Health At Every Size 2nd Edition Revised & Updated: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was not written by a medical doctor.It's easy to be impressed by someone who says 'I have a PhD' but keep in mind that a PhD is NOT the same as a MD. I have never come across an MD that says obesity is ever healthy. Yes, you can be overweight and healthy, but your body can only carry so much extra weight before that excess takes a toll on the body, so there really is no such thing as HAES, despite what this author, and so many Fat Acceptance proponents say.There's some good things in this book about not trying to conform to a societal standard of beauty, not starving yourself to become skinny, and accepting that the "ideal" standard of beauty is nearly impossible to accomplish, but then that gets weighed down with promoting HAES and trying to ignore/downplay the medical consequences of obesity, as well as pushing intuitive eating, which sounds great at first, but ignores the fact that you do have to be careful of what you eat and be aware of what you are eating and how much instead of just eating whenever you feel hungry, which is problematic because the body is meant to feel a limited amount of hunger at times, and people who eat a lot thus condition their bodies into feeling hungrier more often than they should.Ultimately, the concept of HAES is an outright lie, and intuitive eating and loving your body needs to be taken in moderation. I loved the first half of this book-- I found it incredibly informative and gave really concise, evidence-based scientific data which I appreciate. My only issue with the book was the next half. All of the suggestions and outlines listed re: HAES felt a bit...tired (take the stairs! eat on smaller plates! I mean really?...). Honestly, none of it seem particularly innovative or new except for the fact that it was written within the lens of body acceptance, which was good but overall it just left me feeling "meh". Perhaps I wanted more than any book on health can really afford me (a magic pill perhaps) but this was good for what it's worth.
What do You think about Health At Every Size 2nd Edition Revised & Updated: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (2012)?
This book made sense of lots of things for me. Good information and a smart philosophy.
—Kel
Diets don't work, they really don't. But, thinking healthfully? That just might.
—Lacycole
