Fat Talk Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture

Virginia Sole-Smith

eBook - 2023

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Book Riot best book of 2023A Science Friday best book of 2023An Audible best well-being audiobook of 2023By the time they reach kindergarten, most kids believe that "fat" is bad. By middle school, more than a quarter of them have gone on a diet. What are parents supposed to do?Kids learn, as we've all learned, that thinness is a survival strategy in a world that equates body size and value. Parents worry if their kids care too much about being thin, but even more about the consequences if they aren't. And multibillion-dollar industries thrive on this fear of fatness. We've fought the "war on obesity" for over forty years and Americans aren't thinner or happier with their bod...ies. But it's not our kids—or their weight—who need fixing.In this illuminating narrative, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith exposes the daily onslaught of fatphobia and body shaming that kids face... more