In the specific example of Calorie counts there are ways of making that info available to people who want it without forcing those triggered by it to see it: the booklet or even the back of the menu. It’s a little thing, easily updated and easily avoided if you don’t want to read it.

This. I’m somewhat overweight, according to the BMI scale (27), and have emotional eating tendencies so the calorie count helps me decide if I *really* want to eat it or I’m just bored. It’s also helpful if I’m out at some godforsaken chain restaurant and not wanting to eat enough calories to sustain three people. It’s a tricky thing, calorie counts, but I’m of the opinion that a bit more information doesn’t hurt, for me. I also prefer the booklet, if available – although it has a limited audience. These are my personal preferences, as someone who has never embarked on a serious calorie-restriction regimen.

I also read Fat is a Feminist Issue over the summer and it really helped me get over a lot of issues I had about food and eating, and enjoying myself. Which reminds me, I need to go over it again, as the scale in the bathroom and my Wii Fit are both negatively affecting my self-image.

Logically, just because it irritates me it doesn’t mean the info shouldn’t be available to someone who wants it. That said, just because so-and-so wants it doesn’t mean it should be shoved in my face either. California passed a law that restaurants had to post the Calorie counts of their food. The way many of the places I usually go to handle it is to have the info in the booklet with all of the booze and desserts. I prefer that to what some other places have done which is putting the Calories at the end of the description in the menu. If I don’t want to look at it, I don’t pick up the booklet.

When I was knee-deep in body hate, though, I would obsess over calories, WW points, and the like. Posted calorie counts, probably, would have helped in the obsession and the categorization of foods as “good” and “bad.”

I live in the south, though, so I doubt we’ll be getting posted calorie counts any time soon. Ah, Waffle House.

I’ve never been good at dieting, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a diet that lasted more than a couple of days, so I reframed my complete lack of willpower as something positive.

The thing that pisses me off most about diet culture and how this conversation is framed as being about “health” is this: If we were really concerned about people’s health we would stop making this an issue of personal choices and police corporations whose decisions negatively impact the health of millions of people everyday.

We are so obsessed with personal responsibility that we think people should be able to project some kind of bubble of self-defense that keeps us all svelte and healthy even in the face of, I don’t know, free-floating dioxins and stuff.