Food Psych #236: BMI & COVID-19, and Why You Can't Fight Weight Stigma While Promoting Weight Management with Abigail Saguy

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Sociology professor and author Abigail Saguy joins us to discuss the effects of weight stigma, racism, poverty, and other systems of oppression on health; why you can’t “fight weight stigma” while promoting weight management; how supposedly sociocultural interventions often end up targeting individuals; coming out as an act of social change; and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether being in the highest BMI category really makes people more likely to get or die from COVID-19. 

Abigail Saguy is UCLA Professor of Sociology and the author of Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are (Oxford, 2020). Find her online at AbigailSaguy.com.

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We Discuss:

  • Abigail’s experiences with dieting and disordered eating as a teenager and young adult

  • Privileged identities, and how they are often mistakenly considered “neutral”

  • Sociology, and its role in recognizing and dismantling systems of oppression

  • Abigail’s books, What’s Wrong with Fat and Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are

  • How she became interested in social movements, including the fat-acceptance movement

  • The act of coming out as fat

  • How the “[o-word] epidemic” narrative perpetuates weight stigma

  • How a weight-centric approach actually harms health

  • Why it’s not enough to fight weight stigma while promoting a weight-centric approach to health

  • The association between higher weight and type 2 diabetes

  • Racism, and its role in determining public health priorities in America

  • Food insecurity, and its link to higher weight

  • How supposedly sociocultural interventions often end up targeting individuals

  • The effects of poverty and other social determinants on health, compared to individual behaviors

  • COVID-19 and the American healthcare system

  • The importance of community and organizing for social change

  • How people can get involved in social change

  • Coming out as a way to strengthen the collective

Resources Mentioned

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Listener Question of the Week

Is being in the highest BMI category a risk factor for contracting or dying from COVID-19? What is the evidence behind some of these claims? What are some of the limitations of available evidence? How is data on H1N1 (swine flu) being used to inform our knowledge about COVID-19? What are some of the potential reasons that larger-bodied people tend to experience poorer health outcomes? Why should we be concerned by some of the data from the CDC? How does research on COVID-19 from China differ from data from the US? What are some potential negative effects of blaming body size for negative health outcomes? Why shouldn’t we try to lose weight during this pandemic? What does Christy predict that future research will say about the factors that increase COVID-19 risk?

Resources Mentioned: 

 
Christy HarrisonDieting, disordered eating, privilege, sociology, oppression, fat acceptance, coming out, weight stigma, fatphobia, health, racism, public health, food insecurity, food environment, poverty, social determinants of health, COVID-19, healthcare, community, social movements, social change, social justice, collective, weight, research, science, BMI, anti-diet, S720