Overweight is always unhealthy

UM professor concerned about idea that you can be healthy at any weight

Anne Roefs, professor of psychology of eating behavior, thinks it's important that overweight people be approached less negatively. However, she is also concerned about the potentially harmful effects of lifestyle ideas such as "health at every size," if they lead overweight people to delay an attempt to lose weight.

'Health at every size' means 'health at every weight,' meaning that what matters is not how heavy someone is, but whether they live a healthy life, Roefs explained. But if this change in thinking about overweight and obesity leads people to think that losing weight is not necessary, it becomes "dangerous," according to the Maastricht professor. After all, the idea that it doesn't matter how much you weigh is wrong, she argues. 'Obesity is never healthy.'

Read more about this (in Dutch) in Nederlands Dagblad

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