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Last Saturday was International No Diet Day. If you think it was an excuse to devour three double
cheeseburgers, think again.
The official way to observe No Diet Day isn’t as gluttonous and is a little more complicated.
According to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, the purpose of the one-day
moratorium is to get away from dieting and weight obsession; learn about healthy weight loss,
dieting, and body size; and celebrate the diversity of all shapes and sizes.
Also known as NAAFA, the group hopes to stamp out fat discrimination worldwide. It has annual
conventions and a Hall of Fame that includes Louis Armstrong, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill,
and Buddha. No Diet Day, its banner day, was started in 1992 by a British anti-diet activist fed
up with the “fat-is-bad” mentality that she believes pervades the media. Since then,
it’s been observed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Norway, South Africa, Russia,
and the United States.
Confused? Think you’ve clicked on the wrong Web site? Although you don’t have to take it
literally, No Diet Day is as good a day as any to ponder why you want to lose weight. Want to have
more energy and feel better? Good. Want to look like a runway model? Bad. If you're not dieting,
perhaps you can reconsider what it means to be fit and healthy. Or at least consider that when it
comes to the ideal body shape, there’s no right or wrong.
NAAFA’s message is hard to pin down. The group is careful to differentiate between dieting solely
to lose weight and dieting to be healthy. Lowering fat, sugar, and cholesterol intake is fine;
starving to look like Kate Moss isn’t. But NAAFA also contends that obesity doesn’t signify poor
health, which is where things get fuzzy. Obesity has been linked to diabetes, hypertension, high
cholesterol, arthritis, depression, sleep apnea, and gallstones. According to their Web site,
however, some of these diseases can also be attributed to yo-yo dieting, and most weight loss
plans don’t work, so staying at a high, stable weight may be healthier than dieting.
That’s debatable, but the fact that more and more people are obsessed with body image isn’t.
“Even very young girls are stuck in aggressive diets, which can adversely affect their health and
growth,” Byfield says.
But people are waking up. This summer, the British government will convene a conference of models,
fashion executives, and health experts, and examine the pressure placed on young women to be
thin.
Even celebrities, the so-called purveyors of super-thin elitism, have had enough. The April 12 San
Francisco Chronicle quotes Janeane Garofalo, actress and Marie Claire magazine cover girl: “I’m not
proud of losing weight. It’s been a sell-out. I lost weight so I could be considered for a wider
range of acting jobs. I don’t pretend that it’s a health kick or that it’s just to feel better
about myself.“
Strong words, but understandable when you consider her motivation to diet. Fortunately, people are
tuning in to the right and wrong reasons to lose weight. One of Byfield’s lectures, ‘Being Body
Positive,’ which helps people sever the close tie between self-esteem and their body, has grown
increasingly popular in the past few years—even among men.
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