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The Marie Claire Article

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Chef Sebastian Cole
Chef Sebastian Cole
Oct 23, 20102.1K Shares87.8K Views
The Marie Claire Article

The November Marie Claire features an article entitled “The Hunger Diaries,” “Six popular bloggers advocate healthy living, but are they putting readers (and themselves) at risk?” As one of these six bloggers, I would like to let my blog speak for itself, but I know that’s a naive notion. Here are my thoughts on the article.

1. First, welcome to Hangry Pants! I’m Heather. My quasi co-blogger is Mark. If you would actually like to know about our blog, I invite you to click around.

2. I spoke with the author, Katie Drummond, twice before meeting her in person at the Healthy Living Summit. Early on, I understood the following: the author was gathering information to fit her purpose and to support a conclusion she’d already made. While I am not a professional journalist I’ve read enough mainstream media to know that even fairly amateur writers can craft a contrived line of evidence to support a pre-defined theme.

There’s very little incentive and even less accountability to fairly present both sides of a matter in order to support a well-informed conclusion. I’m therefore not surprised at the one-sided nature of the article that made it to print.

3. There are very valid criticisms about healthy living blogging that were ignored or omitted in an effort to frame bloggers as mindless hordes of industry outsiders with no business writing about their personal experiences.

Drummond was provided with my critical opinions on healthy living blog extremes, eating disorders, blogging responsibility, and exercise obsession, yet no mention of my acknowledgment of these potential problems was brought to light. Instead, I was cast as clueless about my influence and responsibilities as a blogger, ignorant to any negatives of healthy living blogging.

4. Motivation. Why would a well-established fashion magazine like Marie Claire write an article centered almost solely on the trials of a small group of healthy living bloggers and choose to ignore the ubiquitous, harmful imagery and values that media outlets, large and small alike, constantly pump out? Perhaps I’m cynical, but something tells me it’s more about discrediting a competing form of free media than it is about concern for readers of healthy living blogs.

Although framed to be a generous article, I believe that if the Marie Claire editors were concerned with the health and well-being of readers, they would have taken an introspective look at the imagery and message of their own content and paid advertisements long ago.

Marie Claire UK October 2016
Marie Claire UK October 2016

5. The article is filled with sensationalism and truth-stretching. For example, as stated in the article I ran 10 miles and made Black Bean Brownies on the same day. While these statements are atomically correct, I ate 3 full meals as well.

There is no blogging record of the meals because that is not the format of my blog. Leading readers to believe that a black bean brownie was my post-run meal (and possibly all I ate that day) by omitting other facts is an example of the author manipulating information to further her objective.

6. Reading about real people who successfully lose weight or change their lifestyle can be very inspiring to some. Not all “healthy living blogs” resonate with every reader. Similarly, watching The Biggest Loser isn’t great for everyone either. At some point, blog readers, like T.V. watchers, also need to take responsibility for what they view.

7. There are a number of reasons that I do not post what I eat, but primarily I do not blog that way because I never want other people to compare themselves to me, and I do not want to be scrutinized for what I eat (the way I was in the article). I am saying this not because I think it makes me better or worse than other bloggers, but I think it’s a large distinction about my blog that could have been noted.

Again, not because it makes me better, but because it shows that it’s not a community that requires one style of blogging. We are not a group of people who must post 3 meals a day, 3 times a day, in order to have something to contribute.

8. Prior to blogging, I had secondary amenorrhea caused by stress-induced low body fat. I wrote all about that experience, and I agree that it’s completely unhealthy. During my time blogging, I came to realize what was best for my body and health.

9. I believe that food destruction is disordered. In the post referenced in the article (when I threw out a batch of cookies), Mark and I clearly discuss our views on the subject.

10. I am not a perfect eater, a healthy eating role model, a registered dietitian, a personal trainer, or an expert on anything. I do not give health and nutrition advice because I know I am not qualified to do so. Instead, I share my experiences, and I do it well.

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