It's time to have the 'Fat Talk' with our kids — and ourselves

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Virginia Sole-Smith is an author, writer and host of the podcast Burnt Toast — and her work focuses on our relationship to food and fat. Her latest book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture is based on one simple idea: it's okay and normal for kids to be fat. "What fat kids need is to know that we see them, we accept them, and we know they are worthy of respect, safety, and dignity," she writes. "Making their body smaller isn't the solution."

Virginia sits down with host Brittany Luse to discuss why anti-fat bias hurts people of all body sizes, why we need to rethink "unhealthy" foods and how to have the fat talk.

You can follow us on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey y'all, you're listening to it's been a minute from NPR.
0:06.6	I'm Brittany Loose.
0:08.1	My guest today is Virginia Sol Smith.
0:11.0	She's an author, writer, and host of the Burnt Toast newsletter and podcast, and her
0:16.2	work focuses on rethinking how we feed our families.
0:20.8	Virginia has noticed an emerging predicament from parents.
0:24.4	They want their children to have healthy relationships to food and their bodies, but they don't want
0:29.7	their kids to get fat.
0:32.3	It's a huge anxiety, but she says this dilemma is fundamentally flawed.
0:38.1	Those of us who survived the 90s and the 2000s, we know what diaculture did to us as teenagers.
0:43.8	We don't want to repeat those cycles, but we're not really sure what else to do because we
0:47.8	haven't reckoned with the underlying issue, which is anti-fat bias.
0:53.1	And so, unless we divest from that, we're always putting these guardrails around who
0:59.6	gets to have a good relationship with food and with their bodies.
1:04.1	Her latest book called Fat Talk is all about how we need to rethink our ideas about fatness.
1:11.1	It's a deeply researched look at why it's completely okay for children to be fat.
1:17.4	And even if you don't have kids, there's plenty in it for you.
1:21.4	Alright, here's my chat with Virginia.
1:26.4	Virginia, welcome to it's been a minute.
1:28.7	Thank you.
1:29.7	I am thrilled to be here.
1:30.7	A lot of your work is built on the thesis that it is okay and normal for children to be
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.