Review of 'Health at Every Size Revised and Updated' on 'Goodreads'
This is perhaps an important book.
It has two sides. On on hand, it presents the hypothesis that conventional thinking on weight, dieting and the calorie equation is wrong. That diets don't work because they try to work against the body's mechanisms, and that the research on the pathology of weight is a complicated matter. It explains this in great detail and cites quite a lot of research to back it up. It also talks about the politics of weight (and overweight, which the author describes as a bad term).
On the other hand, it is a self help book, striving to help people break out of the old mentality, and to focus on healthy and enjoyable eating, disregarding the scales.
In that regard, it naturally focuses on the group most affected by this phenomenon, namely women, and especially large women. In this part, I didn't identify that much with …
This is perhaps an important book.
It has two sides. On on hand, it presents the hypothesis that conventional thinking on weight, dieting and the calorie equation is wrong. That diets don't work because they try to work against the body's mechanisms, and that the research on the pathology of weight is a complicated matter. It explains this in great detail and cites quite a lot of research to back it up. It also talks about the politics of weight (and overweight, which the author describes as a bad term).
On the other hand, it is a self help book, striving to help people break out of the old mentality, and to focus on healthy and enjoyable eating, disregarding the scales.
In that regard, it naturally focuses on the group most affected by this phenomenon, namely women, and especially large women. In this part, I didn't identify that much with some of the situations presented, as I'm not a part of the vulnerable group, but I still had a lot to learn and absorb, as all of us are affected by the old mentality, whether we are in a vulnerable group or not.
I can't tell whether the information presented is false, whether the research is crap, misinterpreted or misrepresented. That's always a problem when reading books that contradict conventional wisdom in disciplines one has no idea about: both sides know so much more than you, so that they can both sound convincing and over one's head. However, in this case Linda Bacon has pretty much convinced me, as the presentation in this book is solid, well written and thorough.
I am not up to date with medical and diet research, but looking around for other books, people online who write about these matters and so on, I didn't find that much opposition to this book's thesis. In fact, even this guy, who seems to be respected, and who disagrees with Linda Bacon, seems to accept a lot of what she says and treats it like well established facts (like, for example, that people can be fat and fit, and that it's eating healthy that's more important than getting thin).
I also found this gem, which purports to label HAES as hate, while being hateful itself.
I say to you: read it! Agree or disagree, it's something everyone should be exposed to.