Talking about the weighty topic of 'fat' myths

The YouBeauty.com website used research findings from an Arizona State University study to start a discussion about “fat-stigma.” Assistant research editor Nadia Goodman raised the question of whether fat-stigma was skewing weight perception.

To get some answers, she interviewed Alexandra Brewis, a biological anthropologist at ASU and the lead author on a fat-stigma study that was published Aug. 17 in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

“The most damaging cultural idea at the center of fat-stigma is the belief that people are fat because they lack moral fiber. That they’re lazy or lack self-control and that it is easy to lose weight if you really want to. These are absolutely not scientific facts,” Brewis said in the YouBeauty feature.

Physicians Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz) and Michael Roizen created the YouBeauty.com website last month “to explore the link between beauty and health in a fun, factual way.”

More about the research done by Brewis and other ASU researchers at http://asunews.asu.edu/20110817_obesity.