Beauty isn't essential

"Beauty isn't essential, but food is." 

Author Angela Garbes brilliantly summed up the opposite of what our culture promotes with this quote.

Living in America, the typical woman is brainwashed to believe that beauty is essential (see Karadshian family and Kim K who recently said she'd be willing to eat poop everyday if it made her look younger) but food is the enemy to achieving the stereotypical thin, white, young, able-bodied beauty standards. 

The truth is, food isn't the enemy. Diet culture is. And we're all victims of diet culture, so don't blame yourself for where you are. 

It's hard to fathom that our country congratulates women for their own self induced hunger. My girls and I just read the book When Stars Are Scattered and the part of the book that struck me the most was the very real and critical hunger crisis. In the book, the main character talks about how the very few and lucky students who did make the long walk to school everyday often fainted at the two week mark when government issued food supplies ran low. It was like clockwork. Food runs low, classmates faint. In America, you report that you faint from a food plan and someone might suggest more protein and sleep instead of the obvious answer which is to just EAT because you're under nourished (regardless of your body size).

I doubt any refugee is celebrating self induced hunger. 

At a time when war rages, and millions of people are living at or below poverty levels with food scarcity or insecurity, it's incredibly ironic to have another set of millions of women creating food scarcity by choice. 

This might sound a little like the kids are starving in Africa, so you should eat your dinner line that our parents used when we were growing up. But by the time the food is on your plate, eating or not eating isn't going to solve world hunger so please don't use shame and guilt to encourage your kids to eat because it doesn't work. 

What I do want you to do this week is to stop congratulating yourself on even the small moments of hunger you might experience throughout your day/week/month. Those days where you skip a meal and feel your stomach grumbling, don't give yourself the virtuous high five. That's diet culture's messaging that you should celebrate starvation at any level. Don't buy into that BS anymore. 

Food is essential. Starvation at any level is a problem. 

Enjoy your food. Take pleasure in it. Share it with others in community. These are the things that will create the beauty in your world that you seek.