In December 2020, Dr. Lily O’Hara had the great pleasure of presenting a webinar to medical students at California Northstate University (CNSU) on fat phobia in medicine. In the webinar, she discussed concepts related to weight-based oppression, and how fat people and people with larger bodies can experience such oppression in encounters with medical settings and medical practitioners.

For the latest information and research on fatness, check out the Media and Research Roundup. This issue features: discussion of why dieting and forced exercise is child abuse in the form of punishing a child because of their (natural) body size; studies showing the protective aspects of fat in acute coronary events and coronary artery disease, how weight should not be a factor in total knee replacement; a call for body neutralty rather than body postitivity; calling out fitness instructors that make food something to fear and the need for exercise to counteract the food you eat.

This journey of identifying and challenging fatphobia began as a personal one, but I realized that this was knowledge that my fellow medical students needed too. We are the next generation of health professionals, but our education on the treatment of larger bodies is being informed by the current establishment. If something is to change, it needs to start with us.