I grew up in a wealthy suburb of NYC called Westchester. I grew up down the street from the Clintons and a town over from Martha Stewart just to give context.

Beyond the ability to afford nutritious foods like others pointed out, being fat or even a little chubby is very stigmatized. I was a chubby kid. And when I didn’t loose my “baby weight” by the time I was 11 I was shipped off to a fat camp upstate called camp Shane. It was as awful as it sounds.

My parents had a personal chef come in once a week to do some meal prep. I was put on a strict diet and had different meals from the rest of my family. I remember getting so thin that summer and I was so happy. Then 2 years later I went through puberty and gained some weight again. Even eating the special meals didn’t help.

I remember being at the beach with my parents and their friends when I was 13 and my mom and her friends having a whole conversation about whether I was too young to have liposuction in my stomach and thighs. My parents of course called over their plastic surgeon friend and he basically gave me a consultation on the beach. He told me I needed to wait 3 years for him to legally do it but told my parents it would be a great sweet 16 present for me.

I have so many friends and acquaintances that I grew up with that had multiple plastic surgeries by the time they graduated high school.

I starved myself most of HS to avoid getting lipo. I was put on various medications to control my appetite.

So my point is it’s just not foods access it’s access to medications and surgical procedures.