Archive for 2016
9/29/16, Fortune, Donald Trump’s Fat Shaming Reflects Weight-Based Prejudice in the Workplace, by Kristen Bahler
Implicit bias keeps overweight women from advancing at the same pace as their coworkers, says Linda Bacon, PhD, a health professor at the City College of San Francisco and author of the book Body Respect. “A lot of judgments happen,” she says. “There’s this assumption that they’re lazy, they lack character or willpower.” Those assumptions are wrong, she says, but they give thinner people an advantage when it comes to promotions. “Often, when two people are in the same position, with the same experience, the thinner one gets the raise,” she says.
Link to article9/18/16, BBC News, Should Donald Trump’s weight be an election issue?, by Brian Wheeler
“Knowing Trump’s BMI tells me nothing about his health but making a judgement about Trump’s BMI tells us a lot about bias,” says Dr Linda Bacon, author of Body Respect and Health at Every Size. She argues that BMI is a “lousy indicator” of general health but does add to the stigma… “There are plenty of thin people who get the diseases we blame on weight, and plenty of people labelled overweight and obese that live long, disease-free lives. Research shows that if we diagnosed people based on weight, we’d be wrong at least half the time.” She adds: “I don’t think that weight should be a defining factor, either for the Presidency or in life.”
Link to article7/6/16, California Magazine, Campaign for Fat Acceptance: Big Girls Do Cry, but They Grow Up and Fight Back, by Katherine Seligman
Commenting on Virgie Tovar: ““Virgie just lives her life unabashedly,” says Linda Bacon, an associate nutritionist at UC Davis and author of Health at Any Size, who attended the festival. “She is an incredible role model…. She embodies herself.”
Link to article7/8/16, Natural Health Radio, The Noble Art of Well-Being, with Linda Bacon, Interviewed by Donna Noble
Check out this radio interview, busting the myths about weight.
Link to interview5/4/16, Refinery 29, A Totally Shame-Free Guide To Your Body Fat, by Hallie Levine
[snip]”“It’s a hard leap for many women to jump to loving their body in a culture with such strong standards as to what’s considered attractive and what’s not,” Dr. Bacon says. What you can do, though, is remind yourself of the phenomenal stuff your body does for you on the daily, whether that’s your legs (fat and all) powering you through an indoor cycling class, or the curve of your hips making a perfect resting place for lugging groceries up the stairs. As Dr. Bacon says, when you really think about it, “it’s hard not to be in awe of the human body.” It’s your body. It’s your summer. Enjoy them both.”
Link to article3/9/16, The Inquirer, Pretty Does Hurt, by Chelsey Schallig
[snip] Linda Bacon, a professor at City College of San Francisco, associate nutritionist at the University of California at Davis, and author of many books concerning nutrition said, “The popular media presents us with many images of white, able-bodied, slender bodies, and doesn’t accurately represent the larger diversity of what female bodies really look like.” “Women are taught that looks are their currency. And there is some truth in that: The more you resemble the culturally promoted beauty ideal, the better you get treated in the world, socially in terms of work. It makes sense to want that power,” said Bacon. “That said, I’d rather us invest our time and energy in changing the culture, rather than buying into and perpetuating harmful values.”
Link to article2/26/16, Women’s Health, The Truth About Whether ‘Plus-Size’ Women Are Actually Unhealthy, by Christina Heiser
[snip] And, more than 23 percent of people who have BMIs in the “normal” range (18.5 to 24.9) are unhealthy. This group of people often goes without having diseases diagnosed until they’re in advanced stages, since they believe they’re healthy, says Linda Bacon, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of California-Davis and author of Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand About Weight. Even when you see disease more among heavier people, it’s because of other variables correlated with a heavier weight, not the weight itself, says Bacon. For example, there’s a strong correlation between weight and poverty and a strong correlation between poverty and poor health, she says.
Link to article2/11/16, College Magazine, Beyonce Was Right, Pretty Does Hurt, by Denver Ellison
[snip] Dr. Linda Bacon, Professor at City College of San Francisco, associate nutritionist at the University of California at Davis and author of many books concerning nutrition, recognizes that the process to accepting one’s body is difficult but attainable. “Recognize what really is important in the world and surround yourself by people who share the same values as you,” Bacon said.
Link to article2/5/16, US News & World Report, Are Football Players Too Fat?, by Anna Medaris Miller
[snip] “If we’re concerned about health, we shouldn’t be looking to professional athletes as our role models,” says Linda Bacon, an associate nutritionist at the University of California–Davis and author of “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.” “Some of the things that are required to perform well are not good health practices in the long run.”
Link to article1/29/16, Ravishly: Real Feminism for Real Life, Linda Bacon And The Health At Every Size Movement, by Joni Edelman
[snip] You may have seen the acronym “HAES” floating around the Internet, and that is because the “Health At Every Size” movement has taken over THE WHOLE WORLD. OK, maybe not the whole world, but much of the online body positivity/fat acceptance world for sure. [snip] HAES is an alternative route to health that bypasses body shame and diet culture, one that works for an awful lot of people. And we have Linda Bacon to thank for it! She literally wrote the book on the subject, and I was lucky enough to talk to her about it.
Link to article