The recent efforts to minimize the negative effects of Hollywood’s unhealthy obsession with being thin has backfired to our detriment. The “big is beautiful” sentiment could not be more unhealthy…except if it were the “be thin at any risk” mentality. The idea that our body size is a source of beauty instead of a source of health is not good for our kids.

Telling our daughters that “big is beautiful” is shifting the focus right back on weight as a factor in the beauty equation. You can of course, be beautiful and be overweight. I know many women who I consider beautiful who clearly fall into the obese category.  Being overweight does not make you unattractive or attractive. Being overweight makes you unhealthy. Being a healthy weight can...well, make you healthy.

The clinically obese are at an increased risk for a whole host of health problems, including but not limited to: high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, type II diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, infertility, and joint problems. Why, oh, why would we instruct our daughters to love the pounds of extra fat that may one day kill them? We don’t encourage them to participate in other unhealthy lifestyle choices, so why would we encourage them to “love your body just the way it is” even if that body carries 100 pounds of heart-attack-waiting-to-happen?

We do it because our society has mistakenly placed much of the value of a woman on her size. We are so entrenched in the idea that being a certain weight will give us self-esteem and confidence that we do not even realize how damaging a concept this can be. This is the very reason we don’t confront our children’s weight problems. Or our own. We as a people are so wrapped up in weight as a beauty and self-esteem issue that the fact that it is actually a health issue is completely overshadowed. No one is afraid they will hurt their child’s feelings if they explain why they must wear a helmet to keep their brains from being spattered on the pavement. We should not be afraid to teach our kids about the poor habits and types of food that will build fat around their hearts and cause them to stop working.

We need to reframe the entire concept of weight and body image. Let’s shift the idea of weight as a vehicle of beauty to a vehicle of health. Maybe if we, as a whole, stop babysitting everyone’s ego and start speaking the truth we can get childhood obesity under control. Weight should no longer be a factor in beauty.  It simply should not. So get out there and love your body. Love it all the way down to a healthy weight.  And bring your kids with you.