Sublime

The second—which we might call “nursery food”—says that children’s food should be separate from adult food, but that grown-ups should carefully select the foods with a view to what they believe is wholesome, rather than catering to a child’s tastes.

An era of neurotic, cheerless eating ensued, as all foods with a trace of fat – chicken skin, egg yolks, whole milk – were condemned to waste.

The third—which I’ll call “kid food”—says that children should be fed exactly what they like, no matter how sugary or fake.

“Kid food” is based on the presumption that children have a natural palate for simple carbohydrates, fat, sugar, and not much else.

It wasn’t accurate to say she lost weight—it was more like she chased the weight off her body the way a farmer would chase a stray dog off his property. And like a suspicious farmer, Fawn still patrols the borders of her body, a shotgun propped in the crook of her elbow, ready to shoot any fattening food that tries to sneak back in.

Another facet of this enforced shrinking is that those with fat bodies are deemed somehow incapable of knowing what is best for them.