We have been researching the concept of health-ism in preparation for a webinar we are recording for the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH). (Weโll let you know when itโs available!)
We came across this definition of health-ism written by Lucy Aphramor PhD, RD for her Well-Now program:
Health-ism is a belief system that sees health as the property and responsibility of an individual and ranks the personal pursuit of health above everything else, like world peace or being kind.
It ignores the impact of poverty, oppression, war, violence, luck, historical atrocities, abuse and the environment from traffic, pollution to clean water and nuclear contamination and so on. It protects the status quo, leads to victim blaming and privilege, increases health inequities and fosters internalized oppression.ย
Health-ism judges peopleโs human worth according to their health.
In our work at Be Nourished, we often say we are helping people โkeep the lens wideโ. We live in a culture that offers endless solutions for digestion, weight change, health optimization and longevity. We emphasize food cures and give lip service to reducing stress. And we struggle to speak openly and directly about the variables affecting health the mostโtrauma, oppression, environmental changes and inequalities, and disparities in our healthcare system.
No doubt about it, it is difficult to sit with the big unsolvables in clinical work when we have a slew of handouts that can make us feel like we have offered something actionable and concrete. (We get it. We also have handouts.) It is even more difficult to acknowledge the complexity of factors impacting a personโs well-being when our healthcare systems are focused on measurable outcomes.
Weโd like to suggest it is possible to make room for both. That holding space for the difficult-to-speak-about is part of the answer and is not particularly time consuming (really). There is healing in acknowledgement. In fact, this is where the medicine of human connection lives. If we could collectively research and market connection like an anti-inflammatory supplement, we would really be in the business of change.
Warmly,
Click the birdy to tweet: What is Health-ism? https://benourished.org/what-is-health-ism/
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Many, if not most, people who worry about how nutrition impacts health spend their time judging people for their food choices or claiming that we are โbeing poisonedโ with sugar or processed or highly palatable foods while knowing little to nothing about the systemic injustices in our food systems.
Body Trust is a radically different way of relating to, occupying, and caring for your body in a culture that doesn’t trust bodies.
itโs easy to get swept up and away from all you are exploring here. To wander and then return is the path to reclaiming body trust.