My mom

My mom was super thrilled to see the poem entitled "Radiance" about her in Fat Poets Speak 2:  Living and Loving Fatly.

She was plump and gorgeous once, in her younger years. Then she dieted a lot.She lost weight and kept dieting most of the time. I never knew until much much later that she was almost starving herself half the time, which was one of the main reasons that she was often happier on weekends, when she let herself have more food.

 Ironically her idiotic doctor told her that she had to cut out most dairy, even though both her "good" cholesterol and "bad" cholesterol were high. She just manufactured more because of her genetics. And this is in spite of her also having osteoporosis.

Result: Her osteoporosis got worse. The cholesterol drug he put her on probably caused or worsened her rheumatoid arthritis and may have caused her colon cancer (1994-1996), along with the low-dairy diet.

Result:  She can only sit for periods of ten minutes at a time. She lost five inches in height, and is very thin and frail. She suffers other complications, as well, pertaining to her stomach.

Way to go, diet culture. You gave my mom some chronic illnesses she could have avoided had she dieted less or not at all, and had she not listened to her primary care physician.

She is still beautiful, though, in spite of everything.