living with obesity stigma: celebrity chef rodney bowers uses his platform for change
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according to rodney bowers, to come out from under the umbrella of stigma, people need to realize that people living with obesity are just "regular people."
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chef rodney bowers has lived in a larger body for much of his life.
growing up in newfoundland, rodney was surrounded by his family – many of whom were also in the food industry.
as an adult, rodney followed in those footsteps. he became a renowned chef, sharing his culinary gift with the world through travelling, opening up local restaurants in his new home, toronto, and hosting a few television cooking shows, including fridge wars and double your dish. he now also teaches at centennial college.
he notes that being in a larger body in the food industry has given him a leg up, as cooks who are bigger are much more accepted.
“there’s always the saying, never trust a skinny cook,” he joked, highlighting how living with obesity has helped him excel in his career.
but that wasn’t – and still isn’t – the case in all aspects of his life.
when he was a child and teenager, rodney felt the full effects of obesity stigma through the bullying he experienced at school. the taunts from other children never stopped as rodney aged, and because of that, he’s developed a particular ingrained personality trait that he felt he had to have as a sort of security blanket.
“i was always of the mindset that, okay, if i was nice first, then i took away that person’s ability to bully or make fun of me, and i just always did that after my first experiences as a kid. i always made myself be like, ‘okay, i want to be the nicest guy in the room. i want to be the funniest person in the room. i want to have that slide off my back.”
to stop people from trying to drag him down because of his health condition, rodney had to learn how to approach the world differently.
rodney also learned about his resilience, his ability to maintain a sense of humour, and his ability to keep his head high regardless of how others perceived him simply because they didn’t understand his condition—a lesson he’s passing on to his own children.
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“i try to show it to my kids now. when we’re out in public, about the ability to hold your head high, look people in the eye, and start a conversation or be polite,” he said. “i tell my kids, you should be able to go anywhere in the world and have a conversation with someone or meet someone and share stories and be okay with that.”
with the obesity stigma still running high, those lessons he’s passing on to his children are just small steps in how he works to change the narrative.
misconceptions surrounding obesity
many people still believe that people in larger bodies simply overeat and under-exercise. however, obesity is a complex disease with many moving parts.
dr. sean wharton, an internal medicine physician specializing in obesity and type 2 diabetes and assistant professor at the university of toronto, knows firsthand from his work how wrong those calories-in-calories-burned sentiments are.
he notes that the disease is biological and that many people still believe that it has more to do with “a lack of willpower, lack of character,” which is not the case.
“why do we think that? where did that come from, that living with obesity must be a character flaw?” he said.
for rodney, obesity was in his blood, so to speak. obesity runs in his family, and even from a young age, rodney recalls that much of his family lived in larger bodies.
family history and genetics are just two of the many uncontrollable risk factors associated with obesity. other risk factors that have nothing to do with a person’s lack of physical exercise or food intake include age, sex, education level, income status, race and ethnicity, medications, and other medical conditions.
“we have these misconceptions about obesity that all obese people do is sit around eating cookies and chocolate, and no one exercises and no one’s healthy, and they’re lazy and just get some willpower. there are all these things and trust me, i’ve had them all said to me,” rodney said.
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he’s even had health professionals, such as gym trainers with health sciences degrees, tell him to stop eating junk food and go to the gym more, pushing the harmful and incorrect mentality even further.
“this is still the mentality, and i’ve had friends who are doctors that eat horribly, junk food and too much wine and fried food, so i think that stigma is ingrained in people’s heads. people that don’t have any idea about what being obese is all about.”
obesity stigma and its impacts
for people living with obesity, stigma is hard to escape. people who don’t understand the disease hold ignorant views of how and why people develop it, leading to a level of discrimination against a person in a larger body that is unfounded. but regardless of how baseless the discrimination is, it doesn’t change the impact it has on those living with the condition.
dr. wharton sees how difficult it can be to live with the stigma of obesity, especially on their mental health.
“people with elevated weight face stigma and discrimination because they are wearing their condition on the outside. so, immediately, people will frequently make a judgement call on that person’s character based on what they look like,” he said. “and that can be very demoralizing, can be very challenging and hurtful and lead to multiple mental health challenges.”
rodney notes that while he’s had some good experiences directly related to living in a larger body, such as career success, playing santa clause in school, and being the hardest hitter at recess, it’s not easy to overcome judgments from others who fail to understand the complexities of obesity.
“i truly believe that society is fatphobic. it excludes you from what’s accepted, or what’s acceptable or the norm, or what’s portrayed in media as elite or beautiful. so, right away, you’re feeling less than as a person,” he said. “when you view yourself that way, it’s hard. it’s hard to be an outcast, period, the end.”
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he continues, “it can be lonely and being lonely in general is tough on one’s mental health and throw in a little bit of bullying or finger pointing or not sitting on the bus quite right … there’s a million factors in there that make it hard because society isn’t built toward a certain body.”
rodney goes on to say that even shopping for clothing can drum up feelings of isolation, calling it a “gut punch” to go into a store and realize that nothing in that store will fit.
“they (the negative feelings) build and then make you feel like, ‘hey, what’s happening to me? why am i different?” he said. “there’s an exclusion that happens when obesity is not the norm in a societal way of thinking and especially media; the exclusion is everywhere.”
dr. wharton believes that others need to take people with obesity more seriously, believe the research, and take into account that living with a chronic disease and being told that it’s their fault only incites feelings of blame, shame, or guilt driven by false sentiment.
“it starts with people not believing them, not taking account for their feelings, their emotions, and their cravings,” he said. “so, from the very start, where you’re forced to control something that is not easily under voluntary control … you feel like a failure.”
addressing obesity stigma to change the narrative
the tides are slowly changing, with more people in the general population, as well as those in the medical community, viewing obesity as what it actually is—a chronic health condition.
a recent survey conducted by leger on behalf of novo nordisk canada found that 63 per cent of canadians self-reported that they understood obesity is a chronic disease not entirely in one’s control. however, with the current level of stigma and discrimination as strong as it is, dr. wharton believes that the numbers may not be entirely accurate.
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“i think people and doctors say that they believe it’s a chronic disease, but they don’t,” he said. “they themselves still do not believe that it is biological.”
rodney sees the stigma still alive and well and thinks it has more to do with people who are unwilling to budge on their beliefs, even when new information is presented.
“there’s a lot of stubborn people out there. i have them all around. i have them in my family, and they’re in my community. they’re everywhere,” he said.
rodney believes the best way to address the obesity stigma is to continue spreading awareness about what it is and isn’t, ensure people know they have a voice, and bring some humanity back into the conversation.
“every person living with obesity has a vote, they have a story to tell, and they, within whatever realm, whether it’s sharing something on the bus or at their church or at their community centre … when they’re the ones speaking awareness to it, they really humanize their experience,” he said. “i think what’s important for people to do is to just make sure that people see that they’re a human. when they use their voice to talk about what they’re dealing with … that in itself is just going to help break the stigma of obesity.”
he also understands that not everybody has the same platform as him to raise their voice, but that’s why he has become so vocal about it. if he can help even one person, he has won.
“(if) they see me and they’re like, ‘hey, this guy’s doing okay, and he’s a big dude, he’s got two kids, and he teaches in college,” he said. “(if they) see what it’s all about, yes, i can live a full life. i can live a full happy life, and that’s what we need to come out from that umbrella of the stigma, is that obese people are just regular people.”
visit obesity out loud for more information about obesity and the work chef rodney bowers and others are doing to end the stigma and improve access to resources and quality of life for people living with obesity.
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