Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Moss and the Quote That Became a Rejection of Diet Culture
A social media graphic attributes a memorable response to Jennifer Lawrence: after recalling Kate Moss’s notorious statement that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” Lawrence lists bread, potatoes, a Philly cheesesteak and fries as things that taste better.
Unlike many celebrity quotations circulating online, this one is authentic.
Lawrence delivered the remark during an interview on the red carpet at the 2011 Academy Awards. The viral graphic slightly cleans up the rhythm and punctuation of her spontaneous answer, but it accurately identifies the speaker and preserves what she said.
The exchange began after Entertainment Tonight presenter Nancy O’Dell complimented Lawrence’s figure. Lawrence responded that the compliment felt particularly good because she had just eaten a Philly cheesesteak and had been worried about it.
She then challenged the idea that everyone should be expected to conform to the same body type. People, she said, are built the way they are built. That led her to mention the Kate Moss quotation and name several foods she considered better than the feeling of being skinny.
The original footage and a transcript were subsequently republished by Entertainment Tonight. The wording visible in the viral image is therefore not a fabricated quote assembled by an anonymous social media page.
But the reason it remains popular more than a decade later involves more than a celebrity talking about French fries.
The Origins of “Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels”
Kate Moss used the expression in a 2009 interview when she was asked about personal mottos. It quickly became one of the most controversial quotations associated with modern fashion.
Supporters sometimes interpreted it as a statement about discipline. Critics saw something more troubling: a glamorous celebrity presenting thinness as more rewarding than eating.
The sentence was reproduced on diet websites, social media accounts, posters and products. It was also adopted by online communities that encouraged extreme weight loss and disordered eating.
That context explains why Lawrence’s humorous answer carried cultural weight. She was not simply expressing a preference for particular foods. She was rejecting the assumption that thinness should automatically outrank pleasure, nourishment and ordinary life.
Moss later distanced herself from the slogan. In a 2018 interview, she said that people did not speak in the same way anymore and indicated that she did not agree with the expression.