Greta Christina's fat positive manifesto

[ciphergoth]

I froze the discussion here because I thought it deserved a top-level post of its own, rather than being under a general discussion of Greta Christina. A few weeks ago she posted a very interesting series of articles on the fat-positive movement and her own beliefs; I'd be very interested to read more about what people think of them.

"I was frankly shocked at how callous most of the fat-positive advocates were about my bad knee. I was shocked at how quick they were to ignore or dismiss it. They were passionately concerned about the quality of life I might lose if I counted calories or stopped eating chocolate bars every day. But when it came to the quality of life I might lose if I could no longer dance, climb hills, climb stairs, take long walks, walk at all? Eh. Whatever. I should try exercise or physical therapy or something. Oh, I'd tried those things already? Well, whatever."

• The Fat-Positive Diet
• The Fat-Positive Skeptic
• An Open Letter to the Fat-Positive Movement

Comments

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

I don't think I agree, because dieting, or even just healthy eating, isn't a case of saying "I can never have another donut again as long as I live" it's saying "I can never eat without having to think about it again". Just giving something up cold can be way easier.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lj_sucks_/]

I was diagnosed as celiac, and on a gluten-free diet for the first 15 years of my life. I didn't grow up being able to eat things without thinking about it first, so maybe that's why I didn't find it an insurmountable challenge to carry on doing so.

There's a parallel here with people who say "Oh my god, (antidepressant|diabetes) medication, I could never cope with having to take a drug every day for the rest of my life"--again, as a sickly child with hellish allergies, I grew up needing some kind of medication every day, so the idea of my life or sanity depending on a daily dose of pharmaceuticals just isn't a big deal for me.

Whether quitting smoking or dieting is easier probably depends on the personality of the individual. I believe that the research shows pretty clearly that some people have addictive personalities. Looking at it from the opposite side, I have amazing reserves of stubbornness compared to most people. So for me, quitting smoking would probably be easier.

On the other hand, there are people who find evaluating complex decisions (such as navigating the maze of options in a restaurant or supermarket) to be challenging and stressful. Again, there's science to back this up; even some large scale studies showing health changes in the former East Germany, for example. For those people, the temptation to give up on the complex multi-dimensional decisions and eat what appeals to their taste buds is probably as appealing as some find the temptation to suck on another cancer stick.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Firstly, a lot of eating is habit, and once you're over the effort of breaking a habit and forming a new, healthier one then you're back to not having to think about it all the time. Secondly, changing eating habits also changes the way things taste; if you avoid eating salty things (say) for a while, when you go back to them you may well find they're no longer so pleasant to eat.