Race, weight, diet

[sarahmichigan]

This Big Fat Blog post is mostly about being appalled that some journalist is saying that Fat Acceptance is "disempowering" and that higher body self-esteem in minority populations is misplaced and dangerous. However, the very long discussion in the comments about eating disorders, dieting, and the "intuitive eating" approach were incredibly fascinating to me.

Many people hear about the Overcoming Overeating Approach, or even try parts of it, and think it doesn't work because they still overeat, even after they "legalize" all food and stop dividing food into "good" and "bad" columns. They feel the MUST have some food restrictions, calorie-counting, etc. in place or they'll overeat. My contention, and that of several other commenters, is that you're not seeing the full picture if you believe you'll be "out of control" in your eating habits without outside, arbitrary limits. "Legalizing" foods is just part of the process-- you also have to understand when you're eating for emotional reasons rather than for hunger. You need to examine the politics about weight, fat, food, and gender in this country (Fat IS a feminist issue). Legalizing all foods is just one of many steps to undoing all the sick cultural conditioning we all have pounded into us about food, fat, weight, and morality.

The comments by the registered dietician working with eating disordered clients who was a binger herself are incredibly touching.

http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/000488.php#comments

Comments

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

it's more a problem of living in a culture and an economy that thrives off of telling people there is something wrong with them. That I agree with. The diet and cosmetics industry and all kinds of commerce thrive off making us feel we're not quite good enough, but we could be if we just bought into their products and services.

I totally believe that we are more lazy, unhealthy and sedentary than maybe we've ever been. I believe that most of the food we eat contributes to mental and physical health problems, and that Americans put a lot of shit in their body that is really, really bad for them.

Yes and no. Americans are terribly conflicted about being "lazy". We work SO much harder than many Europeans, though, in terms of hours worked per week and how many holidays we get (or don't get) off. When you spend 60 hours tied to a desk and have cities built for driving, not walking, it's hard for the average person, let alone the average parent, to find time to exercise. Many Europeans have the 'luxury' of being able to have exercise built into the work day because they can more easily walk or bike to work. And Americans do eat shit, but I'm sure you're aware of the idea that it's hard to eat whole foods when you're poor, because of access to supermarkets, etc.

But I think thin women worry about their bodies just as much as fat women, or women anywhere in between. . .though it's seems more acceptable (at least among the more "liberal" and "body positive" groups I tend to be around) to hate thin women. There's something wrong with that, too.

I totally agree with you. I try VERY hard not to demonize smaller women and realize they have their issues. I had a tiny anorexic friend in college who was appalled that people felt it was OK to tease her about her size (most people who teased her had no idea she had an ED). But I'm a big woman, and I can only give my take on things from my own experience of having trouble with body acceptance.

It seemed like some of the response posts went so far as to praise genuinely unhealthy behavior patterns, like eating whatever we want.

See, I don't think "eating whatever we want" is unhealthy. I think we've just been societally (and by our families) programmed to "want" things that aren't good for us in large quantities. I think that if we all listened to our body wisdom, we would eat what we want in appropriate quantities. But the diet culture, the fast food industry, the snack food companies program us to think bigger portions, more chemicals, etc. are what we crave.

And telling women who have disordered eating that "what they want" is not OK is *really* dangerous. The nutritionist who works with disordered eaters talks about telling bingers to go ahead and binge when they're feeling bad. EDs are usually a persons way of trying to nurture themselves, albeit in a fucked up way. I think once we stop "shoulding" on ourselves about food, we'll have a more sane relationship with food. I say this as a vegetarian who eats almost exclusively whole-grain pasta and bread, so I'm not saying that no one should ever try to manipulate thier food intake for health. But making food choices into a moral crusade is a slippery slope to disordered eating, in my experience.