How to Talk with Kids about Fatness

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Diet culture permeates our society. And that’s impacting our kids. Children as young as 3 learn to associate being fat with negative traits, and anti-fat bias can be found in the doctor’s office, in the classroom and on the sports field. In her new book “Fat Talk,” author Virginia Sole-Smith argues we need to take a new approach to how we navigate and discuss fatness and anti-fat bias with our children. Because the current stigmatization isn’t making our kids any healthier. We talk with Sole-Smith about why the word “fat” is OK to use, how to talk about body size and why diets — even those masked as lifestyle changes — can backfire with children and adults. Guests: Virginia Sole-Smith, journalist and author, "Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture," and "Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America;" she also publishes the newsletter "Burnt Toast" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:06.3	Coming up on forum. At a young age, kids start to believe that being fat is bad. This belief,
1:13.1	maybe unsurprisingly, doesn't make them healthier. Instead, it makes them more susceptible
1:18.2	to bullying. Helping our kids eat well, exercise, and have a good relationship with their bodies
1:23.8	hinges on how we talk with them about fatness. That's according to Virginia Sol Smith,
1:29.3	a health journalist and author of the new book, Fat Talk, parenting in the age of diet culture.
	...

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