Most children, by the time they reach school age, believe that being thin makes them more valuable to society.

That's according to a new book by journalist Virginia Sol Smith called Fat Talk,

parenting in the age of diet culture.

And by middle school, Sol Smith says, more than a quarter of children will have been put on a diet.

She spoke with our guest interview, Ritanya Mosley, about why she believes our obsession with thinness

is more harmful to kids than being fat.

If the latest frenzy around the diabetes drug ozimpic for weight loss is any indication,

we are a weight obsessed culture.

And our obsession according to Virginia Sol Smith starts pretty young.

Before most children have even entered kindergarten, and they get it from their parents.

And the new book Fat Talk, parenting in the age of diet culture,

Sol Smith lays out how we've tangled health, beauty, and morality,

and how reversing fatness, as she puts it, has become our society's passion project.

Our most popular national pastime with damaging consequences,

because as scientists show us diets do not work.

Virginia Sol Smith is a journalist and author who began her career writing for Women's magazines.

She's the author of the Eating Instinct, food, culture, body image, and guilt in America.

And a contributor to the New York Times in Scientific American.

Sol Smith also produces the newsletter and podcast, Burnt Toast,

where she explores fat phobia, diet culture, parenting, and health.

Her latest book, Fat Talk, Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, is out now.

Virginia Sol Smith, welcome to Fresh Air.

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