From KCRW, I'm Evan Kliman and you're listening to good food.

I was a pudgy preteen during a time that diet drugs were gaining traction.

That meant I followed my mom into a world of

metrical, dexotrim, and the dieting candy AIDS. My body ended up shedding that weight without my help, but that fat mind as a torture never left.

I look back at photos of me and I want to cry for that child who was doomed to a life of failed Weight Watcher

attempts and self-loathing. At a time when the CDC is actually advocating

bariatric surgery for children we need a conversation around body size and

are valueless people, and particularly how we adults lead children through the heinous

maze of diet culture.

Virginia Soul Smith is the author of Fat Talk, parenting in the age of diet culture.

Hi Virginia, thank you so much for coming.

Thank you for having me.

How early do children start to look at their bodies with a critical eye informed by others and the media.

It's so early.

I mean, it's exactly, you know, what you just shared about your experiences.

Research shows that between the ages of three and five children are learning to

equate the word fat with all sorts of negative traits and by elementary school

they're starting to be more concretely anxious about their own bodies.

And you know, I think this really shocks parents because we think often I hear from parents like,

well, I don't know how to talk about this because I don't want to give her something to worry about.

But the truth is they're absorbing this from everything around them

and even from really well-intended things,

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