Fat talk : parenting in the age of diet culture / Virginia Sole-Smith.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Book Riot best book of 2023
A Science Friday best book of 2023
An Audible best well-being audiobook of 2023

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Fat Talk: An Initiation (xiii)
• Part 1 "What about Health?"
• Chapter 1 The Myth of the Childhood Obesity Epidemic (3)
• Chapter 2 Separating Weight and Health (30)
• Chapter 3 When "It's Not a Diet" (49)
• Chapter 4 Thin Kid Privilege (68)
• Chapter 5 Beyond the Scale (86)
• Part 2 "Are You Sure You Want to Eat That?"
• Chapter 6 What We Teach at the Dinner Table (105)
• Chapter 7 Snack Monsters and Sugar Addicts (126)
• Chapter 8 The "Nervy Mothers" Myth (147)
• Chapter 9 (Straight, White) Dads on Diets (165)
• Part 3 Taking Up Space
• Chapter 10 Diet Culture in the Classroom (185)
• Chapter 11 "I Got Taller and Gymnastics Got Scarier" (204)
• Chapter 12 Normalizing Puberty (227)
• Chapter 13 Social Media's Tipping Point (244)
• How to Have the Fat Talk (265)
• Resources (289)
• Notes and Sources (295)
• Acknowledgments (342)
• Index (345)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A 2012 study shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans may have some level of bias toward people with larger bodies, and that prejudice may have started when they were children. Journalist Sole-Smith (The Eating Instinct) deliberately uses the word "fat" in this work, as she believes that the stigma surrounding it needs to be removed. In this well-researched book, the author examines historical models and policies that don't take into account normal variations in growth. The "childhood obesity epidemic" is addressed at length, with the caveat that weight loss in a child could lead to an eating disorder and dietary restrictions may result in incidents of sneaking food. The effects of racial discrimination and poverty, with the expense of fruits and vegetables (particularly organic) being cost-prohibitive in some communities, are also explored. The book ends with a chapter called "How to Have the Fat Talk," which includes a list of additional resources, but this title would've benefitted from even more of the author's take on how to effect change. VERDICT Overall, this book shines in its look at policy and historical views of this topic. Parents concerned about their child's weight and body image will appreciate it.

Publishers Weekly Review

This compassionate manual by journalist Sole-Smith (The Eating Instinct) suggests ways parents can help their children "recognize and reject" anti-fat bias. She explores how messaging that devalues fat bodies damages children's health, self-esteem, and sense of bodily autonomy through accounts of parents and their kids. "We need to separate weight and health," she contends, telling the story of an eight-year-old girl who received compliments from strangers about the weight she lost due to undiagnosed type 1 diabetes while her heavier and healthier younger sister received only disapproving comments. Critiquing the overlooked environmental factors that contribute to fatness, Sole-Smith reports on research that found childhood asthma to be associated with adolescent weight gain and calls for public health strategies to focus on alleviating poverty, which leaves many families unable to afford healthy food. She urges parents to talk with teachers, doctors, and their kids about pushing back on anti-fat stigma and encourages parents to tell their children that their value isn't tied to their weight: "Your body is never the problem." The eye-opening research upends conventional assumptions about what a healthy body looks like, and readers will appreciate the affirming tone. The result is a striking challenge to fatphobia. (Apr.)

Booklist Review

This paradigm-shifting book gathers journalist Sole-Smith's (The Eating Instinct, 2018) findings from countless studies, journals, and her own career-spanning interviews to flip the script on diet culture and anti-fat bias, the very "air we breathe" that convinces us all that our bodies are our value--and that most of our bodies need fixing. With many data points and personal anecdotes, this is more an information survey than a parenting road map, covering topics ranging from myths about fatness to how diet culture manifests within our own family units and the influences of youth sports and social media on kids' perception of their bodies. A wrap-up section helpfully synthesizes Sole-Smith's findings for easy consultation, along with scripts for talking about diet culture, fatness, and bias with kids, doctors, and even ourselves. Further reading and source lists and an index are also of note. If it can feel radical to accept and overwhelming to implement change in one's own views and parenting style, Sole-Smith's guide comes with the promise that over time it will be less so; starting the conversation is what matters. With its message of trusting our kids' bodies (and everyone else's) as they are as both a social justice issue and an act of love, this is a great place to begin.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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.