I grew up “knowing” that eating was bad. Not that eating particular things was bad or eating too much was bad, no- as true as the sun coming up in the morning, I was embarrassed to admit to other people that I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks because I knew that consuming food was something I shouldn’t be doing. Especially because I was bigger than all my friends and most of the other girls in my class.
In hindsight, it seems so ridiculous. Embarrassment about eating a meal is akin to being embarrassed to go to sleep at night. It’s like feeling shame for letting people know that I require oxygen. Until I came across this ad from the early 1960’s:
Oh yeah. Lots of companies needed to convince women that unless we were specifically focused on not being “overweight,” we were going to be, and we were going to be embarrassed about it. So our grandparents and our parents believed it and whether they said it or not, we absorbed this obvious fact: we shouldn’t eat because we shouldn’t be whatever size we are when we eat.
For most, just recognizing that this messaging was all about marketing is enough to take the wind out of it. And the fact that an ad like this wouldn’t make it today is quite a relief for many who grew up in previous decades.
But if you are someone who insists that smaller is still better, regardless of actual health markers, what has you hung up on worrying about your weight?
Okay- this is the sentence than kills me- if you can make sense of it, please hit “Reply” and let me know…
If we made Shape taste any better, you might start sneaking it now and then, and you would get fat on it.
Does it taste incredible? Or should it taste better? Are we supposed to be proudly drinking it four times a day? Or should we be embarrassed and sneak it? Is it going to make me lose weight, or is it going to make me fat?
What?
I share this nonsense in hopes of bringing to light where some of the misguidance came from on how we care for our bodies. Many of us who grew up with the idea that losing weight should always be a priority take it as a given. Uncovering who put that given into place lessens its power.
And if it doesn’t, read that asinine sentence again.