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Fat Black Guy Gets Krispy Kreme Donuts Flipped

repeating donuts on a pink background

Yulia Reznikov Getty Images

On Monday, Krispy Kreme announced a delicious-sounding and quite frankly ingenious way to both advertise its doughnuts and promote COVID-19 vaccines: Any customer in the U.S. who visits one of its participating locations can now present their vaccine card in exchange for one famous glazed doughnut, free of charge.

Many celebrated the chain's commitment to incentivizing folks to do their part to help eradicate this global pandemic we're still living through while simultaneously giving us all free doughnuts (how sweet!), but by Wednesday, the internet, of course, had something to say about the initiative.

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One argument in particular had an especially large number of (doughnut) holes in it. Leana Wen, MD, the former head of Planned Parenthood and a Baltimore-based emergency room physician, visiting professor at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post and CNN, offered up some unsolicited advice to Krispy Kreme, tweeting that while she applauds the effort, "donuts are a treat that's not good for health if eaten every day."

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Dr. Wen deduced that if a person did, in fact, come in every single day with their vaccine card for a free 190-calorie doughnut and made no other changes to their diet and exercise, they would—gasp!—gain 15 pounds by the end of 2021. The horror!

It's a startling position to digest from a health expert with that many accolades to her name. By inciting fatphobia masked as concern, she's using her platform to food-shame people out of eating one doughnut during a time when our biggest and most pressing concern is halting a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.

This tweet does not exist in a vacuum. It comes amid a flurry of disheartening weight-related pandemic discourse. There are the studies about the amount of weight gained in the past year, tips for losing the dreaded quarantine 15, and uncomfortable discussions around weight as it applies to being vaccinated. Obesity and severe obesity based on BMI currently qualify as comorbidities.

Now seems as good a time as any to reiterate that a number on the scale is not indicative of health. Only you—and maybe a doctor whose advice you've solicited—can make a determination about your well-being. BMI is a baseless and inaccurate tool to measure health, although if our messed-up medical system means you qualify for the vaccine based on yours, by all means go forth, prosper, and pick up a free doughnut while you're at it.

To say it's been a hard year for everybody is an understatement, and as if the negative self-talk so many of us experience isn't painful enough, now we also have to contend with extremely bad/annoying/harmful reactions to an initiative that COME ON, YOU GUYS just wants to celebrate the goddamn historic distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Thankfully, loads of folks responded to Dr. Wen's tweet, promptly shutting her down. Some pointed out how her words could impact those who struggle with disordered eating, deeming the take, unlike Krispy Kreme's doughnuts, not hot at all.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

No doubt Twitter will move on to its next outrage by this afternoon. But in the meantime, I maintain that we could all use a little more kindness, latitude, and, yeah—you know what?—doughnuts right now.

Jamie Feldman is a body- and budget-friendly reporter and writer covering the intersection of fashion and body image.

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Fat Black Guy Gets Krispy Kreme Donuts Flipped

Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a35926442/krispy-kreme-free-donut-vaccines/