Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture

 
        進入幼兒園後，大多數的孩子都會表示「胖」是不好的，孩子很快就意識這是個身材與價值掛鉤的世界，保持苗條是一種明智的生存策略。就讀中學階段後，更有高達四分之一的青少年自主節食瘦身。有些父母十分憂心孩子其實並不胖，卻斤斤計較自己的體重。危害身心健康的，已經不是磅秤上的數字，而是整個社會過度追捧的節食瘦身文化。
 
　　這場對抗肥胖的全民戰爭已經進行逾四十年，瘦身產業蓬勃發展造就數十億美元的商機，可悲的是人們對於身材的滿意度，不但沒有因此而提升，反而更容易為此感到羞愧。作者訪談了數十位家長和孩子，揭露學校、運動、醫生、節食瘦身文化、和父母……整個社會氛圍如何讓下一代對肥胖產生恐懼。並建議父母從家庭內的對話開始，改變孩子對體重、健康和對自我價值的認知。賦予下一代對於健康飲食的新觀點，建立更包容的體重觀，以自信應對周圍的挑戰。

書籍評論：
● 「作者以教導與鼓勵的筆法，全方位探討飲食失調、青春期、卡洛里計算方式、健身網紅等現象，以及唯有怠惰的父母，才會養出胖小孩的迷思。」
——《Kirkus Reviews》（柯克斯書評）
● 「令人大開眼界的研究結果，推翻了人們對健康身材的傳統假設，迎擊人們對於肥胖的過度恐懼，具信服力的說法讓讀者感到寬慰。」
——《Publishers Weekly》（出版人週刊）

Now with new material, including a new foreword by Kate Manne, a reading guide, and an afterword from the author.

By the time they reach kindergarten, most kids believe that ＂fat＂ is bad. By middle school, more than a quarter of them have gone on a diet. What are parents supposed to do?

Kids learn, as we’ve all learned, that thinness is a survival strategy in a world that equates body size and value. Parents worry if their kids care too much about being thin, but even more about the consequences if they aren’t. And multibillion-dollar industries thrive on this fear of fatness. We’ve fought the ＂war on obesity＂ for over forty years and Americans aren’t thinner or happier with their bodies. But it’s not our kids--or their weight--who need fixing.

In this illuminating narrative, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith exposes the daily onslaught of fatphobia and body shaming that kids face from school, sports, doctors, diet culture, and parents themselves--and offers strategies for how families can change the conversation around weight, health, and self-worth.

Fat Talk is a stirring, deeply researched, and groundbreaking book that will help parents learn to reckon with their own body biases, identify diet culture, and empower their kids to navigate this challenging landscape. Sole-Smith draws on her extensive reporting and interviews with dozens of parents and kids to offer a provocative new approach for thinking about food and bodies, and a way for us all to work toward a more weight-inclusive world.

Virginia Sole-Smith is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, Slate, and Elle. She is the author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America and also writes the Burnt Toast newsletter. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, two daughters, a cat, a dog, and way too many houseplants.