Body Respect by Linda Bacon

Author:Linda Bacon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.
Published: 2013-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Health at Every Size: The Body Politic

The last chapter introduced the rationale for adopting a HAES approach in relation to lifestyle. We considered science that gets neglected when formulating weight-loss recommendations. We listened to how people felt about their bodies and took note of what happened over repeated dieting attempts. This more inclusive approach to evidence, which can be thought of as “integrative listening,” is also of paramount importance in drawing attention to factors other than lifestyle that impact well-being and disease. Integrative listening makes for good science, a science that brings evidence on social justice into health care.

Within the past century, the leading causes of death in industrialized countries have shifted from communicable diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis to chronic ones like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. As these diseases have become more common worldwide in line with rising prosperity, they’ve become known as “diseases of affluence.” They often get blamed on a “nutrition transition” radiating outward from North America into developing countries, spreading disease through the menaces of dietary fat, high-fructose corn syrup, and weight gain. It’s true that we’ve gotten fatter and our diets have transitioned. But the irony is that we’re living longer and we’ve never been healthier. Often a leap is made that erroneously extrapolates causation from these changes in weight and diet. But as we’ll see, there’s a lot more going on.

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