Sadly, a nine-author paper from last year found “discriminatory language used by peers and adults, which may be compounded by use within the medical community and in published research.” Those writers analyzed 300 articles from PubMed and found that “only 21.7% were adherent to PCL guidelines.” The abbreviation refers to Person-Centered Language. Over the past half-century or so, only the manufacturing community seems to have learned a thing or two. Today, we would probably not see an ad like the one shown here. In the 1950s, L. Gidding & Co. sold the Chubbette clothing line through “stor ..read more

We’ve been looking at a 2015 paper that explored the pros and cons of policing the language around obesity, and speculated on how better methods might be implemented. The authors recognized that some people with obesity (and in the fat acceptance movement) still prefer to be designated “fat,” and explained the psychology behind the choice. They compared this to similar efforts by human rights activists to reclaim and own certain other items of terminology, and restore them to public acceptance: [R]eclamation of the word as a neutral descriptor aims to counter the negative stereotypes that ha ..read more

There is still more to say about the subjects broached in yesterday’s gleanings from a paper titled, “What’s in a Word? On Weight Stigma and Terminology,” published back in 2015 when the topic was starting to heat up. There seemed to be some hope that all the larger-bodied people would agree about preferred verbiage. But the authors point out a very troubling obstacle. It is one thing to decide that the target group should be allowed to pick their own label (in which case they would first probably elect to ditch the hostile phrase “target group”). Here is the fly in that particular ointment ..read more

At a certain point, people inside and outside of the medical profession became aware of the concept that language can be “othering.” Words can become labels, and labels have a tendency to become stigmatizing. Labeling creates an “us versus them” distinction; implies that the others are not normal; and especially, it raises very divisive differences of opinion about who is entitled to decree what labels will be used. Here is the troubling paradox, as expressed in a paper titled “What’s in a Word? On Weight Stigma and Terminology“: [I]t is undoubtedly useful to define a group for research purp ..read more

Nothing in life is ever straightforward. Either a habit of reading medical journals, or a familiarity with live patients, could lead a person to wonder what is going on in this topsy-turvy world. While some people can’t get seen at all about their health problems, and suffer for it, others have excellent access to care, and then mess it up by not following doctors’ orders. As Dr. Fred Kleinsinger has pointed out, the term “noncompliance” has been abandoned by some, in favor of “nonadherence.” The latter is “less value-laden and does not imply a rigid hierarchical relationship between physicia ..read more

People with obesity are accustomed to paying a “fat tax” at clothing stores, and when buying tickets for air travel, and in other ways both tangible and intangible. One type of fat tax is extracted by some medical professionals who have an attitude, or perhaps just honestly believe that being fat is 100% a person’s own fault, and anyone so irresponsible deserves whatever comes their way, be it disrespect, neglect, or even negligence. This anecdote is one of many that illustrate the effects of the stigma that can affect a large-bodied person who seeks medical help: Patty Nece told NPR affilia ..read more

For quite a few years, Aubrey Gordon was known to the world only as Your Fat Friend. Her first published opinion piece was read by around 40,000 people. For years she wrote under a pseudonym. The approaching publication of her first book in 2021 inspired her, at age 37, to announce her true identity with the words, “I weigh 350 pounds. I’ve been waiting to meet you.” Gordon is no stranger to Childhood Obesity News, having been quoted several times before the appearance of What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat. Somewhere along the line, she started a podcast called Maintenance Phase ..read more

When someone starts taking one of the new weight-loss medications based on synthetic glucagon-like peptide-1, the vow appears to be more binding than marriage. As we have seen, in a large number of cases the meds only work while the person is taking them. All people with Type 1 and some people with Type 2 diabetes can expect to be injecting insulin forever, and like any other commodity where the demand grows every year, insulin is profitable. People need insulin like zombies need blood, and it looks as if soon, people will be needing their GLP-1 medications in the same implacable way. Already ..read more

Here is more about the same weight-loss drugs, the ones based on synthetic GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), that have been referenced in several recent posts. Mention was made of the weight rebound factor, an alternative way to say “When they quit, they regained all the weight they had lost.” To some interested parties, it comes as a big surprise that the weekly injection regimen will last forever. Seemingly, every celebrity on the planet has been interviewed about Ozempic or Wegovy — which brand they use and what their experience has been. Or maybe, why they don’t want to go near the stuff ..read more

(Continued from our previous post, “On the Rebound“) Patient Yolanda Hamilton lost 60 pounds on Wegovy, before a change in employment forced her to switch insurers. Suddenly her prescription cost nearly $1,400 unaffordable dollars per month. She soon gained back 20 pounds, with no end in sight. People reporter Vanessa Etienne wrote, A study in the Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics found that a majority of people who take semaglutide gain most of the weight back within a year of stopping the medication. One news source cavalierly dismissed this whole matter with a single sentence: “An ..read more