Like so many people caught up in the juggernaut that was the first season of MasterChef , I fell a little in love with its first winner Julie Goodwin. She says no to diet industry. She was a beautiful cook, loving Mum and so relatable. Her amazing success from that winning moment years ago does not seem to have changed her warm and very real personality in any way. Every time I see her in a cooking segment on the Today Show she continues to shine in the same natural and unaffected way she did when she nervously first appeared on TV. It has made me respect and admire her.
And now I do even more so.
Julie Wrote her version of events about turning down an approach by Jenny Craig to promote their business, stating that it wasn’t right for her and sending the message that she did not understand why her, or anyone else’s weight, was such a big deal. Indeed! Julie has now further spoken out about her thoughts on the diet industry as a whole and how she “gets sick of being beaten up by the fat police” for not including more lower fat recipes in her cookbooks and that “the diet industry makes a lot of money feeding off people’s insecurity. “
The diet industry? Feeding off people’s insecurities? Surely not?
Surely yes.
Julie is absolutely spot on in her observations about the diet, weight loss and body shaming industries that consistently feed to people they are not acceptable as they are and MUST do something about it. In particular, that they MUST do something about their weight and body. If you’re looking for an example of this, how about this horrendous one by Optislim.
Deliberately shaming. Deliberately feeding into potential insecurities. All so they can emotionally push someone into purchasing their product, diet, system etc.
And the use of these things? Universally known to be, well, useless. The research now is overwhelming and everywhere. Diets do not work. They do not have the magic impact they so often claim they will, not only because of the physical, mental and emotional deprivation they create but put simply, if the ultimate goal of a diet is for someone to be thin – that’s simply not going to happen for a LOT of people. We are not all meant to be thin. We’re just not. Beautiful and healthy people come in thousands of combinations of different shapes and sizes. Small. Tall. Fat. Curvaceous. Athletic. Muscular. Petite. And the list goes on.
Brava Julie! I just love the message you are spreading about the enjoyment of whole and beautiful food cooked with love. I love even more how you embrace yourself and your body and are being a shining example of encouraging other people to do the same. That makes you pretty special in my eyes and I’m sure many others too.