they slam/rip thin people)

Bacon also ignores the fact that obesity not only causes many health issues (particularly heart issues) but exacerbates existing health issues (i.e. arthritis) Medical studies have proven time and time again that obesity is just NOT GOOD FOR THE BODY but whatever little research Bacon cites in this book is very cherry-picked.

There's some good things in this book about not trying to conform to a societal standard of beauty, not starving yourself to become skinny, and accepting that the "ideal" standard of beauty is nearly impossible to accomplish, but then that gets weighed down with promoting HAES and trying to ignore/downplay the medical consequences of obesity, as well as pushing intuitive eating, which sounds great at first, but ignores the fact that you do have to be careful of what you eat and be aware of what you are eating and how much instead of just eating whenever you feel hungry, which is problematic because the body is meant to feel a limited amount of hunger at times, and people who eat a lot thus condition their bodies into feeling hungrier more often than they should.

Ultimately, the concept of HAES is an outright lie, and intuitive eating and loving your body needs to be taken in moderation. If being extremely underweight is unhealthy (something many HAES/FA supporters will eagerly believe) then so is being extremely overweight. That's all there is to it. It's simple medicine, and simple physics. The human body was only designed to take so much abuse - alcohol, drugs, food, whatever - before consequences - temporary and permanent - happen.

Heatlth at Every Size is an oxymoron, and a dangerous delusion that fatties use to make themselves better. Thing is, having good fee-fees isn't going to cancel the negative effects of obesity on the body.

And that whole 95 percent of diets fail study that is used as an argument by HAES proponents? The study was flawed. After the experiment, the people were not given any diet or nutrition counseling, they were just turned loose back into the world. Most of them reverted to their old eating habits because all the experiment did was restrict their diet, nothing more. No counseling, or nutrition lessons, or anything like that. The scientist who did the study realized that, and admitted himself that the experiment was flawed.

(Link here about THAT study and how flawed it was) https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/25/health/95-regain-lost-weight-or-do-they.html#.....

Other doctors have criticized Linda Bacon and her HAES stance, and for good reason https://bodyforwife.com/the-problem-with-health-at-every-size/

EDIT as of Dec 2019 - Anyone calling me a troll or trying to use strawmen to try to argue with me will be insta-banned. I'm tired of stupid fatties REEEEEing at me because they can't accept their own shortcomings and have to take it out on other people.

EDIT as of July 2020 - If you have a problem with me rating this book 1 star, read my damn review - all of it - before commenting, because it's painfully apparent that the butthurt I see over my review is from the fact that I gave it one star (gasp, how DARE I???) and many of the people who REEEEE in my comments section are nothing but butthurt at the fact that I refuse to accept their self-induced delusions. If you're one of these people, take a long look at yourself and stop projecting your self-inflicted problems on other people, and take god damn responsibility for the choices that YOU make on a daily basis.

Thanks and have a great day!

EDIT as of July 9 2020 - I have had quite a few FA/HAES advocate try to troll me either on this review, or reviews I've written against other HAES books in the last few days alone. This just tells me that my reviews are really hitting home for HAES advocates, whether or not they want to admit it, which pleases me immensely. However, I have no patience for stupidity, and as I said already in my last update, take some responsibility for the shitty choices you make instead of taking it out on me or other people who speak out against the delusion of HAES.

I don't mind intelligent debate, that's why I leave comments open on my reviews, but anyone who tries to shit it up in my comments section or REEEES about the tone of my reviews, or tries to tell me that "I don't understand" or any of that shit WILL be met with a insta-ban, and your REEEEing will only strengthen my belief and stance against FA/HAES bullshit. That is all. show less

A wonderful book, I wish I had read it years ago. Also wish I had a bunch of copies to give to everyone I love.