The dietitian community (and beyond) is livid about Weight Watchers, now rebranding itself as “WW” [cute, innocuous new name]’s launch of its program targeting children. Some of us were pediatric dietitians. You know what’s cool about kids and what they’re supposed to do, at an exponential rate on a little chart we gleefully plot at every visit which signifies they’re thriving? THEY FREAKING GROW. THEY GAIN WEIGHT. BONE MASS. MUSCLE MASS. BRAIN CELLS. THE ABILITY TO BE A LOVELY LITTLE butterfly. They gain 20-50 lbs during puberty. They even have a growth spurt from the age of 2-3. They require almost triple the amount of calories per kg of body weight that we do. And we are going to PAY this company “WW” to… purposefully starve them and permanently distort + mar their relationships to their bodies, to food, and shatter their delicate innate ability to INTUITIVELY EAT? Sure. Let’s assembly line create an army of lifelong eating disorders. Let’s toss a child into the swampy morass of diet culture years before they should ever dip a toe in there.
Parents, we know it’s painful to see headlines like “PEDIATRIC DIABETES ABOUNDS” and this app may *feel* so validating under a guise of “health” and *feel* like it’s going to give you and family the “structure” and “information” you need. We’ve all been conditioned to fear fat + fat bodies and to elevate thin ones. We’re all aware of Big Food creating hyper palatable, cheap, nutrient poor foods and a damaged, broken, politically corrupt food supply that weasels its way into little mouths. You can feel truly vexed by all the info + misinformation out there about food, and you want your kid to grow up healthy, strong, and happy. But this is not the answer. Do better, America. Raise competent and confident eaters who eat intuitively, mindfully, and who will think their friends are downright strange when they DO get exposed to diet culture (because they will, eventually) because they were always raised that all foods fit and that all bodies are good bodies. Don’t co-opt into this diabolical marketing scheme. Preserve a child’s sweet ability to detect internal hunger cues. Invest in nutrition professionals who are sensitive to this, and who will educate your kids, you, and your school’s faculty about nourishing, exciting foods in a weight-neutral way. Be the parent that rallies behind a war cry of “this is NOT right”, and be the parent who invests in us for compassionate nutrition education at your school! (Hi. Email us!) Reject this poison and the wily way “WW” has reinvented itself — because you wised up to its reindeer games.
Essentially Yours,
The Essence Team