In this issue:
MSSI Community Artwork & Call for Submissions!
Save the Dates: Upcoming Events
Evidence-Based Archives
Weight-Inclusive Online Learning Platform: Pratique Inclusive
Research Study: Lived Experiences of Fat Women During the Ozempic Era
Frontiers in Psychiatry Special Issue: The Mental Health Impact of Weight Stigma
MSSI Community Artwork
Artwork by MSSI member featuring an illustrated quote by Ragen Chastain: “Health is a complicated, multi-factorial, concept and is not an obligation, barometer of worthiness, or entirely within our control.” The quote is surrounded in a fluffy green speech bubble and placed next to a pink pill bottle with heart-shaped tablets. The pill bottle reads, “Prescription — take daily as needed.”
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:
Wed, Sept 25th at 7:30pm EST
Follow up discussion event Wed, Oct 9th, at 7:30-8:30pm EST (for medical students/residents/physicians)
Event Registration Link
Discussion Registration Link
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 Chapters & Affiliates Leadership Meeting: Mon Sept 9th, at 8:30pm EST
MSSI Fall Advisor Meeting: Tuesday, October 1st at 8:00pm EST
Flyer with details about Anti-Fatness and Medical Racism event, presented by MSSI and NAAFA. It reads: “Learn about weight bias in healthcare and its intersection with medical racism. A free webinar with Tigress Osborn, Executive Director, NAAFA.” Event logistics and registration link can be found in the text above.
Evidence-Based Archives
MSSI is excited to present our second 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, ob*sity, anti-fat language
This month’s highlight:
This study examines experiences of weight stigmatization, sources of stigma, coping strategies, psychological functioning, and eating behaviors in a sample of 2671 overweight and obese adults.
This is a really tough read for a lot of reasons. First, the results about are really sad. Second, the authors perpetrate a lot of weight bias in an article that is seemingly advertised to do the opposite. For one, it is published in “Obesity”, a journal published by The Obesity Society, a professional organization dedicated to the study and ‘treatment’ of obesity.
Despite this, the patient experiences reported are valuable and there is much to learn from this article by Puhl and Brownell (good and bad). Let’s just say we’ve come a long way from 2006.
The methods:
The study design is cross-sectional. No causality can be inferred from the results.
Participants completed a web-based survey.
The participant demographics:
This study employed a large sample size of 2671 adults (presumably from the United States).
The participants were all sampled from a large weight loss support group.
The sample is 95% white and overwhelmingly represented by women.
The results:
The most common stigmatizing situations reported by participants were:
Others making negative assumptions (e.g., others having low expectations of you because of your weight)
Receiving nasty comments from children
Encountering physical barriers and obstacles (e.g., public accommodations being too small)
Encountering inappropriate comments from doctors
Receiving negative comments from family members
As medical professionals, we can directly influence bullets 1, 3, and 4.
Let’s avoid making assumptions about a patient’s health, diet, or exercise habits based solely on their body weight, body shape, or BMI.
Let’s make our spaces fat-friendly with medical equipment that fits (blood pressure cuffs, gowns, etc), exam tables that are high-weight rated, waiting rooms with chairs for every body, and treatment rooms have ample space for accommodating larger bodies (just to name a few). Ragen Chastain has a great article discussing how we can make our offices size-inclusive.
And, let’s give our patients autonomy by asking for permission before discussing weight, diet, and exercise.
Doctors were the most frequent source of stigma reported by women and the second most frequent source reported by men (others including family, friends, coworkers, and classmates)…
Individuals who began dieting earlier in life reported more stigmatizing situations than people who started dieting later. Let’s not recommend weight loss/dieting ESPECIALLY to young people, okay?
Coping strategies for dealing with stigma
One of the authors’ main outcomes is to discover what coping strategies people use in response to experiences of stigma. Some strategies reported include positive self-talk, heading off negative remarks, social support from non-overweight people, using faith/religion/prayer, and more.
When reading this article, we felt super weird about this. Weight stigma is a systemic issue, deeply ingrained in societal attitudes and institutional policies. It is not just an individual problem but a societal one that requires a collective effort to change. Placing the burden on individuals who are stigmatized to develop coping mechanisms seems unfair and potentially harmful… It implies that the problem lies within the individuals’ reactions rather than the societal attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate the stigma.
While coping skills can be beneficial for managing immediate emotional distress, they do not address the root cause of the stigma. Continually asking individuals to “cope” can lead to feelings of isolation and reinforce the idea that their experiences of discrimination are something they need to handle on their own. Society, as a whole, has a responsibility to challenge and change stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors. This includes policy changes that promote inclusivity and respect for all body types.
Closing thoughts
This article, while outdated and permeating anti-fat bias, provides important insights into the experiences of weight stigma. The experiences of the 2000+ respondents are valid and worth reflecting on.
Moving forward, our focus should be on systemic changes to reduce stigma and promote a more inclusive and respectful healthcare environment for all.
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.
Weight-Inclusive Online Learning Platform: Pratique Inclusive
A dark green banner bordered by illustrations of grains, fruits, and veggies. Banner text reads: “Pratique Inclusive; Supporting Health Professionals in Creating a Weight-Inclusive Practice”
A Comprehensive Weight-Inclusive Training for Health Professionals and Healthcare Students.
Are you looking to deepen your knowledge of the weight-inclusive approach?
Do you feel ill-equipped to support clients who are concerned about their weight?
Perhaps you know that diets do not work in the long term but aren’t sure of the alternatives?
Are you wondering how to have a weight-inclusive practice that takes into consideration medical conditions?
We’ve designed an online, comprehensive course to answer these questions (and many more!).
What to expect: This is a live, online training consisting of 5 sessions of 2hrs (sessions will be recorded). It focuses on teaching the basics (and a little bit beyond) of the weight-inclusive approach to healthcare.
Themes to be discussed include weight science, systems of oppression and diet culture, practical advice for integrating weight-inclusive approaches into your practice, the science-based evidence for this approach, the nuances and limitations of intuitive eating, and other concrete intervention strategies.
Who is this for? This course is designed for all health professionals and students studying in a healthcare field. Whether you are new to the concept of weight-inclusive care or looking to understand the nuances, this course aims to suit all needs.
Who are we? We are 3 passionate registered dietitians who have integrated a weight-inclusive practice into our work and want to help others integrate it through continuing education (https://pratiqueinclusive.com/english). We have over 40 years of experience as health professionals between us and have supported over 300 health professionals and students since we began hosting this training and webinars 4 years ago. We have even written a book on the topic- Au-delà de la grossophobie: redéfinir son bien-être et habiter son corps (https://editionslapresse.ca/products/au-dela-de-la-grossophobie).
Price: Early bird pricing is available until September 30th, 2024: $499 CAD. Student rates, group rates and equity pricing are also available.
Visit our website for more information: https://pratiqueinclusive.com/english
P.S. We are presenting a FREE webinar on Sept 17th, 2024 titled Revisiting the weight inclusive approach: challenges and concrete applications. This webinar is in collaboration with Weight-Inclusive Dietitians in Canada (WIDIC) (https://weightinclusive.ca/) and registration will be open soon! If you’d like to get a taste of what learning is like from us, we hope you’ll consider joining us or watching the recording.
Research Study: Lived Experiences of Fat Women During the Ozempic Era
Alison Squire-Anderson is a weight-inclusive counselor in Oklahoma working on a Ph.D in Counselor Education and Supervision. Alison is conducting a qualitative research study to investigate the lived experiences of fat women during the Ozempic Era, specifically how the widespread use of GLP-1s have impacted them in all areas of life. Alison is hopeful that this research will allow those in the fat community to be heard instead of others speaking on their behalf.
Alt text: “Research Participants Needed; Investigating the lived experience of fat women during the Ozempic Era. Alison Squire-Anderson, doctoral student is looking for women in fat bodies to share their stories about living in the Ozempic Era. Participation Requirements: Not taking and have not previously taken any GLP-1 medications such as ozempic, wegovy, mounjaro, or any generics of these medications. Identify as a women. Identify as fat. 18 years of age or older. Qualify and Interested? https://forms.office.com/r/YAfyRmENcX aanderson73431@ucumberlands.edu”
Frontiers in Psychiatry Special Issue: The Mental Health Impact of Weight Stigma
Call For Submissions! | Due: October 14, 2024
Catherine Walker (Union College), Lily O’Hara (Qatar University), and Erin Harrop (University of Denver) are currently building a Special Issue for Frontiers in Psychiatry around The Mental Health Impact of Weight Stigma and are looking for Manuscript Summary Submissions, which are due 14 October, 2024.
This Research Topic is focused on the mental health impact of weight stigma. They invite high-quality submissions that examine lived experiences, predictors, mediators, and moderators of weight stigma and its mental health consequences. We also welcome submissions exploring the development, implementation, and/or evaluation of initiatives to reduce weight stigma and its mental health consequences at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intersectional, institutional, or ideological levels. Lastly, we encourage submissions that explore weight-inclusive approaches to mental health care. We invite scholars from any field of study to submit manuscripts focusing on any of these aspects related to weight stigma and its impact on mental health.
Upon initial editorial acceptance, the finalized Manuscript Submission Deadline is 31 January 2025, at which point papers will be sent for peer review and will undergo a traditional peer review process. Papers are reviewed and, if accepted, published, on a rolling basis, so can be submitted prior to the deadline.
Frontiers in Psychiatry is an open access journal with an article processing fee (information follows); however, if you lack institutional or grant support to publish in an open access journal, please reach out to discuss any concerns (and we will pass them along to the Frontiers in Psychiatry Content Specialist, as the journal may be able to provide fee reductions, depending on researchers’ circumstances.
This newsletter was authored by Sophie Lalonde-Bester and Jay Liu, MSSI members and medical students (University of Alberta and Stanford University, respectively).