“This is what you’re supposed to do”: weight stigma in dietetics education

ABSTRACT

Dietetics education and practice is rooted in a weight-centric paradigm of health. Research demonstrates that dietetic students and practitioners hold stigmatizing beliefs about fat people. Some have sardonically noted that being thin is taken as evidence of dietitians’ expertise within the profession and in the eyes of the public. In this light, fat dietetic students are likely subject to stigma within their educational environments. However, no studies have explored dietetics students’ experiences of weight stigma during their education. This research draws on qualitative interviews to explore the experience of Canadian dietetics students who self-identified as fat, “higher weight,” “overweight,” or “obese.” An interplay of overt, structurally rooted weight stigma and internalized weight stigma were found to pervade the pedagogical environment of dietetics education. Findings suggest that fat students grapple with their seemingly conflicting identities as fat people and dietetics students, and feel pressure to “perform dietitian.” However, participants also resisted weight stigma, and questioned pressures to conform to the thin body and healthy eating ideals.

KEYWORDS:

• Weight stigma
• health professionals
• dietetics students
• education
• pedagogy

Acknowledgments

I (MB) am very appreciative to the participants in this research, who shared their experiences with honesty and vulnerability. This work would not have been possible without them. I also want to express my gratitude to the many fat activists and critical dietetics scholars who have come before me, and who have opened my eyes to the harm that my profession has perpetuated.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. We acknowledge that terms such as “higher weight” and “overweight” are problematic in reifying body weight norms that are rooted at the intersection of fat-phobia and medicalization. However, we also acknowledge the rights of fat people to self-identify in whatever way they wish. In recognition of this tension, we write using scare quotes around “higher weight” and “larger bodies” upon our first use of the terms, and discontinue doing so thereafter for readability.

Additional information

Funding

The first author was supported by a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, and a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation Scotia Scholars Award, while she was conducting this research.

Notes on contributors

Meredith Bessey

Meredith Bessey: Meredith completed two undergraduate science degrees, one in psychology at Dalhousie University in 2012, and one in Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University in 2017. She recently graduated from the MSc in Applied Human Nutrition, also from Mount Saint Vincent University. Her research interests center on critical pedagogy, weight discrimination and stigma within dietetics, and weight-inclusive, socially just approaches to health. She began her doctoral studies at the University of Guelph in September 2020, where she plans to explore patient and healthcare provider experiences and decision-making processes as they relate to bariatric surgery.

Jennifer Brady

Jennifer Brady, PhD, RD: Jennifer is a dietitian and assistant professor in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her research comprises mixed methods and oral history approaches to explore health professions’ roles in food, health, social justice.

Daphne Lordly

Daphne Lordly: Dr. Daphne Lordly is Chair and Professor in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a Registered Dietitian receiving the first Nova Scotia Honorary Life Member Award from the Nova Scotia Dietetic Association. She is a Dietitians of Canada Fellow. As an academic and educator, Daphne focuses on practiced-based research and experiential pedagogy that stimulates dialogue, questions and change in taken-for-granted dietetic practice.

Valda Leighteizer

Valda Leighteizer: Valda Leighteizer, PhD, teaches in the Education Faculty of Mount Saint Vincent University. Her teaching and research areas include: curriculum theories, and the intersectionalities of social identities with one another and how they impact the teaching and learning processes in schooling. She works with a critical and feminist lens.