Health at Every Size!

I encourage you all to look more into the "health at every size" movement, which is promoted by many FA/ Fat Acceptance Communities. Health at Every Size, HAES, (Fixed! Thank you Linda Bacon.) is employed to combat harmful dieting and body standards. Personally, I've been fat for all of what I can remember in my life, and have faced much opposition for what are called "health reasons." Others have seemed concerned about my health, and have been very negative towards me based on that concern. This ideology, however, is problematic for a few reasons. First and foremost, my health is none of your business. Second, in modern culture, being fat wrongly presupposes being unhealthy. Conversely, it is not the case that all fat people are unhealthy; though some maladies do directly and undeniably correlate with weight, it is harmful, misguided, (and none of your business) to assume that all fat people are unhealthy, as many of them are in great health.

So far, I've described health as a physical thing. It is important to remember mental health, and that mental health is often related to physical health. When people are fatphobic and distance themselves from fat people or  make it their business to inform them on potential  health issues they are surely already aware of, such an experience can be immensely distancing and harmful towards mental health.

HEAS encourages more freedom with diet and exercise, and that people eat and exercise comfortably and as they wish, rather than denying themselves in a harmful manner in order to achieve an unrealistic body standard. I'll probably write more on this in the future, but for now, read up on it further here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size

And remember, support health by being a healthily supportive system, not by distancing and criticizing.