Foodies, Fat and HAES

I'm not really a "foodie" per se. I try to eat organic, I'm going into my second year with a Community Sustained Agricuture share (CSA), I work at a  writing desk older than I am, I buy almost all my clothes gently used or discounted. Although I drive a mini-van, I only put 8000 miles on it per year. I believe in sustainable farming, buying locally, reducing, reusing, recycling. While I'm not a vegetarian I think animals slated for food should be treated and slaughtered humanely.  When I have red meat it tends to be from grass fed, organic beef. I will tell you right now, it's expensive. And while my CSA is cheap in the long run, it is expensive upfront. There would be no way I could eat the way I do now if I was poor.  The reason why I choose to eat organic is this: I kind of like my food without poison or antibiotics and I think organic food tastes better. I don't know how much organic aids in health since Americans have been living longer despite "gorging on junk food." Being a foodie also helps me learn to enjoy food again instead of feeling ashamed when I eat.

You think I would get more involved in the movement, but I can't. Because I feel ostracized due to my weight. Many movements that encourage sustainability use ending fatness as a reason.  Fat people are put into two different groups: On the one hand we're villains,  where groups like PETA use images and messages that it's fat people's fault because they don't eat vegetarian (I actually know a couple of fat vegetarians and some rail thin meat eaters.)  They also pick on children. On the other hand the more dangerous aspect is being labeled as a victim. The poor fat people don't know how to eat right, and are too stupid to realize that if they just changed to organic they would be thin and happy. Victimization makes fat people less than human. We become unable to make our own decision and have to be told what to do. At least with being labeled a villain, people are honest.  

Where does that leave me and the food movement? Still on the outside looking in, however not all seem to think "organic = thin!".  Linda Bacon, Liz Snyder, and Jill Richardson are all pro-foodies and pro-fatties. There was also a blog post from 2 years ago on Feministe complaining about the get rid of fat with good food meme.

If you want people to begin changing to sustainability, you need to not alienate them. The movement isn't all for people with a BMI under 25.

And to go completely off topic, if you're in the NYC metro area and you want a fat dose of high self-esteem, awesome bargains on clothes, please get to the Fat Girl Flea Market!

Comments

[Maryjane]

I recently decided not to let the opinions of the fat-phobic get in the way of my relationship with my body. Just like I dont let PETA get in the way of me being a responsible consumer. Or let Pat Robertson tell me how to be a Christian (or that I'm not.) In any discourse, we have to fight to keep the assholes from the driving seat.

[The Well-Rounded Mama]

I agree totally with you. I grow a lot of my own fruits and veggies, eat eggs fresh-grown, frequent farmer's markets for stuff I don't grow, try to buy meat that is raised more sustainably and healthily, yadda yadda.....but I often feel alienated from the foodie types because they are always pushing the "this will fix the fatties" meme. UGH.

[Jerome]

Um, just to put this out there...eating vegan one day weekly reduces your carbon footprint more than eating organic/local every day. Just sayin'. :)

[Elizabeth]

I'm a pescetarian now, but I was a vegetarian for several years and a vegan for about a year--and I was and am very much fat. One thing that was frustrating and hurtful to me, and that made it difficult for me to connect with the larger vegetarian community, was the rampant fat hate. I saw a lot of non-veg*ns = fat people = bad people, and as somebody who could eat vegan and mostly maintain my weight that sucked.

OTOH, I ended up staying away from size-positive blogs as well because I was seeing a lot of "vegetarians are all skinny and don't enjoy food and are covering up for eating disorders." So it was like I didn't belong anywhere.

[Rosemary]

I'm not fat, but I am a foodie. And I'm sorry to hear that people have been alienated from the foodie community for being fat. That makes no sense to me because being a foodie isn't about calorie counting or low carbing it; it's about exploring, appreciating and savoring new tastes, textures and everything that we are lucky enough to have put on our plates. I've never heard of a true foodie ever asking for a low cal modification of a dish.. you eat it the way the chef intended it to be eaten, full of fat and flavor.

Like you, I have tried hard to eat organically and purchase only humanely raised and slaughtered meat. It was not so that I could lose weight; I also did not want to put pesticides or hormones into my body that did not belong there. I wanted to feel healthy. I also wanted to put my mind at ease when I eat a burger, making sure that the animal I was eating did not suffer for my pleasure. The fact that you are trying to do something good for yourself and the planet, and that it is being overlooked simply because you're fat, is ridiculous.

As a foodie too, it drives me up the wall when friends tell me they are now using margarines, almond butters, soy butters, flaxseed oil butters and whatever else in place of real butter, solely because they think it will help them lose weight. It's not as if they're doing it because their bodies can't process dairy or because they are vegan. I know some people who went vegetarian who gained a lot of weight, and I also know some who lost weight. Why? Because we are not all the same, and our bodies all react differently.