The Midlife Feast #136 -Health vs. Weight: Debunking the Biggest Wellness Myth with Val Schonberg, RD
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Jan 6, 2025 Val Schonberg, a registered dietitian and menopause expert, shares her insights on the myth that weight loss is essential for health. She challenges societal norms, advocating for behavior-based health goals instead of scale chasing. The conversation includes the psychological toll of dieting and the importance of intuitive eating, promoting a weight-neutral perspective. Val highlights the confusion around food labels and stresses separating self-worth from weight, encouraging midlife women to embrace authenticity and prioritize overall well-being.
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Weight-Centric Menopause Messaging
- Diet culture promotes weight loss for health, creating fear around weight gain in menopause.
- This weight-centric view ignores the fact that weight and health are distinct.
Two Paradigms of Weight and Health
- There are two paradigms regarding weight and health: weight-centric and weight-neutral.
- The weight-centric view, influenced by factors like BMI and the classification of obesity as a disease, often dominates.
BMI Misconceptions
- Media headlines often link weight to health risks based on BMI, a flawed metric.
- Olympic athletes' BMIs often fall into "overweight" or "obese" categories, highlighting BMI's limitations.