This cartoonist’s body-positive Twitter thread is here to remind us that we shouldn’t fear food

Thanksgiving: a time for family, friends, football, and rampant food-related anxiety.

Last week, my office was thrown into a full on Contagion-level panic by the upcoming holiday.

“I had pizza for lunch today, it’s so bad” a coworker revealed in the same hushed tone one might use to confess backing over your neighbor’s beagle. “I should be fasting or something to prepare.”

My office wasn’t alone.

Thanksgiving always seems to shine an unforgiving light on our tense relationship with food (and various members of our extended family), and the guilt and fear with which we approach eating, a supposedly simple act.

In the midst of all this toxic, stuffing-fueled energy, C. Spike Trotman’s series of Sunday night tweets came as a breath of fresh air. The Chicago cartoonist reminded us: food is not evil.

In her body-positive thread, Trotman decries a diet industry that tries to make you believe certain foods are inherently bad.

Trotman makes sure to acknowledge those with serious medical restrictions on their diets…

But underlines that for those without such restrictions, cutting out entire food groups in order to lose weight is a strategy destined to fail, and only serves to deprive your body of the essential nutrients it needs to be healthy and strong.

So whether you’re indulging this holiday season, or trying to lose a couple of pounds, Trotman’s tweets are an important reminder that food is not your enemy. Food is a friend who keeps you strong and healthy, who brings you together with those you love, and who, as an added bonus, tastes delicious. And what more could you want from a friend?