ASDAH's new HAES Blog

The Association For Size Diversity and Health, a Health at Any Size (HAES) advocacy organization made up of medical professionals, academics, and activists, has recently begun publishing a very impressive new blog!

The authors are a HAES all-star team, most of whom have written books that are Health at Every Size classics:

• Deb Burgard, PhD, co-author of Great Shape: The First Fitness Guide for Large Women
• Linda Bacon, PhD, author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
• Jonathan Robison, PhD, MS, an expert in health education, exercise physiology and nutrition
• Michelle May, MD, author of several books on intuitive eating.

So far, the blog has three substantive posts. The first is an introduction by Deb Lemire, president of ASDAH: the HAES files: what is the Health At Every Size(SM) approach and why it is important.

The Health At Every SizeSM approach is about the ways that people of all sizes can maximize their health.  This approach does not mean to give up or to let everything go.  It is an active process by which people work positively with their bodies and within their lifestyles to achieve a level of health which is reasonable and above all, sustainable for them...

We are no longer content with sitting in the back of the room, listening politely as policy makers, the media, and the food, diet and health industry dictate how this is going to play out.  We are done asking for a seat at the table, we are taking one.

Next is a post by Linda Bacon, The HAES files: on the fat beat, the Health At Every Size(SM) approach deserves “equal weight”.

By overlooking the Health at Every SizeSM approach, aren’t journalists missing the full story on fat? In coverage of the so-called War on Obesity, why is the HAES-led Peace Movement so invisible?
It’s a Journalism 101 cliché that there are not just two sides to every story, but three or more. Yet most health reporting relies on the singular viewpoint of “anti-obesity experts.” The problem is not just that contrarian voices aren’t heard in articles about weight, it’s that few reporters recognize those voices even exist.

The newest post is by Deb Burgard: the HAES files: promoting health or peddling weight loss?.

My challenge – to health care providers, family, fitness and nutrition experts, school officials, our own government and public health agencies – basically, anyone who will listen – is to have the courage to make the argument for health without doing it on the backs of fat people.

All of these posts are worth reading in their entirety.

Their goal is to post one new article a week. Since it doesn't seem to be on the Notes from the Fatosphere feed (yet), I'd strongly urge anyone who's interested in HAES to bookmark it.