In a controversial article appearing in the April issue of Vogue magazine, author Dara-Lynn Weiss writes about the strict diet she imposed upon her daughter after a pediatrician suggested she was clinically obese.
Bea, who stood 4-feet, 4-inches tall, weighed 93 pounds – was not necessarily obese, but fat, according to Weiss, who admits to having issues with food for the past 30 years.
“Growing up in an affluent, achievement-driven suburb, I had suffered through my own issues with food, eating and weight,” Weiss wrote. “Though the rest of my family had a seemingly healthy relationship to food, I was constantly battling weight gain and asking my mother to lock-up the peanut butter jar. Whether I weighed 105 pounds or 145 pounds hardly mattered. I hated how my body looked and devoted an inordinate amount of time to trying to change it.”
Weiss added that she once even “begged” a doctor to write her a prescription for appetite suppressant fen-phen, even after it was found to cause heart valve defects and pulmonary hypertension.
Weiss’ article talks about the increase in childhood obesity in today’s society and cites a survey that revealed parents are more comfortable talking to their kids about sex than weight.