Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture

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$14.99

Description

By the time they reach kindergarten, most kids believe that β€œfat” 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 β€œwar on obesity” for over forty years and Americans aren’t thinner or happier with their bodies. But it’s not our kidsβ€”or their weightβ€”who need fixing.

In this illuminating narrative, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith exposes the daily onslaught of fatphobia and body shaming that kids face from school, sports, doctors, diet culture, and parents themselvesβ€”and offers strategies for how families can change the conversation around weight, health, and self-worth.

Fat TalkΒ is a stirring, deeply researched, and groundbreaking book that will help parents learn to reckon with their own body biases, identify diet culture, and empower their kids to navigate this challenging landscape. Sole-Smith draws on her extensive reporting and interviews with dozens of parents and kids to offer a provocative new approach for thinking about food and bodies, and a way for us all to work toward a more weight-inclusive world.