Weight and Healthcare

I wrote earlier about the disastrous American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines, written predominantly by people who were either taking money from the weight loss industry or personally/through their employers selling weight loss to kids.

I also did a deep dive on the serious issues with their recommendations of intensive behavioral interventions starting at 2 years old, diet drugs at 12, and weight loss surgeries at 13 as well as questionable claims around potential harm and eating disorders risk. Recently I also answered a reader question about how BMI works with kids.

Unfortunately the stakes have been raised significantly as their recommendations around weight-focused interventions starting when kids are still in diapers have been given a huge boost in the form of what are called “CDC-Recognized Family Healthy Weight Programs.”

I’ll be writing more about this, including analyzing specific curricula (some of which I’ve already obtained,) but I want to start with the basics.

I got this question from reader Mina:

I was in a discussion about weight-neutral health and now I feel a bit confused. I practice what I always thought was weight-neutral health and I was chatting with a friend who does the same. She mentioned Intuitive Eating and I said that I knew a lot of people that worked great for, but that it didn’t work for me and before I could finish she said that in order to be weight-neutral health it has to have intuitive eating and joyful movement. That can’t be right, can it? Can you write about this please?

Thanks Mina. Yes, I can write about it. No, I don’t think what your friend said is correct.

In part 1 we looked at the major issues with the ways that children are labeled “overw*ight” and “ob*se”. In part 2 we’ll look at more of the nuances. Again, Deb Burgard, PhD, FAED was incredibly helpful in putting together this piece.

I got the following question from reader Lynn:

“I know that they use BMI for kids and I know that it’s different than what they do for adults, but I don’t understand how. Maybe you could write a newsletter about it?”

Indeed I can Lynn, thanks for the suggestion! This gets a bit complex, so it’s going to be a two-part series. In part 1 we’ll look at the basics.

As updated COVID vaccines and this year's flu vaccines roll out, I got a request from several readers to post about the need for longer needles for higher-weight people’s vaccinations.

While progress toward weight-neutrality is absolutely being made, our healthcare is predominantly based in the weight-centric paradigm. This paradigm currently considers simply existing in a higher-weight body to be a disease and weight loss to be the cure. (Now, there is no shame in having a disease, it’s just that simply existing in a larger body does not qualify.) One of the most dangerous harms within this paradigm is the hypothetical future thin person fallacy.

Eil Lilly has recently announced that they are going to sell their weight loss drug, Zepbound, directly to consumers who can’t get insurance coverage and don’t qualify for other cost-lowering programs. They are going to do that through their private pharmacy Lilly Direct.

The subject of whether drug companies should have their own pharmacies is a topic for another day.

I’ve previously done deep dives into the research and claims made about these weight loss medications. I do not think they are going to live up to the hype and I think people aren’t getting appropriate informed consent around these drugs.

Still, I believe in bodily autonomy and I think that people who choose to take these medications deserve a safe experience.

What I want to talk about today is the catch of Lilly’s direct drug discount. That catch is the delivery system.

I got this question from reader Jenn:

I was hate watching a workshop about “ob*sity” treatment and one of the people on the panel said that “ob*sity” isn’t a disease unless it impacts someone’s health. I don’t understand how that works?

Thanks for the question Jenn. You don’t understand how it works because it doesn’t work. This is fully ludicrous and I’ve seen them make the claim in real time as well.

In Part 1, by reader request, I began a discussion of the NBC news article “Weight loss drugs like Wegovy may trigger eating disorders in some patients, doctors warn”. Today we'll complete that discussion.

Many of you asked me to write about the NBC News Article “Weight loss drugs like Wegovy may trigger eating disorders in some patients, doctors warn” by Liz Szabo, Marina Kopf and Akshay Syal, M.D.