Weight-Inclusive Approaches to Nutrition and Dietetics: A Needed Paradigm Shift
This Perspective article encourages the field of nutrition and dietetics to move away from a weight-centric paradigm that emphasizes weight loss and weight management as primary health outcomes. This approach can perpetuate weight stigma, which is associated with poorer health behaviors, poorer mental health, disordered eating, and even increased mortality risk. We propose an alternative approach-adopting a weight-inclusive paradigm-that focuses on providing care across the weight spectrum by centering health behaviors rather than weight. This approach allows individuals of all sizes to have equitable access to high-quality nutrition and dietetics care.
Authors
- Nikole D. Squires (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7176-6105)
- Jordan A. Levinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3046-1193)
- Nicholas Slagel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4143-9469)
- Emma M. Laing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6448-8784)
- Cristen Harris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5058-2596)
- Jeffrey M. Hunger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2980-8500)
- Dawn Clifford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6610-5126)
Institutions
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Northern Arizona University (US)
- University of Northern Colorado (US)
- Miami University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
- Published
- 2024-08-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2024.07.007
- Citations
- 17
- Primary Topic
- Obesity and Health Practices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.02