A Weight-Inclusive Approach in High School Nutrition Education: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study

Nutrition education in schools is a key health promotion strategy that has the potential to influence lifelong relationships with food, bodies, and health. However, many programs in U.S. schools are taught from a weight-centric approach that positions body weight as a primary indicator of health despite evidence of associated stigma and harm. Weight-inclusive nutrition (WIN) offers an alternative framework that emphasizes non-weight-based indicators of health, rejects diet culture, and acknowledges the social determinants of health; yet little is known about student outcomes when nutrition is taught from this paradigm. This study examined the implementation and preliminary outcomes of a newly developed eight-lesson WIN curriculum in high school health education classrooms. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were administered to students in Grades 7-12 across 17 classrooms in eight schools in the Northeast United States (N pre = 292; N post = 263) during fall 2024. Quantitative results showed positive shifts across all items, with statistically significant improvements in students' endorsement of weight-inclusive beliefs, including reduced moralization of food, decreased reliance on appearance-based health judgments, and increased recognition that health is socially shaped. Qualitative findings revealed emerging critical nutrition literacy-particularly students' ability to identify and critique diet culture-alongside continued difficulty disentangling weight from health. These findings suggest that, while WIN curricula can initiate meaningful shifts in how students conceptualize food, bodies, and health, continued efforts are needed to support appropriate educator training and strengthen alignment with school-wide policies to sustain long-term change.