Ep. 18: Understanding Weight Bias & Weight Stigma with Anna Mackay

For the last episode of Season 1, Anna Lutz & Elizabeth sat down with Anna Mackay. to chat about her master’s research on weight bias and weight stigma, and how both affect all of us, one way or another.  

We discuss:

• How internalized weight bias plays a role in the etiology of eating disorders
• What the research tells us about the dangers of internalized weight bias, and specifically how this affects adolescents
• The difference between weight bias and weight stigma
• Subtle vs. obvious examples of weight stigma
• Some steps we can take to examine our own weight bias and the assumptions we make about bodies
• Strategies to identify weight stigma and ways we can begin to decrease the prevalence, especially in schools
• How the atmosphere around food & weight tends to be very Eurocentric and therefore the research often excludes lower SES communities where weight stigma is just as pernicious and harmful as in higher SES communities.

Links:

• Pinney Davenport Nutrition
• Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy