Being overweight has been the source of prejudice for many people and it is a big problem in itself without accounting a study’s new findings which show that fat shaming can lead to greater health risks. The findings are especially troubling for the United States which a pervasive obesity problem and a bullying culture. These two factors can lead to serious mental health issues for already unhealthy people.
Overweight persons have been stereotyped in the United States as being either too uneducated to know how the quality of the food affects their bodies or too lazy and incompetent to lose the weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. People who usually perform acts of fat shaming don’t take into account the whole life of the person into account when they make their snap judgments.
Now, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, have discovered conducted a study which shows that fat shaming can lead to greater health risks for the victim. Besides the psychological impact of fat shaming, the emotional state that fat shaming induces can lead to increased risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease.
The study was led by Rebecca Pearl, an assistant professor of Psychology in collaboration with her colleagues from the Penn Center for Weight and Eating Disorders. She stated that the idea that fat shaming people motivates them to lose weight actually has the opposite effect.
This type of bullying actually leads the victim to feel more depressed, unwilling to exercise or to adopt a healthier diet. The researchers also found an association between the internalization of weight bias and the metabolic syndrome, which is an indication of declining health.
For their study, the scientists examined 159 obese adults which were part of a larger clinical trial test for weight loss medication. Most of the participants were black women and were required to fill a questionnaire which measured their depression and the internalization of the weight bias, which consists of applying negative stereotypes to themselves.
The researchers found that only participants with high levels of weight bias internalized were actually associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. However, further research is needed to show a direct link between the two factors.
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Roxanne Briean
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