Iris Higgins, Former Jenny Craig Consultant, Apologizes To Her Clients For Bad Health Advice
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Iris Higgins, a women’s wellness coach, weight loss consultant with Jenny Craig, gluten-free health blogger, and author of The Essential Gluten-Free Baking Guides has come forth with a public apology. Higgins, who published the apology “An Open Apology to All of My Weight Loss Clients” through her blog on Your Fairy Angel, Friday, sparked many grateful replies from readers.
Higgins worked at the weight loss company Jenny Craig for three years and after reflecting on the years of weight consultation she’s given, she decided it was time to pay her former weight loss clients an apology. In her letter, she admits to a number of perceived mistakes, including giving bad advice for those with thyroid issues, not addressing those with body dysmorphic disorders, designing diets with too few calories for both pregnant and non-pregnant women, as well as recommending yo-yo and fad diets.
Higgins makes apologies with specific case-illustrations so that the apology is anonymous, but at the same time relevant to those who may have taken action on her advice in the past. She talks to the young runner who was in healthy shape but had a mother who insisted that she was overweight, and apologies for not standing up for her. She apologizes for not seeing past the societal norms of what is healthy because she was blinded by the magazines and the company she was working for — which is not explicitly named in her article, but is widely known to be Jenny Craig.
Jenny Craig is a weight-loss empire that provides its clients with personal consultants, such as Higgins, in order to get them to eat and live healthy. According to the website, “Jenny teaches portion control and a balanced approach to living, with the freedom to live your life your way.”
Higgins advised her clients to stay within a 1,200 to 1,500 calorie diet in order to lose weight in a “healthy way.” However, she now retracts the advice she gave and believes it was not enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s ChooseMyPlate.gov, girls 14 to 18 years old should be on a 1,800 calorie diet, while females 19 to 30 years old should maintain a 2,000 calories diet.
Higgins has a master’s degree in psychology from New York University and is a certified hypnotherapist. She’s not a certified nutrition, but continued to advise clients on diet management and believes after years of reflection, the letter is to, “each and every woman that I unknowingly wronged.”
She believes that she was not a good consultant because she gave people unrealistic expectations. And, as a result when her clients were successful in weight loss, their body craved additional food, which led to inevitable weight gain. The cycle continued and created repeat clients.
“I helped you lose weight and then gain it back, so that you thought we were the solution and you were the failure,” she said in her apology. “I am sorry because many of you walked in healthy and walked out with disordered eating, disordered body image, and the feeling that you were a ‘failure.’ None of you ever failed. Ever. I failed you. The weight loss company failed you. Our society failed you.”
Jenny Craig has not responded to Higgins’ apology, but there is direct evidence that she is both blaming the company and herself for the poor consultation. Nowhere in the piece does she apology for the fact she wasn’t a registered dietician, or that she wasn’t following the USDA’s diet guidelines for healthy living.