The findings show that obese individuals exposed to such messages placed less importance on health-focused dieting and reported less concern about weight. These beliefs, in turn, predicted unhealthier food choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Psychological scientists Crystal Hoyt and Jeni Burnette of the University of Richmond and Lisa Auster-Gussman of the University of Minnesota were interested in exploring the effects of health and diet messaging after the American Medical Association (AMA) declared obesity a disease in June 2013.<\/p>\n “Considering that obesity is a crucial public-health issue, a more nuanced understanding of the impact of an ‘obesity is a disease’ message has significant implications for patient-level and policy-level outcomes<\/strong>,” says Hoyt. “Experts have been debating the merits of, and problems with, the AMA policy — we wanted to contribute to the conversation by bringing data rather than speculation and by focusing on the psychological repercussions.”<\/p>\n Hoyt and colleagues hypothesized that labeling obesity as a disease could encourage the belief that weight is unchangeable and make attempts at weight management seem pointless, especially among obese individuals — the very people that the public-health messages are targeting.<\/p>\n The researchers recruited over 700 participants to take part in an online survey across three different studies<\/strong>. Participants read an article related to health and weight and then answered various questions. Importantly, some participants read an article that described obesity as a disease, some read a standard public-health message about weight, and others read an article specifically stating that obesity is not a disease.<\/p>\n Height and weight data were used to calculate participants’ body mass index<\/a><\/strong> and to classify participants as “average weight” or “obese,” in line with World Health Organization guidelines.<\/p>\n Results showed that the particular message obese participants read had a clear impact on their attitudes toward health, diet, and weight<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Specifically, obese participants who read the “obesity is a disease” article placed less importance on health-focused dieting and reported less concern for weight relative to obese participants who read the other two articles<\/strong>. They also chose higher-calorie<\/a> options when asked to pick a sandwich from a provided menu.<\/p>\n Interestingly, these participants reported greater body satisfaction, which, in turn, also predicted higher-calorie food choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “Together, these findings suggest that the messages individuals hear about the nature of obesity have self-regulatory consequences,” says Hoyt.<\/p>\n The researchers point out that there may be benefits to the disease-focused message, such as promoting greater acceptance of diverse body sizes and reducing stigma<\/strong>, which may help obese individuals engage with health- and weight-related goals.<\/p>\n The new findings indicate, however, that there may be some hidden costs to the “obesity is a disease” message, including less motivation to eat healthy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Hoyt and colleagues caution that more research is needed to gain a clearer understanding of both the costs and benefits of such health-related messaging before the findings can be put into practice.<\/p>\n “In our ongoing work, we hope to gain a greater understanding of how the ‘obesity is a disease’ message influences beliefs about the controllability of weight,” says Hoyt. “In addition, we are also interested in investigating the role of this message in reducing stigma against the obese<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n The researchers hope that their work “sparks further discussion and inquiry by researchers and practitioners alike.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Association for Psychological Science media release: Messages that describe obesity as a disease may undermine healthy behaviors and beliefs among obese individuals, according to a new study published… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[350,353,339,336,60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16297,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions\/16297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"diet](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/diet-willpower-junk-food.jpg\")
<\/a>Messages that describe obesity as a disease may undermine healthy behaviors and beliefs among obese individuals<\/strong>, according to a new study published in Psychological Science<\/em>, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.<\/p>\n