Which Diet Food(s) Have You Reclaimed?
Written as I drink my daily Diet Coke.
A few years ago, I wrote about the two Diet Culture Staples that I still consume every single day of my life, even though it’s been roughly 8 years since I last went on a diet: Diet Coke (I challenge you to find a better headache cure! I am not remotely interested in any evidence suggesting caffeine causes headaches!) and Orgain chocolate protein powder, which goes in our family’s morning smoothies because blueberries are better when they taste like a milkshake.
This is also a fun question to ask at parties (I mean, I think it is? Maybe I’m not very fun at parties?) so I thought we’d reprise it as our Extra Butter Live Thread prompt today.
I’ll be hanging out for the next hour and I’d love to know:
Which diet foods have you decided to redeem and now just enjoy? And which diet foods will you never, ever eat again?
(Rice cakes always comes up a ton for both!)
You can also always use Extra Butter Live Threads to drop any questions you have for me — whether that’s about navigating diet culture and anti-fatness, or something more random or personal (houseplants, single mom dinner, clothing recs, you name it).
And today I’m opening up this thread to ALL paid subscribers—because I’d love for those of you who have maybe been pondering an upgrade to Extra Butter to come test out the live thread format with us!
Extra Butter is our premium subscription tier.
It’s $99 per year if you’re just joining us, but if you’re already a paid subscriber, the remaining value of your current subscription will be deducted from that total.
In addition to these monthly live threads, you also get:
Paywalled podcast episodes. We’ve dug into Kids Eat In Color, when fat influencers get thinner, the anti-diet to alt-right pipeline, and my post-divorce body.
A comp subscription to , my podcast mini-series co-hosted by
exploring how we perform motherhood, online and in our homes and bodies.NEW! Substack DMs with me. TBH, I’m still figuring these out, but if you’re a Substack app user (I do really like it!), I’ve turned on DMs for Extra Butter members only. So come chat!