“The message that we need to get out there is you can have a healthy pregnancy at any weight,” Virginia Sole-Smith told “Good Morning America.” Watch here
“But after the podcast this month, the backlash went up a notch, and body image advocates were not impressed. Virginia Sole-Smith, an advocate and author, told her 12,000 followers on Instagram, ‘I don’t give a f—k about your diet, Jack. When teenage girls do it before prom, it’s an eating disorder, but when (very rich) white guys do it, it’s … still a f—king eating disorder.'” Read more
“Virginia Sole-Smith, a journalist and author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America, explains the chronology like this: On the one hand, you have people frustrated with “the Jenny Craig calorie counting model,” because it’s hard and joyless and, in the long term, rarely seemed to work. At the same time, the alternative food movement starts to gain mass momentum, with Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman leading the charge. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Who can argue?” Read more
“To me, the most troublesome part of the Kurbo app is how many perfectly normal, healthy foods are on the red list,” such as peanut butter and granola, says Virginia Sole-Smith, author of “The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America.” This is obviously damaging in the sense that a child should never be put in a position where weight loss is expected, she says. “But as a mother of a cautious eater with a history of a severe pediatric feeding disorder, I worry a lot about how this would perpetuate anxiety and rigid thinking (by) picky eaters.” Read more
In our kickoff to season 2, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith joins us to discuss all things pregnancy, motherhood, body image, feeding, and eating. Listen here
“Lunch is complicated,” Sole-Smith tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Kids’ appetites are tough to predict because they change often with activity level and growth fluctuations. And lunch can be a pretty stressful meal — you’re in the cafeteria, it’s loud and crowded, it’s almost always too short and kids are easily distracted. For those reasons alone, it’s totally reasonable for parents to want to pack the ‘easy’ foods they know their kids will like so the food part of the meal isn’t an added stressor.” Read more
In this episode, “Do you want to die thin?,” we interview journalist Virginia Sole-Smith about her book The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America around minute 38:00. Listen here
In today’s episode with Virginia Sole-Smith, we explore how social media has contributed to our heightened stress around food, how to navigate food struggles with kids, and things you can do to make sure you’re not projecting your own body image issues onto your children. Listen here
I got some professional witchy advice from Virginia Sole-Smith, author of The Eating Instinct, who covers feeding and kids for the New York Times Parenting newsletter. Read more
The “COVID 15” is something a lot of people are facing in the pandemic as people gain weight while working from home. Childhood weight gain is also on the rise with families stagnant in quarantine. For more on the increase in childhood obesity, KCBS Radio’s anchor and reporter Lisa Chan spoke with Virginia Sole-Smith, author of “The Eating Instinct” and contributor to the New York Times Parenting section. Listen here
The Takeaway speaks to Virginia Sole-Smith, journalist and author of “The Eating Instinct” who’s been covering COVID and weight stigma for Elemental, about fatphobia and fat-shaming during the pandemic and what that tells us about how we as a culture think about weight. Listen here
Jamilah Lemieux and Virginia Sole-Smith tackle raising kids to develop healthy relationships with food. Listen here
Guests Virginia Sole-Smith, Anne Helen Petersen, and Sabrina Strings discuss body image, diet culture, and what it means to equate health with thinness with KQED’s Katie Orr. Listen here
Virginia Sole-Smith discusses The Eating Instinct and diet culture with host Susie Meister. Interview starts around minute 54:00. Listen here
Virginia Sole-Smith discusses intuitive eating with host Anita Rao. Listen here
Is Keto Safe for Kids? Virginia Sole-Smith addresses how weight-based teasing and fat shaming can affect children. Read here.
New childhood obesity guidelines may worsen ‘Diet Culture’ in San Francisco schools. Virginia Sole Smith on why the new guidelines are so maddening. Read here.
Shaming kids for their weight isn’t just ineffective—it’s cruel. Virginia Sole Smith on why the focus on BMI is not helpful. Read here.
Virginia’s interview with Christi Paul of HLN’s “On The Story,” discussing her New York Times Magazine article, “When You’re Told You’re Too Fat to Get Pregnant.” Air date: June 25, 2019. Watch here
“Also, don’t force the veggies.” Virginia Sole-Smith, author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Eating in America, said that doing so will only backfire. Research shows that making our kids eat certain foods “is a short term game with long time dire consequences. Nobody likes the food they were forced to eat.” Read more
Reporter and author Virginia Sole-Smith discusses the targeting of children and young people by Kurbo and other weight loss companies, and what it could mean for our kids’ health and privacy. Listen here
This hour, we’ll talk about the best ways to teach kids healthy habits while maintaining a positive body image. And we’ll discuss the impact that pop culture, social media and technology is having on how kids see themselves. Guest host Tracy Matisak talks with Charlotte Markey, professor of psychology at Rutgers University at Camden, and Virginia Sole-Smith, author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America. Listen here
“Virginia Sole-Smith, an author who writes about body image, feminism, and health, told her Instagram followers: “[I don’t give a fuck] about your diet, Jack. When teenage girls do it before prom, it’s an eating disorder … but when (very rich) Thin White Guys do it, it’s … still a fucking eating disorder.”” Read more
“In the words of Virginia Sole-Smith, author of “The Eating Instinct” and co-host of the podcast Comfort Food, ‘Nobody has ever grown up to like a vegetable they were forced to eat as a child. But when we neutralize foods and offer fruits and vegetables alongside the foods our kids are naturally drawn to, they stop equating broccoli with ‘yucky’ and cookies with ‘forbidden heaven.’ It’s all just food.'” Read more
“There’s been a backlash to all the rules about eating clean, which has created a space for intuitive eating,” says Virginia Sole-Smith… Read more
Author Virginia Sole-Smith told Insider she thinks the boom in influencers getting cosmetic procedures is a distortion of the body positivity movement that has shaped the last decade. Read more
Virginia Sole-Smith spoke with Summer Innanen about what to do if you’re confused on how to feed your child, especially if you’ve been influenced by diet and wellness culture. Listen here
Virginia Sole-Smith in conversation with Emily Oster about how to think about body changes in kids during the pandemic, and how to talk about food and weight with kids, without passing on our issues around diet/food/weight. Listen here
Virginia Sole-Smith discusses how an intuitive eating approach works within families and how parents can navigate concerns about perfect eating, childhood weight fluctuations, and body image concerns. Listen here
Virginia Sole-Smith joins the Slate podcast as a guest to discuss Weight Watchers now that it has rebranded as “WW.” Listen here
The Healthy Kids myth busted with Virginia-Sole Smith. Listen here
How to break free from diet culture with Virginia-Sole Smith. Listen here
The Burnt Toast newsletter gets a shoutout in Pop Culture Happy Hour’s weekly recommendations. Read here.
Virginia Sole-Smith shares talking points for when relatives are body shaming your child. Read here.
Virginia Sole-Smith talks us through how to equip our children to recognize anti-fatness when they experience it at school, on their sports teams, and at the doctor’s office. Listen here.
Dinner parties, diet culture, and social control with Virginia Sole-Smith. Read here.
The Implications of ‘Midsize’ Talk on TikTok Are Complicated. Read here.
WAMC’s The RoundTable: “Food Culture, Body Image, And Guilt In America”
Bare Necessities: “Author Virginia Sole-Smith Debunks Some of the Most Harmful Food Myths”
The Highlands Current: “Don’t Eat Yourself Up”
The Sunday Edit: “How to Raise Kids Who Love Their Bodies”
Intuitive Bites Podcast: “The Eating Instinct with Virginia Sole-Smith”
Nutrition Matters Podcast: How Connecting to our Instinct to Eat can Help us Make Peace with Food
Eating Disorders Resource Catalogue: Virginia Sole-Smith joined us for an interview on her book, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America.
Food Psych Podcast: “The Wellness Diet and Feeding Kids with Virginia Sole-Smith”
Dietitians Unplugged Podcast: “Exploring The Eating Instinct with Virginia Sole-Smith”
Courageously Go Podcast: “Our Relationship with Food: An Interview with Virginia Sole-Smith”
Motherbirth Podcast: “Motherhood and Diet Culture”
The Appetite Podcast: An Interview with Virginia Sole-Smith
Book Cougars Podcast: “Author Spotlight with Virginia Sole-Smith”
Albany Times Union: “Taking issue with food issues”
Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books Podcast: Virginia Sole-Smith
Edible Potluck Podcast: “Exploring Orlando and Virginia Sole-Smith”
Real Health Radio: An interview with Virginia Sole-Smith
One Life Radio: Virginia Sole-Smith, Tom Blas, and Krav Maga
The Washington Post: “It’s time to cancel diet culture — if not for ourselves, for our kids”
All Things Considered: “How to encourage Americans to eat healthier without body-shaming”
The Smerconish Podcast: “A Provocative Take On The APA’s New Guidelines On Treating Kids With Obesity”
The Seattle Times: “Why ‘Fat Talk’ is the book parents, and many adult children, need”
Good Morning America: “How to protect kids from the negative impacts of diet culture“
Burnt Toast is an anti-diet, fat positive community about body liberation. It’s also a newsletter and a podcast, and the best way to keep up with Virginia’s work.
Sign up for my newsletter if you like rants on the diet industry, sometimes more random musings, and answers to your questions about how to parent without passing on your own toxic body image crap.