Healthy At Every Size
Our approach includes the principles of Health at Every Size (HAES), which seeks to reduce stigma towards people who live in larger bodies and de-emphasize weight loss as a health goal.
The Health At Every Size® (HAES) movement is a continuously evolving alternative to the weight-centered approach to treating patients of all sizes. It is also a movement working to promote size acceptance, to end weight discrimination and stigma, and to lessen the cultural obsession with weight loss and thinness.
The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) affirms a holistic definition of health, which cannot be characterized as the absence of physical or mental illness, limitation, or disease. Rather, health exists on a continuum that varies with time and circumstance for each individual. Health should be conceived as a resource or capacity available to all regardless of health condition or ability level, and not as an outcome or objective of living. Pursuing health is neither a moral imperative nor an individual obligation, and health status should never be used to judge, oppress, or determine the value of an individual.
Health at Every Size® Principles
Weight Inclusivity – Accept and respect the inherent diversity of body shapes and sizes and reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights.
Health Enhancement – Support health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services and personal practices that improve human well-being, including attention to individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs.
Eating for Well-Being – Promote flexible, individualized eating based on hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure rather than any externally regulated eating plan focused on weight control.
Respectful Care – Acknowledge our biases, and work to end weight discrimination, weight stigma, and weight bias. Provide information and services from an understanding that socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other identities impact weight stigma and support environments that address these inequities.
Life-Enhancing Movement – Support physical activities that allow people of all sizes, abilities, and interests to engage in enjoyable movement to the degree that they choose.