Nutrition is such a vast science, one where new theories and ideas are coming almost every month and one where the general public is either completely uneducated or working off of decades-old assumptions (such as following the surgeon general&#x27;s dietary guidelines from the 70s or 90s). It&#x27;s no wonder to me at all that a vast majority of people regardless of their current size have zero idea what to do to eat healthily.<p>I became interested in the Health At Every Size movement during its inception as part of recovering from an eating disorder and, at its core when it was first started, it had a very positive message- essentially &quot;Hey, everyone, let&#x27;s promote the idea that we all should eat healthy food and get exercise and do fun active stuff regardless of if we&#x27;re fat or thin or old or young or tall or short.&quot; It was a direct challenge to the idea that you had to be a particular size to be active or to go to the gym or to do active hobbies. However very soon after inception it was perverted into a message of &quot;It is entirely possible to be healthy regardless of how fat you get and if you are fat and your doctor says that you are not healthy because you are fat then it is your doctor who is wrong because it&#x27;s never, ever wrong to be fat, ever.&quot;<p>Message #1 was great as it was all about promoting eating healthier regardless of your size, getting regular exercise that was fun and that you enjoyed doing regardless of your size, and about being gentle with yourself during that process- so stepping away from hating yourself because you were fat and instead doing something productive with that brainpower. Message #2 corrupted that into &quot;You are perfect <i>because</i> you are fat and if anyone tells you that you should be less fat then they&#x27;re trying to abuse you and make you change to suit them.&quot;<p>I&#x27;m extremely excited about the nutritional research that&#x27;s coming out regarding gut microbes and their potential impact on our health and weight because I imagine how awesome it&#x27;d be to go to your doctor, spit in a cup, and have it tell you what all you should and shouldn&#x27;t be eating (due to genetics, microbes, etc) as well as recommend which probiotic you should be taking to get your gut bacteria in line.