Weight stigma degrades self-esteem, harms body image, and triggers unhealthy food choices, thereby perpetuating a negative and unhealthy cycle.
Research has linked weight stigma to poor body image, depression, disordered eating, and even weight gain. Now, new research suggests a more direct connection: Experiencing negative messaging about body size affects the types of food people purchase.
What Is Weight Stigma?
Weight stigma refers to negative attitudes, judgments, stereotypes, and discriminatory acts based on body size. It can show up in subtle or overt ways — from comments by family members to bias in the workplace or messaging in the broader culture. Over time, it can lead people to internalize negative beliefs about themselves, known as internalized weight bias.
How Stigma May Influence Food Choices
Abigail Metzler, a PhD student at East Carolina University, wanted to examine how external weight stigma and internalized weight bias affect food choices. In her study, participants tracked foods they purchased from the grocery store, fast-food establishments, and restaurants. They also took assessments to measure levels of weight stigma and internalized bias.
Presenting her findings at the Obesity Society’s annual conference, Metzler reported that people who experienced weight stigma made less healthy food choices. Experiencing weight stigma led people to purchase fast food more often, whereas internalized weight bias (believing these negative thoughts) predicted that people would buy more unhealthy food at the grocery store.
The Impacts of Acute and Chronic Stress
One possible explanation for the differing consequences of weight stigma versus internalized weight bias may be found in how stress is experienced.
“When you experience weight stigma in the moment, you experience this acute stress response,” Metzler said. “Maybe you’re more likely to go to McDonald’s or Taco Bell because you’re trying to decrease some of these negative emotions in the moment.”
“Internalized weight bias, on the other hand, is a more continuous distressed state that someone is experiencing,” she said. Since you go to the grocery store less frequently, it may be shaped less by momentary stress and more by ongoing beliefs and feelings about oneself.
The study hasn’t yet been published, and more research is needed. Still, the findings dovetail with other research showing that weight stigma can contribute to stress-driven eating and other disordered behaviors related to food.
Addressing society-wide weight bias is necessary to root out the problem, but there are steps you can take to weaken this damaging association now. Becoming aware of how weight stigma impacts your thoughts, feelings, and eating behaviors is a critical first step. Once you become aware of these patterns, you can use strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy to distance yourself from them and make choices that better align with your health goals.
