AED adds voice to Jenny Craig protest

This Academy of Eating Disorders press release speaks volumes:

Jenny Craig CEO Keynote Speaker at Australian Girls’ Schools Conference

The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) joins the protest against Jenny Craig CEO, Amy Smith, as the keynote speaker choice for the Alliance of Girls’ Schools upcoming conference. Approximately 200 educators from all over Australia are expected to attend the May meeting, entitled, “Images of a Girl:  Diversity, Dilemmas, and Future Possibilities.”

We wish to amplify the central message of this protest: a CEO of a diet industry titan is an inappropriate choice of speaker to address educators with responsibility for shaping the minds of girls and young women.

The AED believes that giving this important speaking platform to the Jenny Craig CEO may appear to endorse dieting as well as unintentionally promoting weight bias. Available evidence supports that dieting among young girls does not lead to sustained weight loss and increases risk for the development of eating disorders. Educators and their students deserve to benefit from unbiased health information based upon rigorous clinical research.

The AED is a global professional association committed to leadership in eating disorders research, education, treatment, and prevention. For more information about the AED, see: www.aedweb.org

For more information about this protest see: https://www.change.org/petitions/stop-jenny-craig-s-ceo-from-presenting-at-girls-schools-conference-jennycraigfail

And there is more:

In response to the decision to invite  Amy Smith, Managing Director of Jenny Craig Australia/ New Zealand  to address the Alliance of Girls Schools conference, ANZAED president Anthea Fursland issued the following statement:

ANZAED is disturbed by the decision to have a keynote speaker who is a representative of the diet industry. We believe that the choice of speaker sends a message to the conference attendees and the general community that dieting is a worthy means to better health and/or happiness. People attending this conference have a large influence on young people, and research has consistently shown that dieting is a major risk factor for the development of eating disorders.

* The Australia & New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED) is the peak body representing and supporting the activities of all professionals working in the field of eating disorders and related issues in prevention, treatment and research. ANZAED has members from all professional disciplines in New Zealand and all states and territories of Australia.