Weight Bias: Nature, Consequences, and Remedies - Hardcover

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11 ratings by Goodreads

9781593851996: Weight Bias: Nature, Consequences, and Remedies

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1593851995 ISBN 13: 9781593851996

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 2005

Discrimination based on body shape and size remains commonplace in today's society. This important volume explores the nature, causes, and consequences of weight bias and presents a range of approaches to combat it. Leading psychologists, health professionals, attorneys, and advocates cover such critical topics as the barriers facing obese adults and children in health care, work, and school settings; how to conceptualize and measure weight-related stigmatization; theories on how stigma develops; the impact on self-esteem and health, quite apart from the physiological effects of obesity; and strategies for reducing prejudice and bringing about systemic change.

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About the Author:

Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, is Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. Prior to joining the faculty at Duke, Dr. Brownell was the James Rowland Angell Professor of Psychology, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. His work focuses on obesity and food policy. Dr. Brownell has been named to the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine); has received numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association; and in 2006 was named by Time magazine as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.

Rebecca M. Puhl, PhD, is a researcher with the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University and a clinician at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. Her research focuses on weight stigma and on societal and behavioral contributors to obesity.

Marlene B. Schwartz, PhD, is Deputy Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University and Co-chair of the Weight Bias Task Force of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. Her research focuses on the stigma of obesity and environmental factors that contribute to poor nutrition for children. She is a coauthor of Helping Your Child Overcome an Eating Disorder: What You Can Do at Home.

Leslie Rudd is the owner and CEO of Leslie Rudd Investment Company, a privately held organization based in California. He is also the owner of Dean & DeLuca, the New York-based epicurean food store; Rudd Vineyards & Winery; PRESS restaurant in Napa Valley; and Distillery No. 209 in San Francisco. In 2005, Mr. Rudd founded the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University to expand the obesity-related work started by The Rudd Institute in 1999.

Review:

"An excellent and comprehensive analysis. Chapters are written by leading scholars in the field, and are accessible as well as thorough. This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the stigma associated with weight, and should prove useful to clinicians and policymakers as well as scholars."--Brenda Major, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Prejudice against people with obesity is so pervasive that it often passes unrecognized. For the first time, the nature, extent, and consequences of this prejudice are documented in a single, authoritative volume. Anyone interested in the welfare of people with obesity will want to read this unique and important book."--Christopher G. Fairburn, DM, FRCPsych, FMedSci, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

"Bias and prejudice stand in our way, not only as limitations in our approach to obese people, but as Brownell and colleagues make clear, by contributing to suffering and illness. Reading this scholarly volume points us toward understanding how weight bias comes about, how it can subtly affect us, and how deeply it affects those who bear the brunt of it. There are remedies, though, and a substantial portion of the book shows us how we can help. This volume will be of great benefit to health practitioners interested in helping their patients with excess weight, as well as to scholars seeking deeper understanding of this great current challenge."--Charles Billington, MD, Minnesota Obesity Center; Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota/Minneapolis VA Medical Center

"The worsening crisis of obesity in the United States is compounded by an insidious, pervasive tendency to blame and castigate the victims of this modern plague. By opposing this shameful societal tendency through balanced, meticulous, and comprehensive scholarship, Brownell and his colleagues may do much to end it. If so, they will have helped to alleviate a burden far heavier to many than any number of excess pounds: the burden of shame. Every student in the health care professions should certainly be required to read this book."--David L. Katz, MD, MPH, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine

"This book will be an important reference for students, investigators, and practitioners. Each chapter could stand alone as a useful source of information on the many aspects of weight bias. Taken together, however, they provide a powerful platform for future research by defining the current knowledge base on this widespread problem. Balancing the scientific with the human and the theoretical with the practical, this book is a call to action for all who work in the field of obesity treatment and research."--Denise Wilfley, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Weight Management and Eating Disorders Program, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

"This important book appears at a critical time in our recognition of bias against obese persons and of efforts at reducing this bias....Pulls together for the first time the myriad of the problem and of potential for its solution. It provides a blue print for an informed effort at controlling bias against obese persons.... This volume is comprehensive and well-written, and its authors provide many authoritative accounts of the different problems presented by this base....The editors of Weight Bias deserve our heartfelt thanks for this important volume....It is a major resource for anyone who want so advocate plus-size people." (The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2005-08-26)

"This book brings together the current research on the problems encountered by the obese due to the weight bias prevalent throughout our culture. Using attribution theory, stigma theory, as well as other theories from the field of social psychology, the book will be a significant resource for anyone interested in understanding weight bias....A welcome addition to the literature on the topic and will be particularly useful for practitioners to enhance their sensitivity to the issues their obese clients endure." (Clinical Social Work Journal 2005-08-26)

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