Content By: Katey Davidson from My book, The Mindful Glow Cookbook affiliate link:
I had a different video written and planned for this week, but then a super nasty ass bombshell shook my world and has literally been keeping me up at night so I moved some things around. But yes, I’m talking about WW’s new Kurbo App.
Here’s the deal. WW, formally known as Weight watchers, but you know, they’re all about “wellness” now, just released their new kid-centric app directed at 8 to 17 year olds. The app promises to help our little ones with goals like “lose weight”, “boost confidence” or the most cringeworthy.. “Make parents happy.”
I’m sorry, but if watching your child develop a life threatening eating disorder, lose their amazing intuition around food and set off on a lifetime struggle with food and their body makes you happy as a parent, you really need to re-evaluate your role.
I hope today’s video will shed some light on why you should be WAY more worried about apps like this and dieting in general than your kid gaining weight while approaching puberty.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons we need to BOYCOTT this app today.
Food Cannot Be Categorized as Good, Bad, or Sometimes Okay
Kurbo uses a “Traffic light” system, categorizing foods into green, yellow and red light categories and encouraging kids to track “every bite”.
WW has described the app as a “holistic tool” not a diet, but what they’re actually doing is creating a more preschool-friendly calorie counting strategy, or an off shoot of their popular points system.
The Nutrition recommendations themselves are bunk
This feels like a moot point because like I said, we should never be categorizing any foods as good, or bad, or kinda bad, but I LEGIT don’t understand what the criteria was for these bogus categories.
Dieting in Children Increases Eating Disorder Risk
The words ‘diet’ and ‘children’ should really NEVER be said together, and research confirms to us why this is. First of all, diets rarely work long-term. Sure, you may lose weight initially, but upwards of 90-95% of people regain the weight plus some. This is also the case for children who diet.
Preteens and Teens NEED to Gain Weight and Fat
You know that our fat phobia is so out of hands when we are terrified of our children growing in a way that is imperative to their health.
Despite our society’s fear of fat, it’s extremely important for our health. Body fat is key for keeping our organs protected, temperature regulation, cell signaling, and for maintaining hormone levels, just to name a few.
Promotes Fat Phobia
Weight Stigma and weight cycling is a Much Bigger Problem than Weight
If you’re thinking “oh well its for their health. We’re worried about their health” – let me tell you, that’s actually bull shit and your actions may actually have a much bigger impact on their “health”.
Diets don’t work
Wake Up Weight Watchers, pull this app off the market TODAY.
Tell me, who here was first led into diet culture through weight watchers? Leave me a comment below!
For more tips on staying healthy, recipes, dieting, and information fit for consumption by foodies everywhere stop by Abbey’s blog.
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