When Russell Anderson carried 600 pounds on his 6-foot frame, looks of disapproval and pity met him everywhere he went. He didn't always have to read people's faces, though, to know what they thought of him.

"You don't need that food," a man blurted out in a busy cafeteria as Anderson walked past him with a chef's salad on his tray.

"The prejudice was so strong," Anderson, who lives in Waldoboro, recalled. "It was so powerful and inappropriate at the same time."

Even though more Americans than ever are overweight, negative attitudes against plus-size people may be one of the few socially acceptable prejudices left.

Recent research indicates that weight bias has worsened over the last several decades. Some theorize that this is because of society's increasing focus on expanding waistlines as a health problem that costs the entire health-care system. Others say the American creed of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps faults overweight people when they fail to shed the pounds.

Whatever the reason, weight bias is ever-present on television, at the workplace and in health-care settings, said obesity researcher Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.

Such attitudes do little to help obese people who are trying to lose weight, Puhl said. Fear of being ridiculed by strangers, for example, prevents some obese people from taking a walk outside, she said.

"Self-hatred and feeling badly about oneself tend not to be a good motivator for behavior change," Puhl said.

Weight-based discrimination starts at a young age. Studies show that overweight children are teased relentlessly and often develop depression and suicidal thoughts at a higher rate than their peers. One study, published in the journal Obesity Research in 2003, showed that children today are even less tolerant of overweight peers than children were 40 years ago.

Prejudice is more muted in adulthood, but just as pervasive and found even among health professionals who work most closely with obese people. In another study published in Obesity Research in 2003, obesity specialists were shown to associate their patients with being lazy, stupid and worthless.

Discrimination, real or perceived, can have dangerous outcomes, as demonstrated by a study published last year in the International Journal of Obesity. Bad experiences in doctors' offices were enough to discourage women from getting gynecological cancer screenings, researchers reported.

However prevalent, complaints of weight-based prejudice have resulted in few lawsuits in Maine or other states. Neither the lawyers at the Disability Rights Center nor those at the Maine Human Rights Commission said they had encountered any weight-related cases in recent memory.

Part of the reason may be because obese people are not a protected class under federal law. Only four places in the country have anti-discrimination laws related to size: Michigan, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Calif., and Washington D.C.

Some argue that the law should in no way equate weight to race or religion, because they see being overweight as a lifestyle choice, and an unhealthy one at that.

But Christina Terrell, a Colby College student, said she is naturally a large woman who is healthy and has nothing to gain by losing weight.

"I exercise," Terrell said. "I don't have high blood pressure, diabetes or high blood cholesterol."

Terrell said she founded the Colby Fat Acceptance Association in 2004 as a sophomore because she was tired of stereotypes that portray overweight people as being lazy, incompetent and having poor hygiene. The group, which has about 30 members, also tries to eliminate eating disorders and promote healthy body image.

To her surprise, the organization has been accused of promoting obesity, not unlike companies that sell plus-size caskets and beach chairs. Terrell said they couldn't be more wrong.

"People believed that our club was for people to sit around and gorge themselves," Terrell said. "That's absolutely not what we want. I want there to be an acceptance of people of all sizes, whether they're bone-thin or they weigh 8,000 pounds."

After being obese for much of his life, Russell Anderson said he came to expect gawking, even got used to it.

Then he shed 300 pounds after undergoing gastric bypass surgery nearly three years ago in hopes of alleviating joint pain and diabetes.

He said he no longer gets the wounding words and looks that had been a part of his life for so long that he had become desensitized to them.

All he ever really wanted, he said, was to be "pretty much invisible, just a regular part of the landscape." Now 50, he finally got his wish.

Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: jhuang@pressherald.com