Valerie Bertinelli Reflects on Her Diet Spokesperson Days: ‘I Was Part of the Problem’
Actor and television personality Valerie Bertinelli has been anything but coy of late regarding her feelings about body image and self-acceptance.
While she opened up recently in an Instagram post that addressed a fan’s unkind remark about her physical appearance, this week the television personality considered her own role in contributing to the negative diet mentality cycle.
Bertinelli recently posted a powerful message on Instagram
In her post, the Food Network personality revealed that a commenter to one of her online recipes had made a remark about her appearance.
“Aren’t we tired of body shaming women yet?! smh,” she wrote in the post accompanying the video. “I was going to delete my stories because it’s a little embarrassing and scary to be so vulnerable. But then I realized it was hitting a ‘good’ nerve with so many of you who were so sweet to dm and share your same vulnerability and struggles.”
The actor said she “made the mistake of reading the comments” in her online recipes when she noticed that someone pointed out that “I need to lose weight. Because see, I don’t have a scale, and I don’t have clothes that I’m trying to put on every day, and I don’t have mirrors so I don’t see what’s become of me,” Bertinelli said in her emotionally raw video. “So I needed that help to let me know that I need to lose weight.”
Speaking directly to the camera, she said: “You’re not being helpful. … Where’s the compassion?”
The actor was called out for her role in the diet industry
Despite the overwhelming support Bertinelli received from her friends and fans following her transparent video post, not everyone has been sympathetic to her feelings. And the actor has not shied from engaging with commenters, whether of her recipes or those remarking on her social media comments.
Bertinelli responded to a rebuking tweet this week for her earlier comments and for her role as spokesperson for weight-loss company Jenny Craig in the early 2000s. The soon-to-be costar of NBC’s new comedy pilot Hungry said, “I’m not a victim. I can take the heat. I made the video so I could get my feelings out instead of squashing them down and eating them, which is what I usually do.”
She added in another tweeted response: “I have been buying into the diet industry my whole life and then I became part of the problem, so here I am today receiving the karma of my actions.”
Many Twitter users supported the actor, applauding her willingness to speak frankly about the diet industry and the unrealistic standards it has created.
Bertinelli is writing her memoir on this very subject
Appearing in July on Today, Bertinelli announced the forthcoming publication of her memoir Enough Already. The book will broach her realizations regarding body image and her journey of self-acceptance. As someone whose appearance and image have been scrutinized from the moment she gained fame at 15 on the sitcom One Day at a Time, Bertinelli has a lot to say.
“It’s a very, very personal book,” she admitted. “My journey has taken me from…I just don’t want to beat myself up anymore. And I know so many women my age, younger, older, we’re so busy beating ourselves up that we just don’t find the love, and the wonder and the grace that are really within us.”
