Aphramor Lucy - Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight

It is profoundly important to address the shortcomings in health discourse, particularly when misinformation is harming the population. Body Respect is a ground-breaking, dogma-busting book that will change how you think about health forever.

Christopher Kennedy Lawford, New York Times bestselling author
and former UN Goodwill Ambassador for Drug Treatment and Care

Linda and Lucy have written the rare self-help book that places the personal decisions about how to care for ourselves in the larger context of the worlds unequal opportunities, judgment, and bias. Acknowledging these injustices and honoring our diverse experiences in our diverse bodies, we each still face the question of what we will do today to be good to ourselves. Body Respect gives us a way to think about our decisionsespecially the challenge of valuing ourselves in an indifferent or hostile worldand the concrete steps to feeling better in our bodies right now.

Deb Burgard, PhD, psychologist, eating
disorders specialist, and HAES pioneer

In a world where positive, uplifting, and scientifically grounded messages about weight are sorely lackingLinda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor have given us a bright light of hope. Body Respect is a must-read book for anyone interested in the complex and timely topic of weight. The authors provide information about food, science, psychology, and more that cuts right to the core of why were so confused around body fat. This breakthrough book is written with both compassion for the human heart and a sharp eye for what the research is really saying. Its practical, information rich, easy to read, and yet profound in its outlook. Body Respect lives up to its titleit offers deep respect for those of us who are tired of the same old messages about weight and body fat that fail to honor the fullness of our humanity. Its time for a new approach to weight. Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor have given us just that. Bravo.

Marc David, MA, author and founder of the
Institute for the Psychology of Eating

Drs. Bacon and Aphramor have created a smart, engaging, and compassionate guide that exposes why the eat less, exercise more weight loss mantra fails so miserably, and how to achieve true health and wellness. From the frustrated dieter to the nurse, doctor, and public health official, Body Respect is transformative for the individual reader, as well as a wake-up call for the real public health crisis America faces: illness and suffering brought on by chronic stress associated with poverty, social inequality, oppression, and stigma.

Katja Rowell MD, author of Love Me, Feed Me and
childhood feeding specialist, thefeedingdoctor.com

Body Respect brilliantly explains why guiding ourselves and others toward better health rather than toward weight loss is not only a more effective and compassionate approach to struggles with eating and weightbut one that is solidly rooted in fact and science. This book is a must-read for those who struggle and who suffer from our cultures pervasively negative attitude toward fat... and for those who want to help them.

Anita Johnston, PhD, author of Eating in the Light of the Moon

With Body Respect Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor build on their impressive contributions to Health at Every Size. Whether youre a seasoned activist or new to the scene, this book will prove an invaluable addition to the literature debunking fat-phobic health discourse. Body Respect is an essential tool for those seeking well-being without stigma.

Charlotte Cooper, PhD, psychotherapist

These intrepid authors outline the most significant indicators of health and issue a clarion call to reassert our attention to aspects of peoples health we can influence apart from body weight. For those who dare to pick up this book and engage with the evidence that is so clearly presented, the power to transform an entire body paradigm is in your hands.

Jacqui Gingras, PhD, RD, cofounder of Critical Dietetics

This is an important book that should be mandatory reading for every health professional. It provides a compelling argument that issues of body weight, in the name of health, should be reframed to focus on healthy behaviors, not a number on a scale. The authors do an excellent job of laying out the flaws in the obesity research, including the obesity paradox. They blow the whistle on the insanity of dieting, which not only is ineffective, but is one of the quickest ways to assure long-term weight gain, while assaulting the mind and body of the individual.

Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, coauthor of Intuitive Eating

Weight is a poor proxy for health, and in their extraordinary and thorough book, Bacon and Aphramor bring just the right amounts of science, wisdom, and compassion to map a more peaceful, sustainable, and equitable road to health. This book will help to alleviate the shame and blame experienced by people who worry about their body size and should be read by every student and professional in the many health-related fields of practice.

Judith Matz, LCSW, coauthor of The Diet Survivors
Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet

Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor have made another important contribution to helping individuals, health care professionals, and policy makers move away from the damaging and fruitless focus on body size that characterizes so much of todays health advice. The title says it all. If you want to support optimal well-being, the place to start is with body respect, understanding, and appreciating the body for the marvelous creation that it is, and then focusing on the true factors that impact health for everyone, regardless of size.

Marsha Hudnall, MS, RDN, CD, president and
co-owner of Green Mountain at Fox Run

Body Respect is the most holistic look at weight and weight loss I have ever read. The authors review nutrition science, physiology, social and psychological factors. They conclude that the dangers of weight are overstated, and that intentional weight loss is nearly always a bad idea. They make a strong case for each person respecting and making peace with their own body, rather than trying to fit into social norms that have little to do with health. They urge a Health at Every Size approach, focusing on health and quality of life instead of on weight. After reading Body Respect, I am convinced this is the best approach for most people.

David Spero, RN, author of The Art of Getting
Well and Diabetes: Sugar-Coated Crisis

This book is the prescription needed for our fat-shaming society. Bodies are not the problemmaking people feel ashamed of their bodies is the problem. Thank you, Linda and Lucy, for this critically important book.

Connie Sobczak, cofounder of The Body Positive
and author of Embody: Learning to Celebrate Your
Unique Body (and Quiet That Critical Voice!)

In their new book, Body Respect, Drs. Bacon and Aphramor present an eye-opening expos on all that is wrong with our current understanding of and approaches to issues of weight and health on both sides of the big pond. As they so eloquently detail, our prejudices toward larger individuals have created cultures in which scientists routinely publish literature that does not support their conclusions, health professionals recommend interventions that do not result in long-term weight loss or health improvement and for many people lead to increased weight and poorer health, and people who do not meet the ever-diminishing standards of body shape and size are routinely pictured as lazy, gluttonous, and not interested in their own health. The solution they propose