What is a fat liberatory dietitian / nutritionist?

For me, to be a fat liberatory practitioner means that I have witnessed day in and day out the trauma, violence, disruption to healing and care that the system of anti fat bias creates and perpetuates both medically and socially. In my close to a decade of practice, I have worked with people all across the weight spectrum and all of them are on a spectrum of dislike to loathing their bodies. I know that the order and perpetuation of this spectrum is dictated by anti-fat bias, a byproduct of white supremacy. 

I understand that diversity in body size is normal, that a complex web of things determines the size and shape of one’s body, and that a small percentage of that- much less than the average person assumes- is within our control. I understand that we can feed 100 bodies the same amount of energy and control their energetic output to be the same- and that we would have 100 different sized bodies all along the weight spectrum.

I understand that lifestyle behaviors may or may not be modifiable for any individual, and that they may or may not have an impact on assumed / hoped for outcomes. That we know much less about bodies and health then we do, partly because we are in an ever shifting environment that impacts our bodies, which are already ever shifting be-ings.

I believe that well being matters and I believe the individual occupying the body is the best one to know what that is for them in any given moment, and that appropriate information can be offered when requested and welcomed. Health has been determined for us within certain parameters, and mental health is still largely discluded. It is not a moral obligation to persue health and it is not accessible to persue for many. 

To me, a fat liberatory dietitian or nutritionist is someone who is critically and ethically evaluating what they have witnessed in their practice in terms of the harm and long term ineffectiveness of weight loss and dieting interventions if they have worked within the status quo paradigm, are witnessing and validating the paradox and harm of health in the guise of thinness, and are prioritizing adequate nourishment for any individual that comes through their virtual or physical door. They are doing their own work to unwrap from anti fat bias and heal their own wounds around food and body. 

Because those in our community at the largest end of the weight spectrum, the fattest, and with more intersecting marginalized identities are the most violently impacted by these systems of oppression, a fat liberatory provider is someone who centers those voices and experiences,  recognizes and v their struggle, and works to repair. 

A fat liberatory provider, in short, is one who believes that fat people deserve the same access, care, love, and belonging as a thin person and works to create a practice and world that reflects that. 

*some things to consider on the use of the word fat: https://medium.com/@michellevscott/even-grammarly-finds-my-use-of-the-word-fat-offensive-but-why-442b16e6dc7a