Lisa Berzins

Editor’s Note: The following viewpoint is excerpted from Lisa Berzins’ testimony to Congress.

Society’s worship of thinness and prejudice against obesity is responsible for the prevalence of dysfunctional eating, “yo-yo” dieting, and low self-esteem among American women, maintains clinical psychologist Lisa Berzins in the subsequent viewpoint. The government can help change people’s attitudes about weight, she argues, by countering negative stereotypes about fatness, contesting the widespread belief that heavy people cannot be healthy, and challenging false claims made by the diet industry.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How do overweight and normal weight preschool children describe obese silhouettes, as stated by Berzins"

2. What evidence does the author provide that overweight cannot be cured by dieting"

3. As explained by the author, what steps has...