Oprah's Co-Author Says Icon Turned Blame and Shame She Faced into a 'Gift' for Others with Obesity
- - Oprah's Co-Author Says Icon Turned Blame and Shame She Faced into a 'Gift' for Others with Obesity
Eileen FinanDecember 31, 2025 at 6:00 AM
0
Chris Frawley/Harpo, Inc.
Dr. Ania Jastreboff and Oprah Winfrey cowrote a new book on obesity -
For more than 40 years, Oprah Winfrey has struggled publicly with her weight
Two and a half years ago, she came to understand that she suffers from the disease of obesity and began taking weight loss medication
Inspired by her personal story, the icon has cowritten a new book with weight loss expert Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff that explores the science of obesity and GLP-1s
It took decades for Oprah Winfrey to accept the fact that she was living with obesity.
"The idea of calling myself obese or using the word obesity to describe me... the word itself connotes out of control," says the icon, 71. "But I can now use the word."
Two and a half years ago, Winfrey began using a GLP-1 weight loss medication after "I came to understand... that overeating doesn't cause obesity, as one doctor shared with me, obesity is what causes overeating. That was the biggest revelation," the icon tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story.
One of the experts who helped her come to that understanding was Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, whom Winfrey met during a panel discussion on weight. Jastreboff, the director of the Yale Obesity Research Center, "had real compassion when she was speaking to people in the audience who had suffered as I did," Winfrey recalls.
Then the two had lunch together, "and she was explaining the mechanics of obesity," continues Winfrey. "I said, 'This is so valuable for people to know... you should write a book.'"
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
Winfrey's new book on obesity is out Jan. 13
Together they did— Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It's Like to Be Free is out Jan. 13 and it explores the science of obesity and GLP-1s. Winfrey calls it a "public service": "My primary intention in doing this book is to let people know it's not your fault," she says. "Stop blaming yourself for genes and an environment you can't control."
Winfrey, who shares insights into her painful 50-year struggle with weight in the book "is giving people with obesity a voice,” says Jastreboff. "The amount of shame and blame that she has faced her entire life is unimaginable. But she took that and she turned it into a gift for patients with obesity. She is communicating that obesity is a disease with clear underlying biology. We do not blame people for having diabetes or high blood pressure. Obesity is no different. It is a treatable chronic disease.”
Eli Schmidt/Harpo, Inc.
Dr. Jastreboff and Oprah filming "The Oprah Podcast" in November 2025
Obesity, Jastreboff explains, is a result of our body’s survival system operating in a world of abundance. “Our biology is incredible… but it evolved in an environment of scarcity. Our bodies figured out eons ago we had to store energy, and the most efficient way to store that is as fat. So fat is a very good thing for survival.”
But our modern world, with ultra-processed food, lack of sleep and activity, and high stress, promotes fat storage. Medications like GLP-1s work by mimicking natural hormones, telling your brain you’re full and slowing digestion. But because “there’s not one type of obesity, different medications will be right for different people. And medications are not right for everybody," Jastreboff says.
Doctors need better options, Jastreboff says. “There are 200 medications for high blood pressure. We’d like to give our patients with obesity that choice.”
Help seems to be on the horizon: In addition to the news that a pill form of GLP-1 will be on the market in early 2026, Jastreboff says there are currently more than 100 weight-loss medications in early development. "And that's what we want," she says. "We want a toolbox of treatment options for our patients as we have for any other chronic disease."
Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like To Be Free will hit shelves on Jan. 13 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
