Happy Friday, BFDers! Before you head off into your weekend (which I hope is filled with My Favorite Four Fs: family, friends, food, and fun), take a minute to read the second edition of Week End Words. I’ve collected my favorite quotes from the week, from the inspiring to the inane, the hilarious to the horrifying. Let me know what you think – and share your favorites!
“The next time you visit the doctor’s office, your weight may be part of the discussion.” -Subtitle: Ya Think?! From a local news article discussing ‘aggressive’ new obesity guidelines for doctors, but that conveniently forgets to mention that 95% of people regain all the weight they lose (and often more), that after 50+ years of research, no one has figured out how to make people permanently thin, and that healthy habits should be encouraged for everyone, not just us fatties.
“Oh, who cares. I mean, seriously. I’m on the cover of TIME magazine, you know? It is certainly not the first weight joke that has been thrown my way over the course of the last four years.” – New Jersey governor Chris Christie, on the ‘Elephant in the Room’ headline. Is he strong for saying this, or did he miss an opportunity to discuss fat shaming?
“The problem is that I’ve met very few people who make personal choices of the ‘real food’ persuasion without also pressuring those around them… without also proclaiming that the foods most people rely on to survive are inherently inferior… without also implying that the reason the rest of us are fat, or poor, or don’t have shiny hair, or don’t walk around perpetually bathed in magical sunbeams of happiness, is entirely because we eat the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad food — the food that is not Real.” – The Fat Nutritionist, in a very important discussion about how we talk about food.
“I seen your post about how obesity is ruining the world. In a way it’s true, if you didn’t use so many resources (sorry but the bigger you are the more resources you use) there would be more for other people. People in Syria (and of course all over the world) have to resort to eating cats and dogs to keep from starving to death. Now if every person gave up one meal a day ,and you don’t need to eat three meals a day that’s gluttonous, we could feed all those people.” – Another stellar entry from the trolls who frequent the heartbreaking, inspiring, and always fascinating This Is Thin Privilege.
“I don’t know about you but I don’t give a crap why my co-worker is or isn’t eating something, what morality they’ve assigned to that choice or why. Much the same way that I don’t want to know if the cream that their doctor prescribed is making that rash any better. Boundaries people, boundaries. Can you imagine if we talked about every personal decision the way we talk about food choices ‘I have to poo but I don’t like to do it in public so I’m hoping to make it home before I really have to go.’ Why are you telling me this? What can I do to make you stop?” – Ragen Chastain (as you can tell, one of my favorite bloggers), on dealing with an increase in diet talk during the holidays.
