In this issue:

GroupMe Reminder

Call for Art Submissions!

Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

Evidence-Based Archives

Research Study: Send Your Eating Disorder Lecture Materials!

GroupMe Reminder

We have moved over to GroupMe (from Slack). Please remember to check it when you can. This is where we’ll discuss current happenings, projects, rants, wins, and more!

Bookmark this page: https://groupme.com/a

Call for Art Submissions

We are excited to announce a new initiative aimed at celebrating the beauty and diversity of all bodies through art. MSSI invites you to submit your creative works—whether visual art, poems, reflective stories, or any other form of expression—that capture the essence of living in and caring for diverse bodies.

Our goal is to highlight the experiences and triumphs of individuals within the body liberation movement, and the unique perspectives of medical providers dedicated to inclusive and compassionate care. This is an opportunity to showcase the beauty, strength, and resilience found in all body types, and to inspire others within our community and beyond.

Submission guidelines:

Who can submit their art: MSSI members and advisors

Accepted formats: Visual art (paintings, drawings, photography), poetry, short stories, personal reflections and any other creative expressions!

Selected pieces will be featured in our upcoming newsletters, shared on our social media platforms, and potentially included in a special online gallery. We believe that your art can spark important conversations and bring a deeper understanding of the importance of size inclusivity in healthcare 🙂 

Please submit your work to the Google Form below. We look forward to seeing your beautiful and powerful contributions!

Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

Anti-Fatness and Medical Racism event with The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance’s (NAAFA) Tigress Osborn: Wednesday, September 25th at 7:30pm EST.

Weight Stigma Awareness Week event with Mindy Hoffman & Dr. Sarah-Ashley Robbins: Date & time TBD (but likely to be a weekday evening between September 23-27th)

MSSI Fall Advisor Meeting: Tuesday, October 1st at 8:00pm EST

Evidence-Based Archives

MSSI is excited to present our first installment of “Evidence-Based Archives,” our monthly column highlighting and summarizing seminal research in the field of size-inclusive healthcare. In this section, we hope to celebrate our scholars, empower each other with knowledge, and stock up on citations for the next time we’re called upon to justify size-inclusive healthcare in the classroom, clinic or wards! 

Content warning: Medicalized fatphobia

This month’s highlight: 

This systematic review published in the 2011 edition of Nutrition Journal is a beast of an article that effectively condenses two decades of weight-inclusive research into a concise argument in favor of a HAES approach to healthcare. Its scope and perspectives are showing their age as we round out 2024, but “Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift” remains a jumping-off point for many patients and clinicians beginning to unpack their experience of weight stigma in healthcare. For those reasons, we thought it deserved a mention! 

Important features of this article include a point-by-point refutation of assumptions underlying a weight-focused approach to healthcare, an explanation of how weight stigma contributes to poorer health outcomes, and a clinical ethics argument that explains how weight-centered healthcare may oppose key tenets of medical practice (namely beneficence and nonmaleficence).

It is worth mentioning that this work was published prior to Lindo Bacon’s split from ASDAH. 

Check out the full article here, or pocket these 4 key takeaways:

Six randomized controlled trials conducted between 1998-2007 suggest that a HAES approach to healthcare counseling is associated with statistically and clinically relevant improvements in:

Physiological measures 

(blood pressure, blood lipids)

Health behaviors 

(physical activity, eating disorder pathology)

Psychosocial outcomes

 (mood, self-esteem, body image)

Some epidemiological studies find that people with BMI>25 live at least as long as people with BMI 18.5-24.9, and often longer:

BMI>30 has been associated with longer survival in groups with a history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, heart attacks, coronary bypass, angioplasty, and/or hemodialysis.

Seniors with BMI>25 live longer than seniors with BMI<25.

When studies control for factors like fitness, activity, nutrient intake, weight cycling and socioeconomic status, the correlation between BMI>30 and disease risk either disappears or is significantly reduced.

Weight cycling can lead to inflammation, which contributes to hypertension, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia.

Health-promoting behaviors have an impact on health, independent of weight loss.

Stigmatizing fat may demotivate, rather than encourage, adjustments in health behaviors and can simultaneously increase risk of disordered eating, healthcare avoidance, depression, and poor self-esteem.

Blood pressure, blood lipids, and insulin sensitivity can all be improved without making significant changes to body weight.

That’s all for now! In future installments, we hope to dive deeper into the specific articles that form the basis for Bacon and Aphramor’s arguments, as well as journey into the landscape of modern size-inclusive research.

Have thoughts?
We are open to feedback and interested in the lived experiences of our MSSI members. Have you referenced this article in your clinical work, used it to guide patient counseling, or used it to communicate with your colleagues? How did it go? 

Feel free to share your stories, reflections, expertise, and advice using the link below. With your permission, we may publish reflections in future installments of this column.

If you have a favorite article you’d like us to highlight in our next installment, feel free to submit it for consideration, also by using the link below! We look forward to hearing from you.

Research Study: Send Your Eating Disorder Lecture Materials!

This newsletter was authored by Sophie Lalonde-Bester and Jay Liu, MSSI members and medical students (University of Alberta and Stanford University, respectively).