Dietitians and fat bias

This study, which shows that dietitians (like doctors) suffer from a significant amount of fat phobia, does not surprise me. Why should dietitians be different from any other group of medial professionals?

One or two sessions with a dietitian is really all it takes to learn the necessaries on nutrition for someone recovering from an ED. Yet our family--like so many others--was told to make weekly appointments with a nutritionist.

As it happens, the nutritionist we saw was not fatphobic; she was just ignorant about how to talk to my daughter. In fact she was a very tall and large woman who told Kitty, at our one and only appointment, "Don't worry, honey. I used to have an eating disorder too, and look at me now."

It was almost funny, really, except that it took hours of reassurance to get my daughter back on track.

Which is why I like to talk to medical professionals--not just about eating disorders but about attitudes toward fat, obesity, and "wellness" curricula in schools.

So if you know of a group of doctors, nurses, nutritionist, or other medical professionals in training or in practice who could benefit from a talk, let me know.