Food and body image in the series

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 68022

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Beth Currie" <lists at d...> wrote:

> As someone who has to eat healthily and exercise regularly to stay the
> size I want, I find it very irritating that she portrays all the "good"
> characters as eating unhealthily and not exercising, and never being
> overweight.

Ah, but probably you aren't a 15-year-old boy!  Have you been around any of 
these creatures lately?  They eat everything in sight, much as the Hogwarts 
crew do, and if they don't sit around watching TV and playing video games all 
day, they manage to stay slim.  Since the Hogwarts students have neither TV 
nor videos, but rather troop around from one end of the castle to another all 
day, even standing up in some classes (potions and herbology seem to be 
mostly lab sessions), and climbing stairs to get from on eplace to another, 
even to breakfast, they are getting in their 20 minutes of vigorous daly walking 
as the medical authorities currently recommend.  Kids, who are still growing 
can get away with caloric intakes that are unworkable for those of us who now 
can only grow horizontally. 

I'm not so sure the food is that unhealthy.  She does mention dishes of 
veggies among the meals, they're drinking pumpkin juice not soda (though if 
they keep it up they'll turn orange from all the stored-up carotene).  Sweets 
seem to be a special treat from parents or trips to Hogsmeade.  Rhubarb 
crumble just doesn't sound like junk food to me, crumbles are mostly fruit with 
a flour-and-sugar topping, are you suggesting that they have no sugar at all?