The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND or the Academy) periodically revise their practice guidelines for dietitians. Last week, they published their latest draft for guidelines around the treatment of “overweight” and “obesity.” The weight neutral community had a natural uproar after AND specifically suggested to NOT use HAES® interventions. The guidelines are also supported by poor research, use binary language, and in general are the absolute worst.
Your advocacy is needed! Please read my thoughts on the subject are below, along with other colleague’s posts and comments. You can access the link to the original Instagram post here, and you can find AND’s guidelines and link to the survey here.
TW: calories and disordered behaviors mentioned
The survey is open to all, and the academy particularly wants to hear from the public and clients who have lived experience with HAES®!
No one is surprised by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND)'s latest practice guideline release on "o word treatment."
They've once again shown us they:
Don't care about actual health and wellbeing
Don't even really care about research (despite touting this as a pillar of the field)
Are incapable of considering creating an organization based in anti-oppression
If they cared about the masses' overall health and wellbeing, maybe they wouldn't be so hell bent on their message that fatness is bad, despite having very poor research to back their claims, a straight up denial of HAES® and weight neutral care research, and apparently no input from lived experiences.
Maybe they'd see the connection between anti-fat bias and disordered eating behaviors, and maybe they wouldn't put out their fat phobic BS right around EATING DISORDER AWARENESS WEEK.
If they cared about actual science, maybe they'd examine the medical system's codependence on BMI, an antique equation that was never intended to be used for individuals, that can't possibly capture the intricacies of someone's overall health, and whose ranges have been altered (read: made even more inaccurate) to be "easier to remember."
Maybe they'd use better research in their own f'ing policies instead of hoping to skate by on ill-founded data (only 2 of their 13 points is rated as moderate strength research, all the rest are low or very low).
It's clear they don't give a sh*t about trans people, not just in their use of binary language (only included women/men), but in the glaring disconnect in how BMI guidelines gatekeep trans+ folks from gender confirmation surgery.
What is it about weight neutral and anti-oppressive care that's so threatening to you?
Let's tell AND they got it wrong.
If your life is better because you've received weight-neutral care, please fill out the survey!
TW: calories and disordered behaviors mentioned
Other resources:
@the_bodylib_advocate created a list of scripted responses to choose from to help complete your survey (linked in their bio)
@streetsmart.rd created an excellent summary of what is wrong with the Academy’s guidelines
ASDAH wrote a letter to AND
@ediestarktherapy can make a great meme
AND’s guidelines and link to the survey - please fill out before March 25, 2022!
Send me a message to stay in touch. Want to learn more about what it’s like to work with a queer dietitian who specializes in eating disorders? Email me to chat about nutrition therapy!