In her book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, Sabrina Strings, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Irvine points out that fat phobia has been around for hundreds of years and its roots are racist. "In my research, I found that thinness has been a mainstream archetype in the US since at least the early 19th century," Strings said during a 2019 interview with the University of California. "That precedes the medical establishment's concerns about excess weight by nearly 100 years. It shows that slimness -- while today associated with medical concerns -- was not primarily, historically, about health."

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