About this episode

Aimee Donnellan discusses her book on women's dieting experiences and the generational impact of food management.

Aimee Donnellan joins Laura to talk about her new book Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity, and the much bigger story sitting underneath it - how generations of women learned to live with food. Through interviews with women across the world, Aimee found the same pattern repeating. A trip to a dietitian around the age of seven. A mother quietly carrying her own dieting story, passing it on through Weight Watchers, rice cakes and "don't think cute clothes mean you can come off your diet." For some, GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro have quietened the food noise for the first time in their lives. For others, the more confronting realisation is how differently the world treats them when they shrink. Aimee also explores how the men in her book relate to their bodies very differently, the rising scale of childhood obesity and the shame attached to it, and why the food industry has barely adjusted to a world where appetite itself is shifting. She and Laura reflect on body positivity, menopause and the pressure women carry at every stage of life, before closing on something simpler - why she thinks the meaning of life comes down to picking up…

People in this episode

Host: Laura Dowling

Guest: Aimee Donnellan

Topics covered

• women and dieting
• generational stories
• body positivity
• childhood obesity
• food industry
• mental health

Keywords

• dieting
• food management
• body image
• obesity
• women's health
• mental health
• generational trauma

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Weight Watchers

Products: Wegovy, Mounjaro

Books & works: Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity

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