Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (2 page)

—ANNA LAPPÉ, coauthor of
Grub: Ideas for an Organic Kitchen
and
Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
 
 
“Outstanding! Dr. Bacon offers a compelling and comprehensive understanding of why we are the weight we are and how to maximize our physical and emotional well-being. Based on solid scientific research, Bacon provides us with new concepts that will forever change the way we think about hunger, nourishment, and weight regulation.”
—JUDITH MATZ AND ELLEN FRANKEL, psychotherapists, authors of
The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care
and
Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Therapist’s Guide to Treating Compulsive Eating
 
 
“There are thousands of self-help books directed at plus-sized people, who make up two-thirds of humanity. Nearly every one of these books promises to trim away your body fat, and as a result improve your health and life satisfaction. Every one of these books is a sham.
Health at Every Size
differs from all the rest because it offers a new road to travel, one that will lead you to better health and a better life. This revolutionary book is based on a solid foundation of biomedical research. The book is true to the real science, not the press releases from diet promoters that pass for health news today. Readers will achieve a new understanding of how their bodies really work and how to work with your body and not against it to achieve better balance in life.”
—PAUL ERNSBERGER, PHD, researcher/professor, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
 
 
“Linda Bacon’s book is a major contribution to the health-at-every-size movement. Any person contemplating going on a diet to lose weight should read this book first. Every health professional who counsels people about weight control should absolutely read this book, read it again, and make sure [his or her] clients read it. It’s a dogma-busting book that provides a sensible alternative to mainstream fairytales of easily attainable weight loss for all, and offers reassurance to all those who have struggled with their weight that the road to a fitter and healthier body is wide enough for everyone.”
—GLENN GAESSER, PHD, researcher/professor, Arizona State University, author of
Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health
 
 
“Linda Bacon deftly exposes the $50 billion lie of the diet industry. In plain language, she describes the indisputable science behind why millions of Americans’ failed attempts to lose weight is hardly the result of personal failing, and how if we’d just get out of the way, our bodies already know how to be healthy. Indeed, the nation’s collective obsession with the alleged ‘obesity epidemic’ (another myth Bacon convincingly debunks) is only distracting us from facing the true menace—an industrialized food system driven solely by profit motive. Anyone who has suffered through endless weight-loss programs should read this book and follow Bacon’s simple, commonsense guide to better health, improved self-esteem, and the enjoyment of real food as a source of nourishment.”
—MICHELE SIMON, JD, MPH, public health attorney, author of
Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back
 
 
“At a time when there is tremendous medical and media pressure to be extremely thin, Linda Bacon’s new book
Health at Every Size
comes as a breath of fresh air. She insists that, for people of all sizes, the focus needs to be on health, not weight. It needs to be on acceptance and self-respect, not trying to change their bodies to fit ‘society’s hurtful standards. ’ The section ‘Respect Yourself, Body and Soul’ is especially valuable for women caught up in appearance issues. Rather than dieting and waiting to be thin, a clear set-up for failure, Dr. Bacon encourages women to let go of magical thinking and start living life fully now, in their present bodies. Trying to achieve respect and happiness through weight loss ‘provides a hollow and tenuous victory, not the core satisfaction that you are really seeking,’ she says. ‘Cultivate a value system that puts appearance in its place and honors bodies for more than their packaging.’ She assures readers that feeling good about themselves is motivating for making healthy changes, unlike punishing or shaming themselves. ‘When you feel better about yourself, you make better choices.’”
—FRANCES M. BERG, MS, nutritionist and professor, author of several books, including
Women Afraid to Eat: Breaking Free in Today’s Weight-Obsessed World
and
Underage and Overweight: America’s Childhood Obesity Crisis—What Every Family Needs to Know
, editor of the Healthy Weight Network
 
 
“Free at last! Here’s liberation from the tyranny of useless weight-loss regimens and the feelings of failure they provoke. Linda Bacon offers a welcome, practical alternative to obsessing about your weight and shape—eating and exercising according to your body’s built-in wisdom. She shows you how to enjoy sound health and unstoppable self-esteem whatever size your body may be. If you’re ready to escape from self-loathing and discover the pleasures of self-affirmation, toss out those diet books and dump the bathroom scale. Treat yourself to this sane and friendly guide, scientifically proven to help you make peace with your body, improve your health, and nourish all of who you are.”
—LISA SARASOHN, bodywork and yoga therapist, author of
The Woman’s Belly Book: Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure
 
 

Health at Every Size
is essential reading for anyone who believes that health or happiness depends on weight. The truth will not only surprise you, but set you free.”
—PEGGY ELAM, PHD, psychologist, publisher, Pearlsong Press
 
 
“A compassionate yet critical look at how the converging forces of science, economics, and culture drive the weight-loss industry and ultimately undermine the very goal an individual seeks—physical and emotional health. Written by a scientist who has been in the trenches as a dieter struggling through the weight-loss gauntlet. Here’s a solution to help you off the dieting treadmill with your sanity intact.”
—EVELYN TRIBOLE, MS, RD, nutrition therapist, author of several books, including
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
and
Stealth Health: How to Sneak Nutrition Painlessly into Your Diet
 
 
“Dr. Bacon has amazing evidence and shares it with you: Feeding yourself well and trusting your body works better—lots better—than starving yourself and trying to force your weight down. If you are caught in a struggle with your weight, this book shows you the way out.”
—ELLYN SATTER, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD, therapist, author of several books, including
Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family: Orchestrating and Enjoying the Family Meal
and
Your Child’s Weight: Helping Without Harming
 
 
“Read this book and it will stop you in your tracks toward weight loss with health as your new goal. Make peace with your body and move on with the rest of your life.”
—LINDA OMICHINSKI, RD, founder, Hugs International, author of several books, including
You Count, Calories Don’t
and
Staying Off the Diet Rollercoaster
 
 
“Linda Bacon’s groundbreaking experiment proved what many of us had discovered in our own lives and work: that learning to honor our bodies and their messages is better for our health than any diet, pill, or operation. Bacon reveals the financial interests fueling body hatred and poor nutrition. She offers many suggestions, facts, and even documents to help people befriend and enjoy their bodies, while also benefiting the health of the earth. Her keen intelligence, strong curiosity, and the powerful, healing commitment of someone who’s been there and now helps others, provide a wealth of information and support for readers of any size.”
—BARBARA ALTMAN BRUNO, PHD, ACSW, clinical social worker, author of
Worth Your Weight: What You Can Do About a Weight Problem
 
 
“If you have ever been on a diet, you have successfully and thoroughly tested the many, endlessly appearing weight-loss programs. They have failed us. We did what they said. Each and every program fails almost every one of us—they were not capable of delivering on their promise. Dr. Linda Bacon delivers! With solid, clearly explained research, she tells us what works, over a lifetime, is reasonable and doable.
Health at
Every Size
is a MUST-READ for each and every person who has ever wanted a different body!”
—BONNIE BERNELL, EDD, psychologist, author of
Bountiful Women: Large Women’s Secrets for Living the Life They Desire
 
 

Health at Every Size
will change your life! Linda Bacon has painstakingly explained, in understandable language, data from hundreds of sources to help us at long last end the war we’ve waged against our bodies. Her wise guidance goes beyond enlightening us—it provides a recipe for transforming our lives, our comfort in our own skin, and our health irrelevant of weight. Every person beyond childhood needs a copy of this book!”
—DORIS SMELTZER, MA, psychotherapist, author of
Andrea’s Voice: Silenced by Bulimia
and the Gurze Book’s “Advice for Parents” blog
 
 
“Dr. Bacon’s approach to the complex and often self-contradictory questions of body habitus vis-à-vis diet is well thought out, well explained, and offers a revolutionary approach. Her bottom line is that we must not be intimidated by the cultural mores and by those who would take advantage of [us] for monetary gain and, instead, should focus on the positives of the hands we are dealt, i.e., our bodies, and concentrate on maximizing our individual health, both physical and psychological. Her book is informative, instructive, and motivational. I believe it is unique. I can think of many instances in my thirty-five years of practicing orthopedic surgery where this book, the messages of which to some extent I did offer my patients on my own, would have been a wonderful adjunct in the often long and difficult road to joint replacement surgery.”
—DAVID HELLER, MD, orthopedic surgeon
 
 

Health at Every Size
is eye-opening. I was not aware of much of the research indicating that body fat is not the death sentence many of us in the health professions are led to believe. Anyone who wants to lose weight needs to read this book. I will be urging many of my friends and colleagues to do so.”
—JACK NORRIS, RD, director, Vegan Outreach
 
 

Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
is a fascinating insight into the complex issues of health and weight. In this book, Linda Bacon has managed to investigate the biological, sociological, cultural, economic, and political aspects of this issue, yet somehow managed to keep it highly readable and interesting.
Health at Every Size
dismantles some of the biggest myths about weight and health, and provides a positive pathway forward for anyone [who] wants to maximize [his or her] health and well being.”
—LILY O’HARA, faculty, University of the Sunshine Coast
 
 
“A great manifesto of health, based on a deeply humanistic worldview.”
—CHRISTIAN BACHMANN, author and Web master, Med Journal Watch
 
 
“We are bombarded from every direction about how awful the obesity epidemic is, how much obesity leads to poor health, and how much obesity increases medical care costs. There is enormous bias and discrimination related to obesity, and those who are obese are often considered to lack willpower. After all, the story goes, if they really wanted to do so, they could lose weight. The data are clear, and the obesity epidemic is a fact; but our strategies for dealing with it are not working and may be counterproductive. I believe that Dr. Bacon identifies a much better approach to addressing the obesity epidemic, and these principles are clearly described in
Health at Every Size.
Dr. Bacon encourages size acceptance, and focusing on healthful eating and regular physical activity, with less emphasis on the scale. Her recommendations are sound and should be widely adopted. Let us get off the soap box of ranting about how bad obesity is, and turn our attention to healthful habits.”

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