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‘Weight Doesn’t Measure Health in Any Way, Shape or Form’
Dr. Yoni Freedhoff on obesity, weight loss, and the need to end post-traumatic dieting disorder
As sometimes happens to visitors in Las Vegas, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff got hooked then decided to stake it all on a feeling.
Freedhoff, then a physician splitting time between a family practice and rehab hospital, was eager to visit Vegas, and a conference on obesity provided him the opportunity. Despite having no interest in gambling (“I don’t even put a nickel in the nickel slots,” he says), the Toronto native hit a jackpot of sorts in Sin City: “I enjoyed the conference so much,” Freedhoff says, “that I continued my learning and ended up becoming the third physician in Canada certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine.” At the time, Freedhoff was frustrated at his inability to give people guidance on lifestyle and weight management — issues he was confronted with daily, but were not taught to him in medical school or during his residency. Freedhoff went on to found the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa in 2004.
As he began to speak out publicly about the myths surrounding diet and weight-loss, he began to ruffle feathers. When he was disinvited from giving a talk on nutritional policy for the Ontario Medical Association at the request of food-industry executives, Freedhoff gave his talk via YouTube anyway. He continued to take his case to the public through articles, TV appearances, his popular website Weighty Matters, and his bestselling 2015 book The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work. His positions are as simple and intuitive as they are subversive: Any and every weight-loss plan can help people lose pounds, but none will succeed long-term if they cause people to suffer in deprivation; humans need food as medicine and comfort, and our shame-based cultural attitudes toward weight-loss are toxic and in desperate need of change.
Elemental spoke to Freedhoff about his views, and why sometimes the best thing he can prescribe a patient is chocolate.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
