HAES community resources
Posted on December 29th, 2008 in Uncategorized
Linda Bacon PhD is a professor, researcher, author and consultant. She has recently released a book called Health at Every Size and I will soon be offering a review on said book (as soon as it arrives from her publisher and I get to read it!).
Linda also has a website to promote HAES at www.haescommunity.org which is worth checking out. Sign the HAES pledge while you are there (if that is your thing)! The site provides a registry of HAES supporters where you can register as a supporter and find other supporters and a resource section where you can post resources you have and search for resources as well.
It was depressing to see NAAFA recommend this and lead the fat community to her beliefs. She’s one of the most radical and messed up about food professors at the university, showing PETA films in nutrition class, and telling us all sorts of bs about how bad foods are for us, like anything manmade or with sugar. One girl couldn’t even look at a hamburger after her class without feeling sick. Everything we eat was about being moral, a good person or bad. It seemed like just another way to diet but think we were eating to be healthy. Eat Well for the world is her other book:
http://www.lulu.com/content/128917
She say’s we’re fat because we eat too much and that processed food makes us overeat and that the food industry is the cause for globesity. I didn’t get the impression that she really likes fat people, unless we were doing everything right. That’s not FA to me.
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/globesity/globesity_report.pdf
Susan: Thanks for your comment. What you have to say is very interesting. I only know of Linda from the Fat Studies elist I am part of (moderated by Marilyn Wann) and as I said, I haven’t read the HAES book as yet. I agree with you that many HAES advocates don’t seem to be particularly FA friendly. I think it is possible to be in both the HAES and FA camps but many people do seem to find it difficult to straddle that line.
I saw the messages on the Fat Studies listserv and I wanted to respond. I have not had the opportunity to take a class by Linda, but I have read her research and I had the chance to meet her this year at the NAAFA/ASDAH conferences.
I do not know all of her ideas about food (and she doesn’t know mine), but I was impressed by her passion for HAES. And I never once, in that conference, felt that she did not like the people with whom she was working in the community. In all the correspondences I’ve had with her she has been respectful and professional.
I do think this continues to raise a larger issue about HAES and the FA community. That issue being the concept of “health.” My experience, as a fat woman who works in healthcare, is that those of us who are fat are so exhausted sometimes by having the “unhealthy” label put on us…and recognizing that for most health professionals there is a moral component when they approach diet.
HAES proponents have tried to step in and talk about health and eating in a different way, but using terminology that the medical establishment can understand. It becomes confusing sometimes.
But beyond the eating component (which is all based on what your body is telling you is right to eat), another important component of HAES is self-acceptance. Anyone who supports HAES supports the idea of accepting yourself for who you are regardless of your size or ability. This is also at the core of FA…it’s where the 2 intersect.
In seven years of teaching and much longer in the fat community, this is the first time anyone has challenged my support for fat acceptance! Susan’s comment seems likes a real mischaracterization of my work. It wasn’t clear from your post, but it seems like you are an ex-student? That’s incredibly sad to me that you could have walked away from a class with me with this understanding of my views. I’d quit teaching if I believed students were leaving class with that impression. But the feedback I get from students is quite to the contrary – I’m always touched to hear that students hear the fat acceptance message loud and clear and feel very empowered by it. And that they seem much more comfortable with food after taking the class.
You are projecting stuff onto me that is just so clearly not me. That pdf you link to, for example, which I think you are suggesting represents my views, is not something I’d ever seen before. I glanced at the first page and it seemed really offensive. It’s hard for me to understand how you could have walked away from a class with me thinking that I support this.
You direct people to Eat Well and provided a link which allows people to purchase the book. Just wanted to clarify. Yes, it is available for purchase, but I’d like to discourage anyone from buying the book (as I make clear on my website). It’s a work in progress, only available in early draft form because I use it as teaching text as I’m writing it. But it needs a lot of work and I think its best used alongside teaching right now, not standalone.
My first book, Health at Every Size, has recently been released. In that book you will find all of the issues you raise addressed: a strong argument for fat acceptance, my views about the food industry, and even a paragraph or so on animal welfare. You can also find many suggestions to help people enjoy food and overcome their fears around eating. While it may be that some of the nuances of my ideas are controversial in the fat acceptance community – after all, we’re not a monolithic group – I think it’s hard to view me as an enemy to the cause. As you note, NAAFA and many other size acceptance organizations have come out in strong support, as have many well-respected activists in the FA community (see http://www.lindabacon.org/HAESbook/endorsements.html).
One thing really made me laugh in your comment. You use the word “radical” as if its an insult. We obviously have very different perspectives.
Linda,
I noticed you didn’t really address the specific issues that Susan brought up. Do you show PETA films in class? Do you say that anything manmade or containing sugar is bad for someone? Do you believe that food consumption is a moral issue? Do you feel that people are fat because they eat too much? I think clear answers on these questions, instead of referrals to your book, would be much better received.
Cree – Fat acceptance is not predicated on whether one shows PETA films in class or even if one thinks processed sugar is unhealthy.
Linda doesn’t have to respond to every accusation by every troll. I take what I need from HAES and leave the rest. It’s done me a world of good.
(FWIW, I’m not a fan a PETA and I do eat processed sugars.)
Thanks for the defense, Jordan (and no, Jordan and I don’t know one another!). I suppose I could summarize a quick response that touches on all those questions in one fell swoop by saying that I just enjoyed the most amazing chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. But Jordan’s right. I’m not so interested in entering the fray.
I’ll be signing off now. Bri’s set up a great forum for you all to have some fun discussion. Enjoy!
Wow, did anyone actually read the text of Eat Well? That sure sounded like making judgments and moralizing about food and eating to me.
I’ve found a lot more acceptance of my body and health by understanding that there’s no food that’s bad for me or wrong to eat.
I am not trying to attack anyone, and I know that PETA videos and processed sugar opinions are not what makes FA. However, if someone doesn’t agree with those beliefs they have the option of not spending their money on Linda’s seminars. I personally would just like to know where she stands. If I am going to a FA seminar, I want to know if I’m going to be dealing with beliefs I don’t agree with the entire time. The FA sphere is made up of varying opinions and thoughts, I’m simply curious as to where Linda’s lay since she is marketing her opinions.
I don’t understand the need for such secrecy.
[...] who advocate this type of lifestyle. For instance, there was a post on Fat Lot of Good concerning Linda Bacon’s Health at Every Size Book. A commenter claimed to have attended a seminar by Linda and made a couple accusations (please read [...]