International No Diet Day
International No Diet Day (INDD) is an annual celebration of body acceptance, including fat acceptance and body shape diversity. This day is also dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle with a focus on health at any size and in raising awareness of the potential dangers of dieting and the unlikelihood of success; the Institute of Medicine summaries: "Those who complete weight loss programs lose approximately 10 percent of their body weight only to regain two-thirds within a year and almost all of it within five years." The first International No Diet Day was celebrated in  the United Kingdom (UK) in 1992. Feminist groups in other countries around the globe have started to celebrate International No Diet Day, especially in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Israel, Denmark, Sweden, and Brazil. Since 1998, both the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) and the National Organization for Women (NOW) have sponsored similar days. ISAA's day is International Size Acceptance Day which is celebrated on 24 April. NOW organized a "Love Your Body" campaign, with its annual Love Your Body Day in the fall, which critiques what it defines as "fake images" of the fashion, beauty , and diet industries demanding that images of women with diverse body sizes and shapes are used instead. International No Diet Day is observed on May 6, and its symbol is a light blue ribbon. Goals of the INDD. In celebrating International No Diet Day, participants aim to: Criticism. The Institute of Medicine's Committee To Develop Criteria for Evaluating the Outcomes of Approaches To Prevent and Treat Obesity in its book "Weighing the Options: Criteria For Evaluating Weight Management Programs" states that "the intractability of obesity" has led to the anti-dieting movement. International No Diet Day is then mentioned  and the authors comment: We agree, of course, that there should be more appreciation and acceptance of diversity in the physical attributes of people, more discouragement of dieting in vain attempts to attain unrealistic physical ideals, and no obsession with weight loss by individuals who are at or near desirable or healthy weights. However, it is inappropriate to argue that obese individuals should simply accept their body weight and not attempt to reduce, particularly if the obesity is increasing their risk for developing other medical problems or diseases. History. International No Diet Day was created by Mary Evans Young in  1992. Young is the director of the British group "Diet Breakers". After personally experiencing anorexia nervosa, she worked to help people appreciate themselves for what they are and to appreciate the body they have. Young, a British feminist, developed her understanding both through her own experiences of being bullied at school for being fat and by speaking with women who attended the management courses she ran. She relates in her book, "Diet Breaking: Having It All Without Having to Diet", how during one of these courses in 1991 she became irritated with the coffee break conversation about whether or not  the women were going to eat a biscuit: "Oh, I'll just have one" "I shouldn't really" "Oh, all right then". Young asked the group "What do you think would happen if you spent as much time and energy on your careers as you do on diets?" Two other incidents strengthened Young's desire to expose what she believes is the futility of dieting. First, a television program in which three women were having their stomachs stapled become thin. None of them received any counseling before undergoing surgery and one of the women had split her staples, regained the  weight, and undergone the operation again – three times. Mary found this program distressing; eventually, she realized that she identified with the physical and emotional pain of the women in the program because she had herself experienced that deep self-loathing. The second incident, about a month later, was Young reading in a newspaper about a teenager who had hanged herself because she was bullied for being fat. She was size 14 (USA size 12). In May 1992, Young introduced the first No Diet Day. Originally intended to be a UK-based National No Diet Day, a week before the event , International Clear Your Desk Day was declared and Young was inspired to make her holiday also an international one. It was a small affair to be celebrated by a dozen women with a picnic in Hyde Park, London. Ages ranged from 21 to 76 and they all wore stickers saying: "Ditch That Diet". It rained, and so Young held the picnic in her home. By 1993, feminists in many more countries were planning on celebrating International No Diet Day. Americans, particularly those in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, were concerned that the date clashed with the Cinco de Mayo  celebrations in the southern states. For Young, there was no particular significance to 5 May so she agreed to change the date to May 6, coincidentally her birthday. Mainstream. INDD has evolved into No Diet Day, still on May 6, recommended as a marketing technique for restaurant owners via indulgent treats for their customers. In a similar approach, in a discussion on social marketing techniques for Australian public health educators, it was suggested that local campaigns could be tagged onto a national social marketing strategy and the example given was to attach a local Healthy Eating campaign to 'National No -Diet Day'.