What is Health at Every Size?
Health at Every Size, or HAES®, is an approach to health and wellness that rejects the use of weight, size, or BMI (body mass index) as proxies of health. The HAES principles are weight inclusivivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for well being, and life enhancing movement.
More information on Health at Every Size can be found at the Association for Size Diversity and Health website: www.sizediversityandhealth.org
What is “Diet Culture”?
Diet culture is a broad term which describes a society that places value on being a certain size, weight , and shape. Diet culture promotes the notion that health equates thinness, and praises and promotes weight loss as a tool for health. Diet culture ignores body diversity. Diet culture can be blatant in the form of promoting or selling products simply for weight loss sake, or it can be discrete, in the form of promoting “lifestyle change” yet the underlying tone is tied to weight as an outcome measurement of success.
Is a non-diet dietitian right for me?
A non-diet dietitian believes in the Health at Every Size approach to health and wellness, and does not judge someone’s health based on size. Non diet dietitians believe that healthy behaviors can be promoted at any size. Authentic non-diet dietitians will not advertise nor promote weight loss as a goal. Non-diet dietitians work with anyone who has a body – regardless of size, shape, color, ability, background, culture, and more. If you have a body, and want to have a body that is healthy as you define health, then working with a non-diet dietitian might be a good fit for you.
What’s the evidence behind the non-diet approach, intuitive eating, and health at every size?
Association for Size Diversity and Health – non profit organization with resources, HAES curriculum, and more.
Health Not Diets – The Non-Diet Approach for dietitians, psychologists and the public; training for dietitians and psychologists; registry of Non-Diet Approach dietitians
Weight Science: Evidence for a Paradigm Shift – challenging all the assumptions around weight loss, obesity and health
Weight stigma is stressful. A review of evidence for the Cyclic Obesity/Weight-Based Stigma model
Why Diets Are Not The Answer – the overwhelming majority of dieters regain the weight within 5 years, with 1/3 to 2/3 regaining more weight
Dieting Leads to Weight Gain and The Weight of the Evidence – a summaries of the major studies showing that dieting is a detriment to health
Healthy Lifestyle Habits Decrease Mortality Independent of Body Weight – evidence suggesting that lifestyle habits , irregardless of weight change, decreases mortality rate
The Minnesota Starvation Experiment – evidence that restricting calories damages both physical and psychological health and that it is the human condition to obsess over food when you’re not eating enough
Some of Jen’s favorite resources, activists, books, blogs, podcasts, and more.
Virgie Tovar – radical, self proclaimed Fat Activist, author of “You Have the Right to Remain Fat”, founder of Babecamp, and starter of the hash tag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight.
LoseHateNotWeight TedTalk – delivered by the fabulous Virgie Tovar herself!
benourished.org – founded by Hilary Kinavey and Sturtevant, creators of the statement that “body trust is your birth right”.
Body Kindness (book) – written by Registered Dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield ; chock full of body kindness reminders, tips, and a general guide on how to not diet in a world that’s filled with diet culture
Brene’ Brown – “researcher story teller”, author of multiple amazing books, has delivered several empowering TedTalks, and reminds us that the key to living a wholehearted life is compassion, connection, and vulnerability!
Enough with the fear of fat TedTalk – delivered by the activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater
Eating in the Light of the Moon (book) – written by Dr. Anita Johnston
The Body Kindness Podcast – led by Registered Dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield
The Body is Not an Apology Blog – founded by Sonja Renee Taylor
The Body is Not an Apology Book – written by Sonja Renee Taylor
The Nurtured Mama Podcast – led by Registered Dietitian Lindsay Stenovac
4th Trimester Bodies Project – photo gallery and more, depicting real bodies in the “4th trimester”
Jennifer Yoder-Clevidence, MS, RDN, LD 