sarahmichigan | Nov. 9th, 2010

x-posted to haes and a couple other places

Locally, there's a "wellness foundation" that provides grants to communities and school districts to make nutritious food and exercise more accessible to all, especially kids. That's all and good, but I've been really irked by the level of "Obesity Crisis OMG!" rhetoric in their press releases and on their Facebook page.

For instance, they started off a press release about giving funds to schools to make communities more walkable with "our kids are getting more obeses every day!' bullshit, and their facebook page had a link to an article suggesting fat kids should be fitted with activity monitors that force them to move if they sit still for more than 30 minutes (I shit you not).

So, I wrote them this letter and thought I'd share:

I think the work that CWF does is great. However, I'd like to note that I really wish that your organization would include less "obesity OMG!" talk in press releases and the Facebook page.

Exercise is of benefit to ALL people, fat or skinny. Making posts or sending out press releases that talk about the so-called obesity epidemic and talking about getting fat kids to move more perpetuates the myth that children and adults with ideal BMIs do not need to exercise and only fatties need to exercise.

You might also be surprised at how active many fat kids already are; it's pretty hard to fight genetics in many cases. I was very active as a kid and an adult, biking and rollerskating all over town as a kid and hitting the gym regularly as an adult. Activity has made me healthy but never made me skinny.

I think the message that activity always and necessarily leads to weight loss may actually *discourage* fat people from exercising; if they don't see the scale go down, they may wonder, "Why bother?" Well, they should bother because exercise brings benefits *regardless* of weight loss!

Please consider using more "Health at Every Size"-friendly language in your press releases, Facebook and blog posts, etc.

If you're not familiar with HAES, please check these links out:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/mar06/health0306.htm

http://www.lindabacon.org/resources.html

http://haescommunity.org/index.php

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb232085.htm

-Sarah