Podcast: Differenza di peso nell'assistenza sanitaria
Oggi, nel podcast Nutrition Facts, osserviamo una forma dilagante di discriminazione che può portare ad alcuni effetti negativi sulla salute. Questo episodio contiene l'audio di:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/weight-bias-hating-their-guts/
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-impacts-of-weight-bias-in-health-care
Do overweight people stigmatize other overweight people?
There are parts of the country where obesity is the norm and anyone who looks fit is shamed for not eating more.
hi
This is so true. I lost 50 pounds several years ago. And although many people said that I was not obese before I lost the weight, I can see the difference in treatment between being an 180 lb woman vs. 130 lb woman. PEOPLE, in general, treat you differently when you're slim. The difference is obvious. And some people who were heavy with you will want you to gain the weight back and will tell you you're too slim and things like that. So if you lose the weight, you have to be prepared for some friends not to be happy for you as well.
Using 10-20 year old research in this topic is a problem. The recent body positivity movement swing the pendulum in the opposite, and unhealthy direction.
Maybe a video on that.
Thanks doc! I honestly doubt I'd take diet advice from an overweight person, not even if they were a doctor and/or PhD…
I feel for obese or overweight people especially since some are overweight for reasons beyond their control such as pollution in the environment and healthy food at times being inaccessible or more expensive. As it has been said the body's solution to pollution is dilution.
I am obese. Whenever I have to go to my primary care doctor, I definitely feel like she is extremely uncomfortable touching me, which makes me even more uncomfortable to be touched. My gynecologist is also a "larger lady" as she refers to us, and she has such a wonderful bedside manner, she puts me at such ease that I'm hardly aware of the examination. And she has a lot more probing to do than the other doctor!
As a " normal" weight person, I've noticed the American "delusion " you refer to regarding perception of being overweight. Someone obese is referred to as a little overweight! It is difficult to find a useful comment, so i usually don't say anything.
Also, I've been told you don't have to worry about your weight ".
Well, of course I do! That's why I'm not overweight. Eating a healthy diet is always challenging in our food environment, and more so as we get older. IMO.
There is so little real preventive medicine that , as a patient with no meds and pretty good health at 80, I'm all for a system that pays docs to learn how to and to practice real preventive medicine.
So telling people the truth that he or she is obese and living an unhealthy life and could die prematurely is now bad? Just checking. How about the shear and simple fact that people who are obese are likely to have comorbid health conditions, were more susceptible to die from COVID-19 and other disease let alone cancers, and we are not supposed to tell them the truth? Doctors can't tell them the truth? To quote Ben Shapiro, "Facts don't care about your feelings." Now, having said that, not taking new clients or patients or not hiring someone because of his or her obesity is wrong. Still, many a company has an image to maintain, so that's an issue. Likewise, airlines having to redesign entire airline fleets because your fat ass can't fit into one of their seats is not their fault. That's just economics. So, either don't fly or pay for 2 seats. As for "fat shaming" at a doctor's office, there's only so many ways people can you the truth and so many ways for a patient and a doctor to benefit from the facts and also lose weight … if at all possible, and if your feelings are hurt, that's not something a doctor or other medical health professional can control, so as he says at the end, which is better to be healthy, obese, or dead? Apparently not being obese, and definitely not being dead are not preferable to being in a healthy body.
Sooooo… what comes first the depression or the weight? Why are we attributing depression and all cause mortality and Inflammation in obese people to fat stigma rather than to being overweight due to depression and the mortality/Inflammation thing to being obese? This is probably the weirdest episode you've had. What is the motivation behind not additionally pointing out the stats around how being obese is in fact extremely unhealthy?
No one should be fat shamed. Having said that being over weight is not healthy and can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. This will lead to higher medical costs and care. A limited budget can be improved by making better food choices leading to reduced medical costs. Not having to spend money on medical care leaves money for other necessities. Some people are motivated by money.
Hospitals, doctors offices and schools should be places where good nutrition is taught and provided not places that contribute to disease and obesity. It is crazy the hospitals are feeding people the very food that caused the heart disease, high blood pressure or cancer that they are treating. Every person in the hospital should receive some nutrition education before being released. Every doctor visit should be an opportunity to educate patients about how food choices impacts their health outcomes. The fact that doctors do not get nutrition training as part of their training makes no sense. Medicare and Medicaid should require nutrition education as part of patient care. Focus should be on food choices.
This is wonderful!
I wonder if Drs. are ever educated about how 1) their own biases can make them poorer providers, 2) to hold themselves responsible for the harm they do with their arrogance 3) to speak with folks with excess weight in a caring and helpful and motivating way 4) to review discoveries in medicine relating to weight 5) to acknowledge that they probably are missing some very important information because it hasn't been discovered yet (think MTHFR) and 6) to refer a client that they are harming with their attitudes to someone more capable and own up publicly to their shortcomings. I am far more repulsed by arrogance and condescension than I am by fat. If they can't relate to their patients' vulnerabilities by acknowledging their own imperfections, they are going to be lousy medical providers should probably find something else to do. I've met too many of them.
Nothing wrong with fat shaming and prejudices. Stop acting like a lunatic leftie, Dr, Greger, or you will lose lots of followers.
All my life I've been a binge eater. I would lose 50 lbs and in 6 months or a year I'd gain it back. I've been up and down the scale for over 40 years. I could never understand why until I ended up in therapy.
A trauma informed medical community is needed for overweight people to be understood and helped. We don't lack nutritional information we lack emotional support to heal and nurture ourselves back to health.
The help I received showed me that my addiction to food was a coping mechanism to sooth and numb the pain I'd endured. The more time I spent learning to understand my emotions the less I needed overeat.
Dr Gabor Mate [he's got tons of videos on YouTube] is a great doctor that can help explain the connection between trauma and food or whatever your coping mechanism of choice is – sex, drugs, smoking, compulsive shopping etc.
Wow! Thank you for this info
Being told that you’re overweight/obese by a doctor is something that has to be done very carefully. Because of the shame surrounding the subject. Also it would it’s probably more appropriate for a doctor to suggest a separate appointment to discuss “general health and weight” as sometimes you may find that doctors will use obesity as a scapegoat for medical conditions which probably have a different cause
The second part of this podcast is a repeat from a couple of years ago. Still interesting. Obesity is a multi-layered problem that needs a multi-layered approach. Simply stigmatizing the obese is not helpful and may be counterproductive. The obese are cash cows (no insult intended) for the pharma, medical and fast-food industries and as long as this is the case no positive change can be expected. The system is stacked to make everybody obese and once you go down that road there's no happy ending for you.
This is pretty heartbreaking. We need to do better.
This episode hit home in so many ways. I have been very overweight for 30 years now and although a plant based diet is helping me, it is still a struggle. I know for a fact I am treated differently by even nice people. And discriminated against by clothing designers and manufacturers, too. It is harder to find a Dr that takes any of my ailments seriously, most just want to blame my weight for everything, and I get no help to speak of. Heck, most of the time they don’t even have paper gowns for overweight people. As if to send a subliminal message to their patients that only skinny patients are welcome. Here is a thing, too, although I have found Dr. McDougall’s starch plan to be so life changing and he has changed the way I eat forever, I find some of the comments he makes to be terribly insulting and insensitive, hurtful. I hesitate to watch some of his talks as a result. I know he has good intentions and motivations, but it’s just difficult to hear him complain about how people look when they are fat.
This is so surprising given how normalized obesity seems to be.
In the UK there is so much "body positivity" for those overweight and also so many more people being overweight that it seems to be more widely accepted and normal.
But what is often overlooked is the bias and prejudice against those underweight who are often treated awfully by society as well as in healthcare.
Yeah, I had to lose 120lbs before anyone took my pain seriously. 5 years and nerve damage later, we find out that it was a ruptured disk. I should have been walking let alone working physical labor. Going plant based literally saved me.
YIKES