"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is a quote popularized by English model Kate Moss, though she did not originate the phrase. Moss first publicly used the quote in a 2009 interview with Women's Wear Daily where she stated it was one of her mantras. The quote was immediately controversial, and subsequently used for pro-anorexia purposes. It has also been used for product marketing and been the focus of academic study. Moss later expressed regret for using the phrase.
Kate Moss entered the modeling scene in 1988 at 14 years old and quickly became known for her size zero frame. [1] She is credited for helping to start the "heroin chic" look of the 1990s, a drug-abuse inspired fashion look. [1]
In Bridget Carrington's book Feast or Famine? Food and Children's Literature, guest author Fiona Dunbar writes that the quote could be found on pro-anorexia websites as early as 2003. [2] Moss stated when she started modeling and got roommates, one of them repeatedly used the phrase as a "little jingle". [3] Moss then started using the mantra.
On November 13, 2009, Women's Wear Daily released an interview with Moss under the article name "Kate Moss: The Waif That Roared". Brid Costello asked ten questions of the 35-year-old Moss, including her inspirations and definition of beauty. Asked if she had a motto, Moss answered: [4]
There are loads. There’s "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." That's one of them. You try and remember, but it never works.
After the interview was released, the quote "immediately caused an uproar" according to the BBC. [3] HuffPost wrote, "The roar that WWD promised quickly materialised." [5] Television presenter Denise van Outen quipped, "Kate Moss is talking out of her size zero backside." [6] Susan Ringwood, the chief executive of the eating disorder awareness charity Beat, said, "For her to even inadvertently legitimise something that could be potentially so harmful is regrettable." [7] Moss' representatives stated the quote was "taken out of context." [8] CBS News named the quote one of the "Top 20 quotes of 2009", [9] while Cosmopolitan included it in the listicle "The Most Insane Things Celebs Said This Year". [10]
After the release of the interview, British model Katie Green stated, "There are 1.1 million eating disorders in the UK alone. Kate Moss's comments are likely to cause many more. If you read any of the pro-anorexia websites, they go crazy for quotes like this." [11] That community, also known as "pro-ana", quickly started using the term and applied it as "thinspo" and as one of their 10 mantras. [12] The pro-ana website Starving for Control put the quote on their homepage. [13] Author Lisabeth Kaeser recounted how she used the phrase as a personal mantra when she was struggling with her eating disorder. [14]
Writing for HuffPost in 2018, Katie Bishop stated, "For years the slogan infiltrated pro-anorexia forums, and even today a quick Google offers up pages of images of the words in Instagram-ready fonts against tasteful backgrounds of millennial pink." [5]
In 2009, Time listed the quote as number six on their top 10 "T-shirt worthy slogans" with a graphic of Moss and the quote appearing on a black T-shirt. [15]
In 2011, American custom apparel retailer Zazzle listed a user-uploaded children's T-shirt design bearing the logo [16] . After the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK received complaints, the ASA required Zazzle to remove the advertisements featuring the shirts and censured the company. [17]
In 2014, Canadian clothing retailer Hudson's Bay produced a shirt designed by Christopher Lee Sauvé featuring the quote with a nutrition label that listed the calorie count as 0. [18] Customer Kathleen Pye saw the shirt in the store and posted a photo to Twitter, calling the shirt "unbelievably irresponsible". [19] The company received an onslaught of criticism online, after which it announced it would pull the shirt from its stores and stop production. [18]
In 2016, British variety retailer B&M sold a novelty scale for £3.99 with the quote printed on the product. A customer took a picture of the scale and uploaded it to Facebook, where it caused "outrage". [20] B&M pulled the product and announced "We have asked our supplier to withdraw this particular quotation" from the scales. [20]
Researchers incorporated Moss' quote into their 2013 study of anorexia nervosa published by the journal Trends in Neurosciences ; the article was titled "Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels: The Neurobiology of Anorexia Nervosa". [21] In June 2017, Gemma Rose Cobb examined the phrase in her PhD dissertation for the University of Sussex, titled Critiquing the thin ideal in pro-anorexia online spaces. [22] Elle compared the saying with the quote "You can never be too rich or too thin" by Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, as examples of "snappy one-liners" coming to define their speakers. [23]
In his 2019 book First You Write a Sentence, social historian Joe Moran dissects the quote and examines its language in depth. He writes that while it is a "dubious message", it is a "well-turned sentence". [24] In her 2013 book Digital Dieting, academic Tara Brabazon writes that instead of obesity being a public crisis, "excessive ignorance" is much worse, which she states is "so clearly revealed by Kate Moss" and the quote. [25]
In a 2018 interview with journalist Megyn Kelly on NBC, Moss expressed regret for the quote. She further stated: [3] [26]
There's so much more diversity now, I think it's right. There's so many different sizes and colours and heights. Why would you just be a one-size model and being represented for all of these people? So yes, for sure, it's better.
An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's physical or mental health. These behaviors include eating either too much or too little. Types of eating disorders include binge eating disorder, where the patient keeps eating large amounts in a short period of time typically while not being hungry; anorexia nervosa, where the person has an intense fear of gaining weight and restricts food or overexercises to manage this fear; bulimia nervosa, where individuals eat a large quantity (binging) then try to rid themselves of the food (purging); pica, where the patient eats non-food items; rumination syndrome, where the patient regurgitates undigested or minimally digested food; avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), where people have a reduced or selective food intake due to some psychological reasons; and a group of other specified feeding or eating disorders. Anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse are common among people with eating disorders. These disorders do not include obesity. People often experience comorbidity between an eating disorder and OCD. It is estimated 20–60% of patients with an ED have a history of OCD.
Bulimia nervosa, also known simply as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating, followed by purging or fasting, as well as excessive concern with body shape and weight. This activity aims to expel the body of calories eaten from the binging phase of the process. Binge eating refers to eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time. Purging refers to the attempts to get rid of the food consumed. This may be done by vomiting or taking laxatives.
Promotion of anorexia is the promotion of behaviors related to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. It is often referred to simply as pro-ana or ana. The lesser-used term pro-mia refers likewise to bulimia nervosa and is sometimes used interchangeably with pro-ana. Pro-ana groups differ widely in their stances. Most claim that they exist mainly as a non-judgmental environment for anorexics; a place to turn to, to discuss their illness, and to support those who choose to enter recovery. Others deny anorexia nervosa is a mental illness and claim instead that it is a lifestyle choice that should be respected by doctors and family.
Katherine Ann Moss is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status. She is known for her waifish figure, and role in size zero fashion. Moss has had her own clothing range, has been involved in musical projects, and is also a contributing fashion editor for British Vogue. In 2012, she came second on the Forbes top-earning models list, with estimated earnings of $9.2 million in one year. The accolades she has received for modelling include the 2013 British Fashion Awards acknowledging her contribution to fashion over 25 years, while Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2007.
Sociology of the body is a branch of sociology studying the representations and social uses of the human body in modern societies.
Marian Price, also known by her married name as Marian McGlinchey, is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
Ana Carolina Reston Macan was a Brazilian model.
A fasting girl was one of a number of young Victorian era girls, usually pre-adolescent, who claimed to be able to survive over indefinitely long periods of time without consuming any food or other nourishment. In addition to refusing food, fasting girls claimed to have special religious or magical powers.
Ellen West (1888–1921) was a patient of Dr. Ludwig Binswanger who had anorexia nervosa. She became a famous example of Daseinsanalysis who died by suicide at age 33 by poisoning herself.
Wannarexia, or anorexic yearning, is a label applied to someone who claims to have anorexia nervosa, or wishes they did, but does not. These individuals are also called wannarexic, "wanna-be ana" or "anorexic wannabe". The neologism wannarexia is a portmanteau of the latter two terms. It may be used as a pejorative term.
Isabelle Caro Rosenbohm was a French model and actress from Marseille, France, who became well known after appearing in a controversial advertising campaign "No Anorexia" which showed Caro with vertebrae and facial bones showing under her skin in a picture by photographer Oliviero Toscani.
Anorexia mirabilis, also known as holy anorexia or inedia prodigiosa or colloquially as fasting girls, is an eating disorder, similar to that of anorexia nervosa, that was common in, but not restricted to, the Middle Ages in Europe, largely affecting Catholic nuns and religious women. Self-starvation was common among religious women, as a way to imitate the suffering of Jesus in his torments during the Passion, as women were largely restricted to causing themselves voluntary pain by fasting, whereas holy men experienced suffering through physical punishment.
Alexandra Nicole Michael is an American model.
Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin.
Celia Monica Hammond is an Australian former politician and former academic who was a member of the House of Representatives from the 2019 federal election to the 2022 federal election. She was a member of the Liberal Party and represented the Division of Curtin in Western Australia. She succeeded retiring Liberal MP Julie Bishop at the 2019 election and was defeated at the 2022 election by independent candidate Kate Chaney. Hammond previously served as the vice-chancellor of the University of Notre Dame Australia from 2008 to 2019.
Kate Tchanturia is a British psychologist who is a professor of psychology in eating disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. She is also Consultant Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for the National Eating Disorder Service, and president of the Eating Disorders Research Society. Her main research interests include cultural differences in illness presentations, cognitive profiles in eating disorders, and experimental work in emotion processing and translational research from experimental findings to real clinical practice. Tchanturia has a particular interest in women's mental health and has pioneered the PEACE pathway for autism and eating disorder comorbidity.
Atypical anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which individuals meet all the qualifications for anorexia nervosa, including a body image disturbance and a history of restrictive eating and weight loss, except that they are not currently underweight. Atypical anorexia qualifies as a mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), under the category Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED). The characteristics of people with atypical anorexia generally do not differ significantly from anorexia nervosa patients except for their current weight.
Letting Ana Go is a 2013 book about a girl suffering from anorexia nervosa, published anonymously with no discernible author. The main character, "Ana", is a sophomore student and athletic track star who keeps a strict food diary and finds herself growing increasingly distant from her own family, while her own mother struggles with newfound morbid obesity and separation from her husband. The book calls into question the mental healthcare system in The United States and the financial cost of such care as a barrier to sufferers of issues like eating disorders. Letting Ana Go was published under various imprints of Simon & Schuster in 2013.
Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia is a 2023 autobiographical memoir written by Hadley Freeman, and published by Fourth Estate for HarperCollins. The book explores Freeman's struggles with anorexia nervosa from age 14 to 17, and subsequently with obsessive–compulsive disorder and addiction to cocaine. It was also published in the United States by Simon & Schuster. A paperback edition was published in April 2024.