Health and Wellness Resources

WHAT?! Fat people can be physically fit, healthy, and happy?? Say it ain’t so!

Shocking as it may seem to some, and in spite of all the mass media rhetoric, it is indeed true that fat and fit are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Unfortunately, the misconception that fat = unhealthy has resulted in a lot of discrimination, pain, misery, ill-health, and even death. We hope you will take some time to read through the HAES links and then spend some time pondering how fat hatred, rather than fat itself, causes or complicates far-too-many illnesses.

Health at Every Size (HAES) and HAES Movement:

• Kelly Bliss.com (“Plus-size fitness and lifestyle coaching”)
• Linda Bacon’s HAES page
• NIH’s Active at Any Size Program
• Pearlsong Press on HAES (Pearlsong Press, run by the divine Dr. Peggy Elam, is a fantastic, pro-diversity publishing and resource site)
• Size Wise Health and Fitness (Pro-body-diversity and pro-health site)

You have a right to be treated with dignity by health professionals!

• American Family Physician article on treating fat patients (Print this puppy out and send it to your doctor!)
• Fat Friendly Health Professionals Resource List
• MaryMc’s Fat Acceptance Stuff -- Health Resources
• NAAFA’s list of brochures on fat patients and health care (Patients’ rights, guidelines for therapists and health care professionals, and other goodies)
• Tips for Obtaining Good Health Care

The dangers of dieting and weight loss surgery (WLS):

• Big Fat Facts (Incredibly cool site that debunks some myths about the weight loss industry)
• Big Fat Index’s Research Page (Helps address and debunk myths surrounding dieting and fatness)
• The Diet Myth (Excerpts from Paul Campos’ brilliant book about the overblown “obesity epidemic” and the businesses that profit from it)
• International No-Diet Day (Lots of juicy, diet-related stats on here)
• Junkfood Science Blog (Sandy Szwarc’s brilliant blog that dispels dieting and other anti-fat myths)
• Junkfood Science Blog (Sandy Szwarc posts stirring words from author Dani Hart about WLS)
• Largesse (Handouts page with lots of tips about improving one’s “size esteem”)
• MaryMc’s anti-WLS page (Lots of professional advice and personal stories)
• NAAFA’s official policy on dieting
• NAAFA’s official policy on WLS

Media, advertisements, and health:

• About Face (Website devoted to addressing the negative physical and emotional effects of media advertisements)
• Eating Disorder Referral and Info Center (Info on body image and eating disorders)
• Media Awareness Network (“Beauty and body image in the media”)
• Medscape Today article on eating disorders and negative body image
• Mirror, Mirror (Site devoted to providing resources to those with eating disorders as well as their supporters)
• Something Fishy (Rational discussion of media’s contribution to eating disorders)
• Stay Free Magazine (Article about some very tangible dangers of advertising)