Accepting your body for what it is and stopping dieting sounds good, but could it harm your health? Advertisements, pop culture and even doctors can talk about health and weight as if they are the same thing: smaller bodies are healthier, bigger ones not so much.
But neither health nor bodies are so simple and uniform. Health can vary from person to person, according to Jeanette Thompson-Wessen, a UK nutritionist whose approach doesn’t focus on weight loss.
One body mass index (BMI) higher is associated with conditions like diabetes and heart disease, according to Philipp Scherer, professor of internal medicine and director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at Texas Southwestern University Medical Center.
However, BMI is a controversial way of measuring health, and it is just one of many factors associated with changes in a person’s well-being, as assessed by Dr. Asher Larmie, general practitioner and activist in the UK.
Medical care, the environment, social circumstances and biology make up most of the factors that define our health, as highlighted by the Healthy People 2020 report by the United States Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Still, we often place a lot of importance on a person’s appearance when assessing their health. And even if we can let go of the beauty standards imposed by society, it can be hard to feel confident if you see your body size as unhealthy.
Experts say it may be time to decouple health from weight, and focus on behaviors that promote our health more, not a number on the scale.
Correlation x causality
It’s important to understand that studies that point to poor health outcomes for people with higher body fat can only demonstrate correlation, not causation, Larmie said.
While studies say that people who are heavier generally have more heart disease, they cannot say that it was the weight that caused the heart problems, he added.
However, the importance of these studies cannot be ruled out, as Scherer commented. Correlations are strong, and “from a physiology point of view, in the clinic we work with correlations,” she explained.
Scherer also said that other factors could be at play, such as access to medical care.
For people with larger bodies, good medical care can be hard to come by, mentioned Bri Campos, a body image coach in Paramus, New Jersey.
Even teaching classes on body image and mental health, Campos often said he was afraid of going to the doctor and feeling ashamed of his weight.
“I might go for a strep throat or dermatitis, but given my size, I’m unlikely to go to the doctor and get a true diagnosis other than, ‘you should lose weight,'” he said.
Bodies are not business cards
Spence often reminds his clients that bodies are not business cards. “We cannot look at a person’s body and know their health, habits or biological aspects,” she commented.
“Do we have access to clinical records? Did we talk to that person’s doctors?” he asked. “Also, sometimes health is out of our control. There are many chronic diseases that people just develop.”
While we can often see correlations between body size and health conditions, when researchers move to look at individuals, it’s not so clear anymore, Scherer said.
“The field generally understands that not everyone who has a high BMI is a type 2 diabetic,” he added.
Scherer stated that people with smaller bodies can develop heart disease or diabetes, and there are many others with larger bodies who are considered to be completely healthy in metabolic terms.
“This is just a reflection of our genetic heterogeneity and how we deal with excess calories,” he added.
Do diets make us healthier?
But what does it mean to be healthy? Can diets help us get there? That depends on what part of health you want to prioritize, according to experts.
Health is made up of many factors. Avoiding illness is one of them, but it can also be keeping mental health, social media active, getting enough sleep, or reducing stress, Spence said.
Restricting your calorie intake or cutting out certain foods may not be healthy if it negatively impacts your mental health, or prevents you from having fun with friends and family, he added. And sometimes these restrictions can make you lose weight without properly nourishing your body.
“Losing weight doesn’t mean happiness, and it doesn’t mean you’re going to be healthy either, because the way you lose weight can also be harmful to your health,” Spence said.
For most people, a restrictive diet with the intention of losing weight doesn’t work. More than 80% of people who lost weight regained the weight within five years, according to a 2018 study.
If our cell phones didn’t work as they should, most people wouldn’t use them anymore, Campos compared.
“But diet culture has succeeded in tricking us into saying you can get everything you ever wanted. You will be healthy, you will be ‘fit’, you will receive praise”, he added.
What do we have to do if we want to be healthy without losing weight? For Asher Larmie, the important thing is to focus on health-promoting behaviors, such as quitting smoking, moving more, sleeping better, stressing less, and eating the foods your body needs.
As a result, you might even lose weight, but that’s not the goal, he said.
“By not focusing on weight, we can focus on really healthy behaviors that are much more sustainable,” Thompson-Wessen concluded.
Source: CNN Brasil
