Hello from Saint Helena, California! It’s beautiful here in wine country, the weather is lovely (though it’s super chilly in the mornings and evenings – can some one send me a fleece?), and I’m learning a lot and meeting some great people at the writing conference. It’s the best of both worlds: seeing a part of the country that’s new to me, and also learning things that will help me hone my craft.
Of course, BFD-ish things happen everywhere, and so I wanted to take a moment, sitting here at a lovely little outdoor cafe, to tell you about something I saw on the way out here to the West Coast.
On the flight from Chicago to Dallas (yes, I really hopped my way out here!), there was a girl sitting kitty corner to me who brought some food on the plane. This girl, who I’m guessing was in her early to mid 20s, was probably a size zero, maybe a size two. Here’s what she ate: a giant bagel, a entire tub (like, one meant for multiple servings) of cream cheese, and at least half a dozen cookies. I felt full just watching her!
So here is yet more proof that you can tell exactly one thing about someone’s eating habits by looking at their bodies: nothing. Seriously. I mean, how many calories are there in an entire tub of cream cheese?! That girl probably ate in that half hour on the plane what I eat in an entire day. And yet, she is very thin, and I am very not.
Not only is it pointless – and shows your prejudices when it comes to body shapes and sizes – to make assumptions about how much and what people eat, but this also brings up another issue: Why do we only ever talk about policing food for fat people? Think about it – when we talk about how bad fast food or soda is, we always frame it in a conversation about the obesity epidemic. And yet, it’s clearly just as bad for a skinny person to live on fast food and soda. Just because their nutritional choices don’t show on the outside, doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering the consequences of their nutritional choices on the inside. But more often than not, we congratulate skinny people for being able to “get away with” eating whatever they want. Truth is, even if I was a size zero, I wouldn’t eat an entire tub of cream cheese!
So there’s your report from the road so far. I hope everyone is having a good week!
