Introduction

This compilation has several purposes.  It is meant to gather OER sources on health literacy related to body weight, nutrition, and movement, and it is meant to problematize the cultural meaning of these readings.  Roughly, this anthology is divided into two parts—informational and theoretical–but the two parts inform each other as parts of a larger conceptual discussion of how medical research and journalism influence and are influenced by social stereotypes, constructed ideas about bodies, food, and individual choices within social systems.

Bodies reflect not only individual lifestyle choices but also an individual’s freedom or constraint in navigating health options and healthcare systems.  Reporting on “the obesity crisis” in America often overlooks the socioeconomic forces that allow or limit individual choices in food intake and physical activity, so while the first part of this book focuses on developing students’ scientific thinking and their ability to seek out and evaluate information, the second part of this book encourages skepticism in detecting misinformation in the study of the causes and nature of obesity.

My guiding questions in assembling this anthology include: What is the link between lifestyle and obesity?  How do our everyday choices impact our wellness?  What are the social realities and government policies that intersect with physical and mental illness (e.g. Why are certain groups more at risk for not only obesity but depression, less likely to consider diet and exercise important, and less likely to seek treatment for both physical and mental health problems?).  Who is centered by any particular health literacy narrative?  What does it mean for white people to make statements about the health-seeking behavior of Black and Latinx people?

These readings on dismantling fatphobia/the obesity myth imply the need to decolonize health/fitness culture.  Academic literature on “obesity prevention” tends to involve an unseemly depiction of “the problem of overweight bodies,” as though the reader is somehow elevated in regarding the lived reality of unhealthy people as a mere field of study–which is to say, dismissively, judgmentally, without mercy or respect.  Similarly, talking about how corporations have disrupted food systems so that someone living in a food desert becomes obese by nature of their zipcode inevitably has led some white, privileged critics (and doctors) to declare that obesity is simply the result of a lack of willpower or poor decision-making.

The true purpose of this text is not strictly to increase students’ knowledge about health and wellness in order to build their capacity in consuming health information and making evidence-based decisions related to their and their families’ health, but to develop students’ ability to effectively transmit their learning in a way that is culturally responsive and equity-minded.

The anti-bias materials in the second part of this anthology allow readers to develop their own “deconstructing bias” rubric using guiding questions from theoretical articles: do these (and other) readings frame the issues in a way that upholds the notion of white saviorism, the medical fallacy that obesity is caused by poor personal health choices, the cultural myth that thinness equals health,  or that “fitness” looks the same for all?  Students who have read and processed this textbook will be literate in the ongoing conversation around representations of health and disease in minoritized communities.