Weight-Inclusive Nutrition (WIN) Collaborative

Developing Weight-Inclusive Nutrition Education for Middle and High School Health Classes

• The nutrition environment in middle and high schools can have a profound impact on eating behaviors adolescents develop, as well as weight-based bullying they may experience.
• A weight-inclusive approach to nutrition is associated with improvements in eating behavior, body image, anti-fat bias, and mental health outcomes, therefore it may be important that nutrition content taught and promoted in schools is presented weight inclusively. 
• We work with health educators to enable nutrition education to help students establish peaceful relationships with food and their bodies to prevent the development of disordered eating behaviors and anti-fat bias.
• Projects funded by USDA HATCH ARS and the UVM Food Systems Research Institute conducted stake-holder interviews to assess the topics covered and materials used to teach nutrition education in Vermont middle and high school health courses.
• We then have worked with health teachers to develop a nutrition education curriculum for high schools, that demonstrates a weight-inclusive perspective. We are currently developing a middle school curriculum.
• We tested the high school curriculum with multiple teachers and their classes to asses efficacy for both teachers and students.
• We are currently working to provide continuing education opportunities to health educators to learn more about teaching nutrition and adopting a weight-inclusivity.
• Finally, we are developing a Weight-Inclusive Mindset Scale to measure teachers’ knowledge about weight-inclusive practices, and better tailor professional development to teacher needs.

Publications

Defining the Guiding Principles of Weight-Inclusive Nutrition Education – Frontiers in Public Health., 2026. Levinson, Gamble, Rose, Garnett, Hinchey, Pope.

Ditching Diet Talk: A Qualitative Study of Teachers Implementing Weight-Inclusive Nutrition Curriculum in the High School Health Classroom., 2026. Gamble, Levinson, Hinchey, Russell, Garnett, Pope.

Weight-inclusive nutrition education in K-12 schools: deconstructing the weight-normative narrative – Health Education., 2026. Gamble, Levinson, Hinchey, Rose, Garnett, Pope.

Support for a Weight-Inclusive Curriculum? Exploring Partner Perspectives and Influences on Nutrition Education in Vermont High Schools – Journal of School Health, 2024. Hinchey, Garnett, Gamble, and Pope.

Exploring Weight Inclusive vs. Weight-Normative Approaches in High School Nutrition Education – Health Education., 2024. Hinchey, Garnett, Gamble, and Pope.

Resources

Find our curriculum here!

Find professional development modules to learn more about diet culture, weight & health, and anti-fat bias here!

Merging Sports Nutrition with Weight-Inclusive Nutrition

• Many athletes report that their disordered eating begins during their involvement with sports.
• Despite good intentions, coaches can promote disordered views of food and bodies.
• Best practices in sports nutrition suggest particular nutrient targets for before, during, and after activity to promote optimal performance.
• We have interviewed high school coaches to determine whether/how they talk to their athletes about food/bodies.
• Most coaches talk about food and bodies with athletes, and would appreciate further support on how best to approach these topics.
• We are working on developing resources for coaches and athletes from middle school to college that support sports nutrition and positive relationships with food.
• Our current project funded by the UVM Food Systems Research Institute aims to develop resources for high school athletic coaches to discuss sports nutrition with their athletes in supportive ways.

Supporting Vermont Schools to Prevent Eating Disorders

• Eating disorder (ED) prevalence in youth has dramatically increased since 2019.
• In rural areas like Vermont, access to ED treatment is often a barrier to receiving care.
• In 2023, the Vermont Legislature passed Act 56 which encouraged Vermont schools to provide training about EDs to school staff.
• Schools have very limited resources to train school staff and enact the model protocol for ED prevention provided in Act 56.
• This project funded by USDA ARS HATCH funds will examine how three Community schools in Vermont are approaching eating disorder prevention.
• Later stages of the project will provide professional development around eating disorders for school staff and assess its effectiveness.
• The project will also develop an eating disorder literacy tool to help quantify changes in ED literacy in school staff.

Examining Diet Culture in Media and Popular Culture

• Media and figures in popular culture often promote ideas around nutrition and health that are rooted in diet culture.
• It is important to understand how consumers of media and fans of popular figures are impacted by dialogue around food, bodies, weight, and health.
• We examined nutrition or weight-related content on TikTok and found that much of it was weight-normative, presented by non-experts, and promoted the thin ideal.
• We also studied fans reactions to Taylor Swift’s disclosures about her own frustrations with conforming to the thin ideal and found that Swift served as a role model for those struggling with disordered eating, yet Swift’s individual disclosures did not eliminate instances of anti-fat bias and objectification displayed by fans.

Publications

Pope, L., Rose, K.L. (2024). “It’s All Just F*cking Impossible:” The Influence of Taylor Swift on Fans’ Body Image, Disordered Eating, and Rejection of Diet Culture. Social Science & Medicine. In press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117100.

Minadeo. M., Pope, L. (2022). Weight-normative messaging predominates on TikTok – A qualitative content analysis. PLOS ONE.17(11): e0267997. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267997.