I’ve been approached once or twice by people with “diet” blogs, and those who would overtly advertise a diet. I just deleted a comment as spam from a diet agency, because, after a post-relevant clause, the comment actually stated “the ____ diet is the single best for overweight people.” Which is, of course, a dangerous claim, not to mention insulting to the intelligence of myself and my readers. We’ve got a literate crowd over here at Fat Chic. Sure, I’m prone to typos and minor grammatical errors, but it took a solid college education plus grad school to back that up — and my regular commentators are smart, smart people, even when they disagree with me. And one thing I know: one single diet is not good for everybody, because their ain’t no such thing as cookie-cutter body chemistry.



I am hardly alone in the “do we talk about diets?” conundrum. I’ve read more than one post from plus size fabulous bloggers who have started diets themselves, or who have approved or rejected advertising deals from big name diet and diet pill companies. On the one hand, I think we would all benefit from knowing more about what’s in what we eat, and that it is best served in small, palatable doses - a recipe here, and article link there, and maybe even someday a whole blog elsewhere by someone else that puts all that nutritional info together. I do think we all should eat our vegetables, even if I do reserve the right to ignore brussel sprouts. On the other hand, we have our insecurities exploited ENOUGH, and I refuse to contribute to this issue by dangling magic pills and formulas for living that just won’t work for everyone, and often enough just won’t work at all.



My way around this so far is to link to and discuss articles and findings. Health is important in all areas of fashion; no matter what your size, it’s important to actually be healthy no matter how narrowminded people and corporations may be about what “looks” healthy. I may even discuss one diet or another from an explorative angle. I really do advocate accepting yourself, whatever your size, in spite of any message sent forth from the media; even as a “thin” person I wasn’t one of those jerks that went around proselytizing my new thinness to the still fat, and I hope as I may well yoyo through life that I will continue to not be a jerk.



I can’t guarantee Fat Chic will be a 100% “safe” place. I am a woman of strong opinions, prone to strong language in every sense of that phrase, and I tend to challenge popular ideas, even ideas that might be considered by many, even most as “plus friendly.” I may disagree with you. You may disagree with me. I believe intelligent conflict can prove transformative; perhaps someday we may even solve the “wearing white pants for plussies” issue this way. But I can promise, right here and now, that I will not expose you to outright diet hawking. Fat Chic has a lot of brain candy to it, but when it comes to the important stuff - our bodies and our minds - it is a place of intelligent exploration, not a place for hawking straight at your insecurities.