Why Dick Cavett needs a muzzle. Or maybe a gag.

I used to like Dick Cavett. Of all the talk show hosts, he was the one known for his erudition, his intellectual streak. Johnny was the funny one, but Dick was the insightful interviewer, the one who came up with the best questions, whose show made you think.

I haven't been a fan of Dick's in a while, ever since he wrote this truly obnoxious blog post on obesity. Cavett's not the only painfully thin celebrity to weigh in (ha ha) on the subject, and he won't be the last. But his blog post seemed especially egregious to me, maybe because he wasn't responding to a current event, or an interviewer's question. He was just flying his fatphobic flag, loud and proud. By using words "heavily larded," "a herd of heifers," "the size of the Hindenburg," and other choice descriptors, Cavett showed off not only his vocabulary but his jejune perspective. (No, Dick, you're not the only one who knows fancy words.)

I thought I was over Dick Cavett. I really did. It's hard to stay pissed off at a washed-up ex-talk-show-host who's got nothing better to do than vilify people based on their appearance. Then he ticked me off all over again with a quote in this week's New Yorker magazine, in a piece by Ben McGrath on an odd little throwback of a recruitment video recently released by Yale.

McGrath quotes various Yale alums on the pros and cons of the video. Their comments are informative and amusing. That is, until we get to Cavett, who says, "“I wonder if it really was made in America, because there are no fatties.”

Really, Dick? That's your reaction? That the video features "no fatties"? What does that have to do with the subject at hand?

It seems that Cavett just can't put a lid on it; he's got to inject a little fatphobia into every conversation in print. Mercifully, there aren't too many of those, because, after all, he hasn't actually done anything worth mentioning in about 25 years. Maybe he's trying to line himself up a reality show. Maybe he wants to replace Howard Stern. Or maybe he's so obsessed with the subject of fat people that he literally can't help himself.

In which case, Dick, let me give you a few words of advice: Shut up already. You may have a high IQ, but your comments illustrate your ignorance, your prejudice, and your inherent lack of decency and kindness.

Come to think of it, maybe Rush Limbaugh has a co-host spot. Dick Cavett would be perfect for the job.

Calorie counts in college dining halls

Over on the Academy of Eating Disorders listserv, there's been a discussion going about whether it's good (or even just OK) to post calorie counts for food served on campus. I've listened with interest, and a growing sense of frustration and horror, as both researchers and clinicians debate the pros and cons.

What most of them seem to be missing--or deliberately downplaying--is the damage these calorie listings can do, not just for people with eating disorders but for everyone. And especially women. About three-quarters of women say their eating is disordered in some way, and my personal experience (for myself and watching my friends and acquaintances) certainly bears this out.

It gets right up my nose to hear the sometimes pompous arguments made by academics and researchers on an issue like this. Statements like this one: "Awareness doesn't equal obsession." Um, maybe not if you're a 40-year-old male doctor who's never had an eating issue. If you're a woman in today's culture? I beg to differ. Many years ago when I "did" Weight Watchers I was aware that eating on the WW meal plan simply replaced one food issue with another. Instead of constant anxiety about how much and what I was eating and whether I was gaining or losing weight, I became a good little obsessive weigher of foods and follower of instructions. In nine months on the program I never deviated from it once. Not even for a bite. This was a testament not to my willpower or moral virtue but to the deep level of obsession that being hyper-aware of my calorie intake inspired in me.

I'm quite sure I'm not alone in this.

Which is why I was happy to see this article, written by a senior at Yale, arguing against listing calorie counts for food served on campus.

In theory, maybe "awareness" of calories isn't a bad thing. In reality, I can't see the upside.

Good food, bad food

Sound familiar? I've often wondered where the good food/bad food dichtomy originates. Why is it that carrot sticks carry with them an aura of smug virtue, while chocolate cake bears the stigma of sin?

Of course I know the answer: It's all about the calories, stupid. But there's got to be attitude behind those calories. And there is. Turns out reseachers from Yale and elsewhere did a study several years ago (which I just came across) looking at the stigma associated with obesity. Get this: They quizzed obesity specialists--doctors, researchers, psychologists--and discovered that even people who have devoted their lives to the subject associate "blameworthy behvioral characteristics" with obesity.

These are folks who understand the genetic and environmental factors implicated in obesity. Who know that fat people aren't fat because they watch TV and eat bon-bons all day.

Geez, if you can't trust these people to understand, who can you trust?

This sense of judgment extends beyond food to any part of our lives that our related to fat and overweight. We fatties are told that we bring all kinds of bad things on ourselves, from diabetes to lower pay to heart disease.

If your heart were, I don't know, a sewage pump (which in some ways isn't such a bad comparison), and it got clogged, would you feel a sense of moral failure? Or would you just call the plumber to have the pipes cleaned out? So why the strong sense of self-blame and guilt over being fat?

Stigma equals shame. Shame equals a sense of moral dichotomy, good and bad. People with anorexia take this good/bad food thing to obsessive extremes. But I bet most of us do it on some level.

Pay attention to your feelings about the next plate of food you sit down to. See if it's true for you. Then practice moral blindness when it comes to food. Repeat after me: There is no such thing as bad food, only badly cooked, badly prepared, or bad-tasting food.

Bon appetit.