Health At Every Size Analysis

Criticism of Healthy at Every Size
On October 11th, 2008, nutrition professor Linda Bacon’s book,“Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight,” was published. Within the pages lies the “HAES Manifesto,” a short, three page pamphlet which details why fat individuals should learn to accept their weight. The manifesto’s end goal is to promote Health at Every Size, or HAES, a new “peace movement” to end the “war on obesity” (Bacon 274). Fat acceptance is not a new notion, the original movement dating back to the 1960s, but Professor Bacon’s particular brand promotes unique concepts, focusing on the health concerns of higher weights. The manifesto is well-intentioned, but some of its ideas are quite dangerous. Though it tries to
In Professor Linda Bacon’s HAES Manifesto, she instructs people to trust themselves by following their bodies’ “signals of hunger, fullness, and appetite” (Bacon 277). To those people who enjoy being “in-tune” with their bodies, this might sound very nice — it’s logical to conclude that the body’s natural signals would correctly indicate how much food one needs, and that fullness is the body’s way of telling the brain it has had a healthy amount. Unfortunately, this is nothing more than an appeal to nature. As Takako Hara points out in his writing on hunger and eating, “despite strong beliefs that hunger is caused biologically, this motivation is controlled not just by physiology, but also psychology as well” (Hara). Humans will often feel hungry only due to the time on the clock indicating mealtime, even if they have already eaten. Additionally, Professor Bacon doesn’t account for eating disorders, such as Binge-eating disorder. According the National Eating Disorder Association, Binge-eating disorder, or BED, causes a “sense of lack of control over eating” (BED Overview). This lack of control leads to eating an unhealthy amount in a short timespan, despite any feelings of fullness or lack of hunger - this means that even if it were safe to listen to the body’s signals, there would still be risk factors regarding eating disorders, of which obesity is on the same
This is a key point of Health at Every Size, as it is doing what many fat acceptance movements have done in the past: trying to fight anti-fat social stigmas, and put an end to fat shaming. It is true that fat shaming is very hurtful, and may lead to unnecessary emotional stress in the overweight. One study in 2014 found that “perceived weight discrimination was associated with relative increases in weight... and waist circumference” (Jackson). Additionally, one must question whether another person’s weight is any of his business. Perhaps the overweight person is already on track to weight loss, perhaps he is afflicted with a medical condition; no matter what the reasoning, unless the person is a close friend or family, it’s a matter of discussion between him and his